MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Tuesday night's West Virginia-Kansas game is shaping up into one of the early blockbuster college basketball games of the 2020-21 season.
 
The third-ranked Jayhawks improved to 7-1 with a hard-fought, 58-57 win over 15^th-ranked Texas Tech last Thursday night.
 
KU's only loss this year was 102-90 to Gonzaga, which also happens to be the only team to beat West Virginia so far.
 
The seventh-rated Mountaineers improved to 7-1 with a tougher-than-expected 70-65 win over Iowa State last Friday night. West Virginia didn't play its best; Iowa State did, and consequently, WVU had to come up with some winning plays at winning time to avoid an upset.
 
The Mountaineers did by outscoring the Cyclones 10-2 down the stretch to bag their first Big 12 win of the season.
 
"That's what you're supposed to do," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins explained. "If you're going to be one of the better teams in this league you better make some plays at the end of games. Kansas has done it for years."
 
Junior forward Derek Culver scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds while sophomore guard Deuce McBride scored 18 points and sophomore forward Oscar Tshiebwe contributed 12 points and five rebounds.
 
McBride (15.0 ppg.), Culver (14.4 ppg.), guard Taz Sherman (12.1 ppg.) and guard Sean McNeil (10.0 ppg.) are West Virginia's double-digit scorers.
 
Culver is hauling down a team-best 10.9 rebounds per game.
 
"We haven't been consistent with anything except for rebounding the ball," Huggins said. "We've been pretty consistent rebounding the ball."
 
For really the first time since West Virginia joined the Big 12 in 2012, the Mountaineers will be putting the bigger team out on the floor against Kansas.
 
"They're really good, they're just smaller," Huggins said. "It's different than those two bigs they've generally had, spread you out a little bit more and really try and dribble penetrate."
 
With the exception of 6-foot-10, 250-pound junior forward David McCormack, veteran coach Bill Self is using a smaller lineup this year consisting of guards Ochai Agbaji, Marcus Garrett and Christian Braun.
 
Six-foot-eight freshman forward Jalen Wilson joins McCormack inside.
 
Agbaji is averaging 15.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game to lead KU. Wilson is one of the early contenders with Big 12 Rookie of the Year honors with averages of 14.3 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, while Braun shows averages of 10.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
 
McCormack is just a shade below double figures averaging 9.8 points per contest.
 
In the Texas Tech win, Bill Self used a zone defense in the second half that slowed down the Red Raiders' straight-line drives and forced them to shoot 3s.  That was one of the contributing factors in Kansas' come-from-behind victory.
 
"He used some zone against us last year, too," Huggins said. "I don't think he likes to, but he does (use it some)."
 
Texas Tech was Self's 715^th career win in 28 seasons as a college coach, pitting him against Huggins who is now only 12 wins shy of reaching 900 for his collegiate career.
 
There are just five active coaches in the game with more wins than Huggins – Duke's Mike Krzyzewski with 1,169, Syracuse's Jim Boeheim with 970, University of St. Joseph's Jim Calhoun with 917 and North Carolina's Roy Williams with 890.
 
Huggins has beaten Kansas five times, but is winless in eight tries in Allen Fieldhouse.
 
Last month, Kansas announced a reduced capacity will be permitted inside 16,300-seat Allen Fieldhouse because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Crowds listed at 2,500 attended KU's recent home wins over Creighton and Omaha.
 
"I know they pump noise in there, but it seemed pretty loud to me in there watching some of their games on TV – a heckuva lot louder than where we are," Huggins said.
 
Kansas is working on a 12-game homecourt winning streak, which is tops in the Big 12. Self's teams are an amazing 268-14 for a .950 winning percentage at Allen Fieldhouse.
 
Tuesday night's game will tip off at 9 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 with Dan Shulman and Dick Vitale on the call.
 
Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College radio coverage begins at 8 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVU sports.com, TuneIn, and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
 
The team will fly back to Morgantown immediately following the game.