KU to open Big 12 vs. No. 16 WVU: ‘Our overall goal is to come out as champions’
After winning the Big 12 regular-season men’s basketball title 14 years in a row, Kansas settled for third place behind co-champs Kansas State and Texas Tech last season.
Failure to add to the NCAA record string of league titles proved disappointing to the Jayhawks, who have talked about starting a new streak in 2019-20.
“I do think it could be motivation. Especially for the guys returning it could be extra motivation — (the feeling that), ‘We didn’t do it last year,’’’ KU coach Bill Self said Thursday. “I certainly hope that’s the case, but I don’t see it helping (win games) really to any extent at all.”
The No. 3-ranked Jayhawks (10-2), who return current starters Devon Dotson, Marcus Garrett, Ochai Agbaji, David McCormack and Udoka Azubuike from last season’s team, begin the quest for KU’s 15th title in the 17-year Self era on Saturday. No. 16-ranked West Virginia (11-1), which beat then-No. 2 Ohio State, 67-59, last Sunday in Cleveland, Ohio, visits Allen Fieldhouse for a 3 p.m. tipoff.
“It means a lot,” sophomore wing Agbaji said of winning the Big 12. “Last year some guys didn’t have an opportunity to be on top of the conference. Moving into this year we’re going to take it game by game but our overall goal is to come out as champions.”
The Jayhawks break the last huddle of every practice session by chanting the words, “Big 12 champs.” That’s about the extent of addressing the league race, however.
“Not so much,” Agbaji said of players sitting around the locker room or apartment complex discussing pursuit of a league title, “but I know that’s on all our minds.”
Sophomore forward McCormack noted that, “it would be great to win the Big 12. I think that goes for any team. It would just show how hard we work. It’s the payoff.”
McCormack said the Jayhawks are “ready for all these games. That’s when the pressure kind of really builds for all of us. It shows where we stand and where we are as a team.”
KU will have six conference games before the one break in the schedule — a nonconference contest against Tennessee in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Jan. 25 at Allen Fieldhouse.
After West Virginia on Saturday, KU travels to Iowa State on Wednesday, meets Baylor at home on Jan. 11, travels to Oklahoma (Jan. 14) and Texas (Jan. 18) and plays K-State in Lawrence (Jan. 21).
“We are ready. Coming off last year, the experience we have — Doke, Marcus, me, Devon, David — that experience (of) going through one year of conference, knowing how every game is and how every game is turned up, how much it means every possession, every game (is important),” Agbaji said.
Self said he personally is ready for the marathon Big 12 season.
“Every year gets me fired up,” Self said. “We’re real honest with our guys. Our nonconference … there’s about six or seven games you circle saying, ‘These are the most important games of the nonconference.’ You get in the league and say, ‘Well, here are 18 games you circle because they are all equally important.’’’
To open 1-0 in conference play for the 29th straight season, KU must upend a West Virginia team that not only has beaten Ohio State, but has defeated No. 24 Wichita State, 75-63, on Nov. 27 in Cancun. Only loss this season was 70-68 to St. John’s on Dec. 7 in New York.
“What they do a great job of and this is a supreme compliment … they will make it a fistfight,” Self said of a physical game. “You better be ready to fight back.”
The battle inside will feature KU’s Azubuike and McCormack versus West Virginia’s Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe. Culver, a 6-10, 255-pound sophomore, averages a league-best 9.4 rebounds a game (and 11.0 points). Tshiebwe, a 6-9, 258-pound freshman, is tied with KU’s Azubuike for fifth in the league in rebounding (8.8 rebounds, 11.8 points per game).
Azubuike (7-0, 255) averages 13.0 points, while McCormack (6-10, 265) averages 8.8 points and 4.9 boards.
“It’ll be two teams that mirror each other a little bit when we do play two bigs based on style,” Self said.
McCormack said he and Azubuike enjoy battling players their own size.
“As a big you love physical matchups, having that dominating trait,” McCormack said, noting the attitude must be, “I am more physical. I am more of a bully than you are. Just trying to play bully-ball, saying you are more powerful.
“Playing against Culver last year ... he is a strong, athletic player, lefthanded. He can do a lot. I played with Oscar in high school. He was on my AAU team (Team Loaded of Virginia). He is another one who is athletic, can dunk everything, is a shot blocker. We have to make sure we play big as well as far as rebounding, trying to be a rim protector, just doing all things bigs should do,” McCormack added.
KU will meet Iowa State at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Ames, Iowa.
