Kansas Jayhawks head to WVU Coliseum, where they’ve had little luck vs. Mountaineers
It’ll be the first-place team in the Big 12 Conference against the last-place squad when No. 6-ranked Kansas men’s basketball plays West Virginia on Saturday night at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia.
The discrepancy in the records — Kansas is 21-4, 10-2 and WVU 14-11, 3-9 — certainly does not guarantee KU a victory in the 7 p.m. Central time game to be shown on ESPN.
“Historically we haven’t always played great there. I can’t remember playing well,” KU coach Bill Self said of the building in which the Jayhawks have a 3-6 record during the Self and Bob Huggins eras at KU and WVU.
“I can remember us winning ugly, which we would take that (this year) and go to the house,” Self added.
The Jayhawks, who fell to WVU 91-79 a year ago in Morgantown, are 2-2 at WVU Coliseum in the last four meetings.
Kansas has a losing road record against just two league teams during Self’s 19 years at the school: 3-6 vs. West Virginia at WVU Coliseum and 7-8 against Oklahoma State at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater.
KU is 9-6 at Oklahoma’s Lloyd Noble Center, 8-7 at Texas’ Frank Erwin Center, 11-3 at Baylor’s Ferrell Center, 14-5 at Iowa State’s Hilton Coliseum, 14-5 at Kansas State’s Bramlage Coliseum, 10-5 at Texas Tech’s United Supermarkets Arena and 7-1 at TCU’s Schollmaier Arena.
“For whatever reason this has probably been the hardest place for us to win in the league since they’ve been in the league,” Self said. “I think we probably have the worse record against them as anything. We will definitely approach it as a must-win game for us, one we will have to play well to win.
“It’ll be a hard game,” Self continued. “I could care less about the (WVU) record. OU is 4-9 and came in and almost beat us at our place (KU prevailed 71-69 over the Sooners last Saturday in Lawrence). Winning at somebody else’s place is always difficult.”
West Virginia and Kansas possessed identical records — that’s 13-2 overall and 2-1 in Big 12 Conference games — when the teams met Jan. 15 at Allen Fieldhouse.
Since that game, one in which KU used a 52-28 second half surge to fuel an 85-59 victory, the teams have headed in opposite directions.
KU is 8-2 overall and 8-1 in the league since that 26-point victory over WVU at Allen. WVU is 1-9 overall and 1-8 in conference play, including Monday’s 78-73 loss at Kansas State.
“I thought they played their butts off,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said of his players after Monday’s loss to K-State — a game in which the Mountaineers squandered a 10-point halftime lead. “I’ve got no issues with them (effort wise). We’re playing some young guys that are going to be really good players and they’ve just got to continue to grow and we’re going to try and help them to continue to grow.”
Huggins has not given up and the fans haven’t either, evidenced by the fact Saturday night’s game is a sellout.
The Jayhawks obviously would be OK with a repeat of their performance against WVU in Lawrence earlier this season. KU had 23 assists to the Mountaineers’ five assists.
“We were all playing for each other,” said KU forward Jalen Wilson. He scored 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting (3-of-6 from three) with eight rebounds, five assists and two steals in the first meeting versus WVU.
“We started the second half with probably eight assists in a row so I think everybody was looking for each other. When we’re playing with that energy and playing with that crowd, and just playing like that, that’s the best kind of basketball we can play, and I think the most fun as well. So I mean it felt great to do that,” Wilson added.
Of Saturday’s matchup, Wilson noted: “The last time we played them we were clicking offensively. We were at home. Everything seemed to go smooth. They’ve got a good team. It’s never easy on the road, especially there.”
Senior guard Ochai Agbaji scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while senior power forward David McCormack had 19 points and 15 boards in the lopsided win over WVU at Allen Fieldhouse. Senior guard Malik Curry came off the bench to score 23 points on 6-of-13 shooting (11-of-11 from line) while sophomore forward Jalen Bridges had 12 points on 3-of-11 shooting and 11 rebounds and senior guard Sean McNeil 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting for WVU.
“They controlled the game against K-State (Monday) until the last 10 minutes. K-State dominated the last 10 minutes,” Self said. “They’ve been in just about every game. They had Baylor down the entire game then the last five minutes it got away from them (in WVU’s 81-77 loss to BU on Jan. 31 in Waco in which WVU led by eight at halftime). They’ve shown flashes. They are more than capable of giving us all we want.”
KU will return home to meet Kansas State at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
“It’s the biggest game on our schedule to date in large part because it’s the next game also the ramifications of winning the league. This is an important game,” Self, coach of the first-place Jayhawks, said of Saturday night’s contest.
KU will enter the weekend at 10-2 in the league, two games ahead of Baylor and Texas Tech (each 9-4) in the loss column. Texas is 8-5, followed by Kansas State (6-7), TCU (5-6), Oklahoma State (5-8), Iowa State and Oklahoma (4-9 each) and WVU (3-9).
