More Mountaineer Magic Coming Saturday?

January 4th.

It's a day that has been extremely kind to West Virginia athletics in recent memory. In 2012, the football team took Clemson to the woodshed and ran up 70 points on the Tigers, winning the Discover Orange Bowl 70-33. As for the basketball side of things, the Mountaineers have won their last four games on January 4th: W vs DePaul 67-65, 2011; W vs Rutgers 85-64, 2012; W vs TCU 74-69, 2014; W vs TCU 95-87, 2016.

This weekend will be another opportunity for the Mountaineers to add on to that day of success as the men's basketball team will take on the 3rd ranked Kansas Jayhawks.

This past Sunday, West Virginia secured it's first key win of the season with a victory over 2nd ranked Ohio State in the Cleveland Classic. What was most impressive from the win over the Buckeyes was how the Mountaineers were able to overcome foul trouble and Oscar Tshiebwe's near absence. Tshiebwe picked up two fouls early in the game and picked up a third near the end of the first half. Within the first minute of the second half, he picked up his fourth and was essentially a non-factor from that point on. He only managed to grab three rebounds and did not register a single point in the game.

Can West Virginia add to its history of January 4th? Well, to do so, they're going to need to play their best basketball in one of the toughest environments in the country. Two things that will be extremely important this Saturday will be free throw shooting and how well they shoot from the field. Sounds cliche, but it is something the team has struggled with early this season. The Mountaineers rank 7th in the Big 12 in free throw shooting (66.7%) and 7th in field goal percentage at 43.8%. Turning over the ball has been another issue plaguing the team sitting dead last in the conference in turnover margin (+0.75).The Jayhawks are always equipped with great guard play and that's no different this year with Devin Dotson and Marcus Garrett.

Kansas is the league's best three-point shooting team at 36.9%, while West Virginia holds the best three-point defense in the Big 12, limiting teams to just 25.4% from beyond the arc. Even with the twin towers of Derek Culver and Tshiebwe, it may benefit West Virginia to play the majority of the game with just one of them on the floor and play with a smaller lineup.

Getting quality minutes from reserves Gabe Osabuohien and Logan Routt will also be a big factor. Osabuohien does a lot of positive things that doesn't always translate to the stat sheet, but his presence on the floor is valuable. This is one of those games where you'd like to see Taz Sherman or Jordan McCabe break through and get hot to give West Virginia another scoring option. The Mountaineers have never won at The Phog, but with the team confidence riding high, don't count out the possibility of West Virginia pulling off another upset this weekend.