WVU Aims to Make History on Saturday
A pair of 13-2 teams are set to clash on Saturday for what will be a very important Big 12 contest early in the season. West Virginia is coming off of a 70-60 win over Oklahoma State earlier this week. Meanwhile, Kansas nearly dropped its second straight conference game against Iowa State, but a missed three at the buzzer allowed the Jayhawks to hold on for a 62-61 victory.
Bob Huggins has accomplished a lot in his storied coaching career, but the one thing he has yet to do is beat Kansas inside Allen Field House. Then again, very few have had success against the Jayhawks on the road since Bill Self has been in charge. Now in his 18th year at the helm, Self has a home record of 284-15, which equates to a winning percentage of .949.
Although the Mountaineers are 0-9 at The Phog, they've had some really close and entertaining games. They typically play the Jayhawks pretty tough and it seems like every year, West Virginia has the lead at the half, has a double-digit lead at some point in the second half, and then KU makes a run late to pull out a win.
This isn't Huggins' most talented team as he alluded to in his postgame press conference on Tuesday night, but they do have the pieces necessary to gut out a win in one of the nation's toughest venues to play in. First, you need to have multiple guys that can make shots and Huggins has that with Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil. Sherman is the 2nd-leading scorer in the Big 12 averaging 19.9 points per game behind only Ochai Agbaji of Kansas ironically enough. Last year in the 91-79 win over Kansas, Sherman set a career-high with 25 points. In the other matchup with KU, McNeil went for 24 and hit six threes.
Along with the scoring, to be able to pull off the upset, the Mountaineers have to be able to string together stops in the second half and force turnovers. Fortunately for Huggins, he has a defensive menace in Gabe Osabuohien and arguably the best on-ball defender in the league, Kedrian Johnson. Those four guys - Sherman, McNeil, Osabuohien, and Johnson will play a huge factor in the game but if they get quality minutes from Jalen Bridges and Isaiah Cottrell underneath, they will be in a position to win the game.
The fact that we are midway through the month of January and West Virginia has yet to be ranked is an odd sight to see. However, if they are able to make history and steal one at AHF, they will certainly make a huge leap into next week's AP Top 25 and, more importantly, in the NET Rankings.
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