KU’s Joel Embiid to have back injury evaluated by specialists

• 

West Virginia’s Devin Williams hit a jumper that gave the Mountaineers a 50-36 lead.

• 

West Virginia was the first team to score 50 on KU in the first half since 2007.

• 

Holding an 85-80 lead, Kansas fouled Juwan Staten near the end of the shot clock. Staten made both free throws.

• 

West Virginia shot 53 percent.

Kansas coach Bill Self said freshman center Joel Embiid’s aching back will be evaluated by specialists before the Big 12 Tournament starts.

Self is hopeful Embiid can get back on the practice court soon. But he’s most focused on getting Embiid back for the NCAA Tournament. Embiid, who has missed the last two games because of a lower-back strain, didn’t travel with the team to West Virginia.

“Hopefully we’ll get real positive news,” Self said. “And we’re hopeful that he can be back out on the practice floor very, very soon. But we’re not going to put him back out there just because he feels better. We’re going to put him out there because the doctor says it’s time to put him out there.

“We still don’t think it’s going to affect the NCAA Tournament in any way.”

Embiid, who is averaging 11.2 points and 8.1 rebounds, has missed three total games this year because of injury.

As the game turned ugly on Saturday, Embiid turned to Twitter.

“Come on,” Embiid tweeted.

Self did not want to use Embiid’s absence as an excuse, though he did concede it hurt KU on the glass.

“We’ve been a pretty good rebounding team, and tonight we weren’t a good rebounding team,” Self said. “And having Jo would have probably helped that cause.”

• Andrew Wiggins was announced as one of 15 finalists for the Wooden Award on Saturday. The honor will be handed out at the Final Four. The others are: UCLA’s Kyle Anderson, Wichita State’s Cleanthony Early, Syracuse’s Tyler Ennis and C.J. Fair, Michigan State’s Gary Harris, Arizona’s Nick Johnson, Cincinnati’s Sean Kilpatrick, Creighton’s Doug McDermott, Connecticut’s Shabazz Napier, Duke’s Jabari Parker, Florida’s Casey Prather, Kentucky’s Julius Randle, Louisville’s Russ Smith and Michigan’s Nik Stauskas.

• Kansas will face the winner of No. 8 seed Oklahoma State and No. 9 seed Texas Tech in the Big 12 quarterfinals at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Sprint Center. The eighth seed was in question until Oklahoma State’s close loss at Iowa State on Saturday.

• After Saturday’s loss, Self endorsed West Virginia’s Juwan Staten as the league’s best “true” point guard, saying he viewed Iowa State’s DeAndre Kane and Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart as point guards. Staten finished with 24 points, nine assists and five rebounds.

“When you talk about a true lead guard, there’s no question he’s the best,” Self said. “I think Kane is a little bit different, and Marcus is a little different. But if those three are playing point guard for their respective teams, that team has got a chance to be really good.”

This story was originally published March 8, 2014 at 5:30 PM with the headline "KU’s Joel Embiid to have back injury evaluated by specialists."