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It's Nice and Warm Inside the Coliseum!
January 12, 2016 03:51 PM | Men's Basketball
The roads may be a little slippery out there right now, but everything is warm and toasty inside the WVU Coliseum just hours before tonight’s game against No. 1 Kansas.
Here are five notes of note to get you prepped for the top-ranked Jayhawks:
- West Virginia is now 14-1 to begin a season for the second straight year. The Mountaineers were 14-1 last year before losing 74-72 to Iowa State in Morgantown on January 10. I don’t remember if the snow was falling that night, but the Cyclones’ shots sure were. Iowa State made 50 percent from the floor, compared to just 28.1 percent for West Virginia, and that was the difference in the game.
Tonight, West Virginia is facing a Kansas offense that ranks second in the country in scoring averaging 88.4 points per game. The Jayhawks have topped 100 points four times this year, including two out of their last three games, so West Virginia’s shots better be falling tonight just like the snow is outside.
- Kansas becomes the sixth No. 1-ranked team to play at the WVU Coliseum, and the first since top-ranked Connecticut was here back in 2006. Ironically, West Virginia holds the same AP ranking John Beilein’s Mountaineers had against the Huskies that night – No. 11 – and WVU stuck close to UConn that night despite a wide disparity on the boards.
For West Virginia to defeat Kansas tonight, the Mountaineers are going to have to rebound the basketball and find a way to disrupt KU’s 3-point shooters. Kansas ranks second in the country in 3-point field goal percentage at 45.9; however, WVU is second in the country in 3-point field goal percentage defense allowing its opponents to shoot just 25.4 percent from behind the arc. That is truly a strength vs. strength in tonight’s game.
- Tonight’s game pits two of the games best coaches – Kansas’ Bill Self is a three-time national coach of the year, most recently in 2012, and has led his teams at Kansas, Illinois and Tulsa to an amazing 15 conference championships in his 22 seasons on the bench. Self brings a 573-184 career record into Morgantown for tonight’s game.
And speaking of wins, West Virginia’s Bob Huggins keeps piling them up. His next victory will move him into a tie with Lute Olson for 10 place on college basketball’s all-time wins list with 780. Huggins’ record now stands at 779-313 in 34 seasons, making him the third winningest active coach in the game behind Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim.
- Tonight’s game should be another down-to-the-wire affair, if the last three games are any indication. Last March in Lawrence, Kansas overcame an 18-point deficit to defeat West Virginia 76-69 in overtime. The Jayhawks couldn’t beat WVU from 3 (0-15), had trouble handling the ball (16 turnovers) and were outrebounded by 12 on the glass (including 21-8 on the offensive boards) but made up the difference at the free throw line, where the Jayhawks made 34-of-43 compared to West Virginia’s 16-of-26.
A month prior in Morgantown, Juwan Staten’s driving layup with four seconds left gave West Virginia a 62-61 victory over the Jayhawks. Kansas actually had a chance to win the game, the Jayhawks immediately getting the ball down the floor after Staten’s basket but Perry Ellis’ layup try ahead of the buzzer bounced off the back of the rim.
Many of the same players from those last two games will be out on the floor tonight.
You never know who might show up at the Coliseum when the Kansas Jayhawks are in town. Here is former Mountaineer and Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin taking in last year's game against KU at the Coliseum (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo).
- A victory tonight by either West Virginia or Kansas will put them in sole possession of first place in the Big 12 standings. The Jayhawks are 3-0 to begin the conference season with victories over Baylor, Oklahoma and Texas Tech, while the Mountaineers are also off to a 3-0 start with wins over Kansas State, TCU and Oklahoma State to begin league play.
Kansas has won or shared each of the last 11 Big 12 regular season titles, putting the Jayhawks second in NCAA history behind UCLA’s 13 straight PAC-10 titles from 1967-79 – a truly remarkable run for KU, considering how strong the Big 12 has been of late.
If you can’t be here in person, be sure to follow our unbiased live coverage on Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG affiliates throughout the state or online through leanStream and the mobile app TuneIn.
Livestats coverage is also available through WVUsports.com.
Let’s Go Mountaineers!
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