The first two meetings were months apart, but the third matchup between the third-ranked Kansas men’s basketball team and West Virginia will come just 12 days after the second.
Tipoff in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City, Missouri, is slated for 2 p.m. Thursday at T-Mobile Center. The game will be televised by ESPN.
No. 8 seed West Virginia advanced to face the Jayhawks with a convincing, 78-62 win over No. 9 Texas Tech on Wednesday night.
The win further strengthened West Virginia’s NCAA Tournament case, which should be a lock as the team has a NET ranking of 25th and sits at No. 17 in the latest KenPom.com rankings. It also likely ended any hopes Texas Tech had of playing its way into the NCAA Tournament.
The Red Raiders moved to 16-16 overall and have lost four in a row after winning four in a row to get onto the NCAA Tournament bubble. Tech was playing with interim coach Corey Anderson leading the team, with head coach Mark Adams suspended for recent remarks made to a player that the school called an “inappropriate, unacceptable, and racially insensitive comment.”
Four WVU starters scored in double figures in the victory, which moved the Mountaineers to 19-13 overall. Wednesday’s win was West Virginia’s third in a row — joining up with recent victories at Iowa State and at home over Kansas State — and Bob Huggins’ club now has won four of its last five games. The only loss in that stretch came via a 76-74 road loss at Kansas.
That game was decidedly more difficult for the Jayhawks than the first matchup in Morgantown in early January.
West Virginia was a much different team the second time around, with the pieces fitting together and players understanding their roles far better than they did in KU’s 76-62 road win in Morgantown.
Twelve days ago, WVU gave Kansas everything it wanted and then some, taking the game to the final possession, where the Jayhawks’ defense stood tall against the Mountaineers, who had a chance to tie or win in the final seconds but were unable to even get a shot off.
On a day when neither team led by more than eight points all afternoon — there were nine ties and 15 lead changes — KU used a closing run of 13-8 to build just enough of a lead on the Mountaineers to survive an absolute dogfight.
That run featured seven points from Kevin McCullar Jr. — including a banked-in 3-pointer — and five free throws and a 3-pointer by freshman guard Gradey Dick. None of that, however, was enough to put the Mountaineers away. In the span of 107 seconds, Huggins’ team cut a seven-point KU lead to a single point.
As was the case in each of the first two games with WVU, Kansas will look to contain scoring guard Erik Stevenson.
The well-traveled senior in his first year with the program shot just 4-of-19 against the Jayhawks in KU’s easy road win in January. But he responded with a 23-point outing in Lawrence. In that one, he shot 9-of-22 from the floor and hit all three free throws he attempted.
Stevenson has yet to have a good shooting day from behing the arc against the Jayhawks, going 0-of-5 in the first matchup and 2-of-7 in the second.
Regardless, he figures to continue to draw attention from a variety of Kansas defenders, who will look to use their length, quickness and ability to switch assignments at all five spots with certain lineups to keep him off balance and uncomfortable throughout the game.
KU leads the all-time series with West Virginia 20-6 overall and 10-0 in games played in Lawrence. The Jayhawks have won five in a row over the Mountaineers and 10 of the last 11 matchups between the two.
No. 3 Kansas
G – Dajuan Harris Jr., 6-1, 175, Jr.
G – Kevin McCullar Jr., 6-6, 210, Sr.
G – Gradey Dick, 6-8, 205, Fr.
F – Jalen Wilson, 6-8, 225, Jr.
F – KJ Adams, 6-7, 225, Soph.
West Virginia
G – Erik Stevenson, 6-4, 205, Sr.
G – Kedrian Johnson, 6-3, 185, Sr.
F – Emmitt Matthews Jr., 6-7, 210, Sr.
F – Tre Mitchell, 6-9, 225, Sr.
F – Jimmy Bell Jr., 6-10, 285, Sr.
