Kansas hit 16 threes against West Virginia at home. Jayhawks hit the road for rematch
Kansas’ men’s basketball team has scored in the 50s three times and 60s three times while sputtering to a 6-4 start to the 2020-21 Big 12 Conference season.
The squad’s sometimes-unproductive offense has clicked on two occasions — in a 93-64 victory over TCU on Jan. 5 in Fort Worth, Texas and a 79-65 win over West Virginia on Dec. 22 at Allen Fieldhouse.
Suffice it to say the No. 23-ranked Jayhawks (12-6 overall), who have averaged 69.2 points per game in conference action (73.6 in all games), would be elated if they could repeat their 16-of-37 three-point shooting performance against WVU in the first encounter in Saturday’s rematch against the No. 17-ranked Mountaineers (12-5, 5-3).
Tipoff is 1 p.m. at WVU Coliseum with a live broadcast on CBS.
“We were hot that night,” said KU junior wing Ochai Agbaji. He hit 3 of 10 threes and scored 11 points versus WVU in KU’s last game before Christmas break. Christian Braun made 6 of 12 threes en route to 22 points; Jalen Wilson 4 of 10 threes for 17 points and Marcus Garrett a perfect 3-of-3 from three for 15 points. “It’s seeing if we can be hot again for this game there. It’s going to be a battle,” Agbaji added.
The Mountaineers have won three straight games against Big 12 teams, but did fall to Florida, 85-80, in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge last Saturday at WVU Coliseum.
“Going into the game not thinking too much, playing freely like we did when we played them here at home,” Agbaji said of keys to faring well on offense Saturday. “They played zone against us and we got a lot of open shots. I don’t see them doing that this time.”
KU has been ineffective from beyond the arc since that win over WVU.
The Jayhawks in the very next game made 3 of 23 threes in a 25-point home loss to Texas on Jan. 2. KU hit 5 of 21 threes in a loss at Oklahoma State, made 6 of 24 in a loss at Tennessee, 4 of 17 in a home win versus TCU and 6 of 20 in a home win over Oklahoma.
Overall, since the West Virginia contest, KU’s outside shooters have connected on 59 of 195 threes for 30.3%. The Jayhawks in that span have dropped five of nine games.
KU for the season has hit 35.2% of its threes to its opponents’ 34.8% mark. West Virginia, which was fueled by Sean McNeil’s 6-of-10 three-point shooting (24 points) in the first meeting against KU, made 8 of 23 threes against the Jayhawks. For the season the Mountaineers have hit 35.9% of their threes to their opponents’ 31.1% mark.
“The vast majority of the second half, they played zone,” KU coach Bill Self said of WVU in Lawrence. “Zone is when we got up a lot of threes. That was an awful lot for our team to shoot (in fact a school record number of attempts in a conference game), but they were there in large part because of their zone and they are not going to play much zone. If they do play zone, I guarantee they’re going to get out to the shooter so I don’t see that,” Self added of a repeat barrage of threes.
“It’s always important to make shots regardless of who you are playing or where or styles, but I don’t see us getting the same number of opportunities behind the arc,” Self stated.
West Virginia’s personnel has changed since that first game. Big man Oscar Tshiebwe, who had five rebounds and three points in 18 minutes against KU, has since transferred to Kentucky.
“I think they are playing smaller,” Self said. “They lose a talented big like they did and I think their team actually got better. They’re putting more shooters on the court. They’re playing faster offensively. They are definitely pressuring more than what they did when they were playing two bigs, so they look more like the West Virginia that we’ve seen the last several years.”
Derek Culver, a 6-10, 255-pound junior first-team all-Big 12 candidate, scored eight points and grabbed eight boards vs. KU. For the year he averages 14.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per contest.
West Virginia has been known to implement a full-court press against the Jayhawks in Morgantown, where KU won last year but overall has dropped five of its last seven games.
Miles McBride (19 points vs. KU on Dec. 22), Emmitt Matthews (six points, six boards) and Jordan McCabe (three points) all are capable of causing havoc on the perimeter.
“They are playing around Culver. It’s a different look defensively and offensively for them,” Agbaji said. “It will be a different game than it was in Lawrence. A lot of things will be different this time around, especially playing them at home they do different things, maybe press. We’ll be preparing for all their stuff while trying to work on our stuff too,” Agbaji added.
KU is in a position it may have to win to keep its Top 25 ranking.
The Jayhawks, who have lost four of their last six games, bounced back from a 19-point loss at Tennessee on Saturday by beating Kansas State, 74-51, on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
“It’s definitely a big opponent, a big matchup on a big stage,” Agbaji said. “That is what we play for here at Kansas. We have a lot to show our fans, the people who support us game in and out. We are still here to fight and still here to carry on this Kansas name.”
KU will return home to play Oklahoma State at 8 p.m. Monday at Allen.
