MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Kansas rotation we have been watching since its WWE Smackdown at Kansas State late last month was really put into play back on Jan. 4 in Lawrence, Kansas, when the Jayhawks overcame a six-point halftime deficit to dunk West Virginia 60-53.
 
Since-suspended forward Silvio De Sousa played just seven minutes against the Mountaineers and failed to score, while 6-10 sophomore forward David McCormack logged 10 minutes and scored one basket.
 
It was guards Devon Dotson and Marcus Garrett beating the Mountaineers off the bounce and luring bigs Oscar Tshiebwe and Derek Culver away from the basket, leaving 7-foot center Udoka Azubuike unattended for alley oop dunks.
 
In a nutshell, that's what happened to West Virginia at Kansas a month ago. 
 
"That was our guys not listening," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "We told them 'don't help up' and they kept helping up and (Kansas) kept throwing it over our head. You want to try and make them score through us."
 
Veteran Kansas coach Bill Self has liked his guard play so much that he's since swapped the second big for Christian Braun in the starting lineup. That has opened up the floor a little bit more to allow his guys more room to maneuver, particularly when McCormack had to sit two games for his part in the Kansas State brawl.
 
When he returned, McCormack came off the bench in Kansas' games against Texas Tech and TCU while Azubuike took a turn as the sixth man against Texas.
 
Third-ranked Kansas' current four-guard look has not tasted defeat since Self began using it against Tennessee on Jan. 25. The Jayhawks really aren't scoring much more than they did when they were starting the two bigs, although they did put up 78 points in a three-point home victory over Texas Tech. 
 
But they haven't lost, so it's tough fixing something that's not broken.
 
"(Former Temple coach) John Chaney told me one time you play two bigs and your defense is a lot better. You play one big and your defense is not very good, but your offense is much better, and it flows much better," Huggins explained. "They've got guys that can pass it, and that's basically what they're doing. They're playing Garrett at the four; he bounces it and he drives it as well as anybody on their team, other than Dotson."
 
Dotson has been a constant scoring threat all season long, averaging a Big 12-best 18 points per game, while Azubuike is giving KU 13 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.
 
The Delta, Nigeria, resident has gone into a little bit of a shooting slump since the West Virginia game. Instead of making 80 percent of his field goal attempts like he was a month ago, he is now down to 75.9.
 
He missed four shots in the Texas Tech win and four more in a 14-point victory at TCU last Saturday, although he made 10 of them against the Horned Frogs.
 
Garrett was the other guy who gave West Virginia fits out at Lawrence, and he's having a solid season by averaging 9.2 points per game and shooting 46.2 percent from the floor, as is 6-5 guard Ochai Agbaji, who shows averages of 10.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.
 
Kansas (20-3, 9-1) remains the best field-goal shooting team in the Big 12 at 48.6 percent, while West Virginia (18-5, 6-4) continues to lead the conference in field goal percentage defense at 37 percent.
 
KU also leads the league in rebounding defense with WVU tops in offensive rebounding.
 
For Huggins, the No. 1 item on Wednesday night is the same key for his team going all the way back to the opener on Nov. 8 against Akron – making some shots.
 
The Mountaineers missed an astonishing 52 field goal attempts at Oklahoma last Saturday afternoon – four more than the Sooners attempted – including 22 near the basket. Freshman forward Oscar Tshiebwe, who went for 17 and 17 the first time around against Kansas, was 5-of-16 from point-blank range against Oklahoma last Saturday.
 
His twin tower, Derek Culver, was 2-of-10 versus the Sooners.
 
"We rushed things inside for no reason," Huggins admitted. "I think that was the biggest problem with not making shots on the interior. I have no idea why we don't make any shots on the perimeter."
 
Inside or outside, that can't happen if West Virginia wants to keep another sellout crowd entertained tomorrow night.
 
Nevertheless, Self is preparing his team for a raucous midweek environment at the WVU Coliseum on Wednesday night.
 
"I saw an interview Bill did and he's thinking it's going to be crazy here tomorrow night so we don't want to disappoint Bill in any way shape or form," Huggins said. "It's generally a great crowd and generally, the students are really into it.
 
"Seemingly, when the students are into it the rest of the crowd follows suit," he added.
 
Tip time is 7 p.m. ET and the contest will be televised on the Big 12 Now on ESPN+ streaming service. The Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College radio coverage on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com as well as the mobile app WVU Gameday begins at 6 p.m.
 
Backup guard Sean McNeil, who missed the last two games with the flu, returned to practice this week and could be available on Wednesday night.
 
"He's weak; he didn't eat much for three days and laid around. He may be able to go a little bit," Huggins said.
 
All five of West Virginia's victories over Kansas since WVU's move to the Big 12 have occurred in Morgantown. WVU is 5-2 against the Jayhawks in the Coliseum, including last year's 65-64 upset victory.
 
"Honestly, we got lucky a couple of times," Huggins said. "We scored a layup to go up one and then they missed an open layup to win the game (in 2015). They missed a shot to win last year's game – they actually had two of them, and the guy rushed the rebound shot.
 
"Hopefully, we make more shots here than what we do on the road," he concluded.