Javon Small (7) dunks the ball, during Saturday’s game against Bethune-Cookman University. Courtesy photo

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia has been silky smooth from the free throw line. It has landed on its feet after three consecutive overtime games in three days. And it easily rode to home-court wins in preparation for the long-awaited conference schedule.

After a warm-up cruise through Mercyhurst tomorrow, the still-to-be-established overall appearance of this team should start to take shape against Kansas on Dec. 31, in ever-hostile Lawrence.

Versatile Tucker DeVries has missed two games and will likely sit out the expected mauling of Mercyhurst. His injury is widely reported as an “upper body” problem and also speculated to be a shoulder injury. DeVries averages 15 points a game and is usually the steadiest orchestrator of his father’s offense and a reliable leader.

In DeVries’ absence, Javon Small has added ball handling and unspoken leadership to his workload. Small has averaged nearly 20 points a game, as the new-look Mountaineers have achieved an 8-2 record just before the Mercyhurst game in Morgantown. He already has 46 assists.

Amani Hansberry (11.3 points and 73 total rebounds), Jonathan Powell (8.7 points), Toby Okani (8.6 points), Sencire Harris (5.3 points), Joseph Yesufu (4 points), KJ Tenner (4.6 points) and 6-foot-11 Eduardo Andre are expected to get the bulk of playing time against Kansas.

Nobody expects Andre to do much scoring at any time, but his height when facing the Jayhawks’ center Hunter Dickinson (7-foot-2, 265 pounds) and that team’s leading scorer at 15.6 a game could go a long way toward deciding the winner of the hopefully heated conference opener.

The decades-long time it has taken Kansas to earn its deserved reputation as a basketball kingpin hasn’t been dimmed any by the beginning of the 2024-2025 season. Wins have come against North Carolina, Duke, Michigan State and N.C. State, among others. The two losses in the 8-2 season were to Creighton and Missouri on the home courts of both of them.

In all,14 of the 16 teams in the Big 12 had records of at least 6-3 through games of Dec.15.

The Mountaineers will play all 15 of the other conference teams at least once, and will play Cincinnati, Brigham Young, Utah, Houston, Baylor and Texas Christian twice.

No conference team was undefeated and only Iowa State and Cincinnati had as few as one loss.

DeVries is very concerning. Without him, West Virginia loses more than just one of its main scorers and calmest head, but it also diminishes its quality of depth, team confidence, coach’s confidence and options in any possible crisis time.

Winning on the road in any town or city is difficult enough, but winning without a full spectrum of choices and players is asking the rest of the roster to sometimes be more than near-magicians or strongmen.

As they correctly say about old age, “It’s not for sissies.” And neither is the Big 12.