Three Keys For A Mountaineer Victory Over Kansas
Tonight, West Virginia returns home to host the Kansas Jayhawks. The game will tip-off at 7pm on ESPN+. *If you don't have access to ESPN+, please see the end of the article for advice on how to get updates* The Jayhawks are currently ranked #3 in the AP Polls with a record of 20-3 on the season and have a Big 12 Conference record of 9-1. Kansas is still finding their identity after their on-court fight with Kansas State a few weeks ago that led to a few player suspensions. Kansas will be a top seeded team in the NCAA Tournament and are always the favorites to win the Bug 12 tournament in Kansas City, so a win over the Jayhawks always looks great on a resume. Since joining the Big 12, West Virginia is 5-2 against Kansas in Morgantown, and if the Mountaineers can follow these three keys, they should handle their business, protect their home court, and improve that record to 6-2 over Kansas in the Coliseum.
1. Limit Kansas Second Chances
Kansas is returning Udoka Azubuike, one of the best bigs in the Big 12. He is averaging 9.7 rebounds per game, which leads the Big 12. West Virginia is ranked as the best rebounding team in the Big 12 with 41.4 rebounds per game, but Kansas is right behind them at 38.91 rebounds per game. The rankings flip-flop in rebounds allowed per game, Kansas only allows 32.17 and West Virginia allows 32.70. If you're the Mountaineers, you cannot allow Kansas to get second chances to score, the Jayhawks are too efficient offensively to allow them to get second chances. If the Mountaineers can box out, and limit the second chance opportunities for Kansas, West Virginia should pull away.
2. Force Bad Shots
Kansas is one of the best teams in America, both offensively and defensively. Kansas leads the Big 12 in scoring as they average 75.04 points per game. And they are second in scoring defense, only behind Baylor, as they are only allowing 60.3 points per game. Kansas uses their hounding defense to force their opponents into take bad shots and leads to easy transition buckets. West Virginia needs to take this strategy and use it on the Jayhawks. Play solid team defense and force Kansas to take bad shots that will lead to easy fast break points for the Mountaineers. If West Virginia can hold Kansas to shooting under 40% for the game the Mountaineers will have a good chance to win.
3. Score in the Half-Court
When the Mountaineers have played well this season, they are executing their offense in the half-court. This starts with the "Twin Towers". If Tshiebwe and Culver can position themselves in the paint, and get a clean pass from the guard, they should be able to use their skills to score inside. After a few buckets from them, Kansas will then start to send double teams to slow them down, and that is when they kick it back out to guards for open shots. The Mountaineers must shot well in order to beat Kansas, and if they run their offense efficiently they should get plenty of quality looks.
This is the first of two marquee games this week for the Mountaineers. On Saturday, West Virginia will travel to Waco to play #1 Baylor at 4pm on ESPN+. Some are saying this is the toughest stretch of games any team in the country has to play.
If you cannot watch the games because you don't have ESPN+, there is no reason to worry. Before every game, Mountaineer Maven has posted a "Game Thread" where our Mountaineer Maven team and West Virginia fans can comment and interact with each other. *Note: don't follow/comment on the thread through Facebook/Twitter comments, but through the actual article itself* Let's help each other out by commenting as much as possible for those who can't watch and keep them posted play by play and score by score.
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