MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia slipped four spots to No. 6 in this week's Associated Press Top 25 men's basketball poll, released earlier today.
 
On Saturday afternoon, the Mountaineers (15-2, 4-1) dropped a 72-71 decision at Texas Tech, which remains at No. 8.
 
The bulk of West Virginia's points came from two players - senior guard Jevon Carter with 28 and junior forward Esa Ahmad with 18 points in his first game back following an NCAA-imposed, 16-game suspension.
 
Carter was 10 of 22 from the floor while Ahmad was 6 of 12 against the Red Raiders, who are part of a four-team logjam at the top of the Big 12 standings with 4-1 records. West Virginia, Kansas and Oklahoma are the others.
 
"JC played well," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said following Saturday's loss. "We had guys that were really out of character. We got our center shooting a 3-point shot from the top of the key. We did a lot of things out of character from what we normally do."

The Mountaineers and the 10^th-ranked Jayhawks will meet tonight at the WVU Coliseum in a Big Monday game to be televised nationally on ESPN at 9 p.m.
 
Kansas (14-3, 4-1) got 23 points from senior guard Devonte Graham on Saturday afternoon to survive another down-to-the-wire finish against in-state rival Kansas State, 73-72, at Allen Fieldhouse.
 
After KU's Malik Newman made two free throws with 15 seconds remaining to put the Jayhawks up 73-72, K-State missed a great opportunity to win the game when the Wildcats were late getting into their offense and Barry Brown's wild shot attempt from well beyond the 3-point arc missed badly.
 
The lead changed five times over the remaining 2:18.
 
"We don't have the same teams we've had in the past where you can pull away from folks," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "When you play better competition, any win is a good win, and we have to understand that."
 
Later tonight, Kansas is looking to snap West Virginia's four-game winning streak over the Jayhawks at the WVU Coliseum. No current player on KU's roster was a part of Kansas' lone victory in Morgantown, that coming in 2013 when the Jayhawks won by five, 61-56.
 
Kansas has won three straight over TCU, Iowa State and Kansas State following its 85-73 loss to Texas Tech at Allen Fieldhouse back on Jan. 10.
 
KU is the only school in the Big 12 to have three players ranked in the top 15 in scoring this week - Devonte Graham (second, 18.4 ppg.), Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (sixth, 16.5 ppg.) and Lagerald Vick (15^th, 14.9 ppg.).
 
Tonight's game will be the eighth straight when both teams are nationally ranked. Self has an impressive 35-19 record against AP top 10-ranked teams since 2003-04, including winning 10 of the last 12.
 
Huggins has also been good of late against the top 25, his Mountaineer teams winning 10 of their last 17 against AP top 25 teams since Feb. 22, 2016.
 
Bob Wischusen, Jay Bilas and Holly Rowe have the call for ESPN tonight. The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's coverage begins at 8 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.
 
Briefly: On Monday, West Virginia player Wesley Harris was reprimanded and Texas Tech was reprimanded and fined $25,000 by the Big 12 Conference after Red Raider fans stormed the court following Saturday's loss.
 
"I want to thank the Big 12 Conference and Texas Tech for the positive and open dialogue all three parties engaged in during the last two days," West Virginia University director of athletics Shane Lyons said in a statement release earlier today. "As I said before, this situation involved court security, player safety and postgame emotions and all three had to be taken into account.
 
"We will revisit with our student-athletes to again reinforce our expectations regarding sportsmanship issues across all sports. The Big 12 has issued its reprimand. We accept it, and I consider the matter closed."