Sam Axon
Reporter
@SAxonCourant
Wearing the #1 jersey, Wayne Selden Jr weaves his way through a pack of Kentucky Wildcat defenders. Arms fly in his face as he comes up under the basket, and extends his right arm. With a flick of the wrist, he guides the ball into the basket to add another two points to the Kansas Jayhawks’ lead. Moves similar to this contributed to Selden’s career-high 33 points that were made in last week’s win against the University of Kentucky.
On February 9, the Jayhawks will have another team looking to secure an additional win this season, the West Virginia Mountaineers. The two teams faced off earlier this season in West Virginia, and the Mountaineers took home the win, 74-63. But, this game will take place in Kansas’ home court, Allen Fieldhouse, commonly referred to as “The Phog.”
For this game, history is on both teams’ sides. In college basketball, winning is all about momentum, and West Virginia has just that. The team’s last two games included matchups against #15 Baylor and #13 Iowa State, both of which they won. Also, it does not hurt that they beat Kansas earlier in the season, which should make the players confident in their ability to compete against such a respected and high-ranked team. When the Mountaineers beat the Jayhawks, Kansas was a number 1 ranked team, and fell from that position after losing that very game.
Even though West Virginia has beaten Kansas this season, the upcoming game is being played in Lawrence, Kansas, and may prove to be a much greater challenge. Since 1994, the Jayhawks have gone 296-15 at home. Under Bill Self’s coaching, the team has gone 189-9 in the Phog. With only nine losses, the team has won more consecutive Big 12 championships (11)* than have had losses. So far this season, only one game has been lost at home. Only twice has the Jayhawks lost two times at home a season. Earlier this year, the Jayhawks lost to Michigan State in the second game of the season, after the Spartans had scored more than twelve points in the last few minutes of the second half. This has been the team’s only loss thus far at home.
Both of these teams are apart of the ultra-competitive Big 12 league that is home to Oklahoma, West Virginia, Baylor, Texas, Kansas, and Iowa State, just to name their most competitive teams. Each of these teams are currently holding a top-25 position, with the exception of the Texas Longhorns. Even the league’s lower ranked teams are competing, and winning, against some of the highest ranked teams. Kansas is currently ranked 5th in the Big 12, while West Virginia sits in second. But, the Mountaineers have only won one more game than the Jayhawks within their division, making the two teams relatively even in ability.
For the Jayhawks, their main strength is their ability to score in the paint. The team is 14th in points per game, averaging 83.3 points per game. Senior Perry Ellis leads the team with an average of 16.7 points, and is closely followed by Wayne Selden Jr with 14.5 points a game.
In the Jayhawks’ most recent game against Texas Christian University, Kansas was able to score 30 points off of turnovers. This is the highest point gain from turnovers since 2011. If the team can continue to add points such as these, they could put up an even higher amount of points each game.
In contrast, West Virginia has scored an average 81.0 points per game thus far, putting them in the 28th position in that category. Even though this number is slightly lower than that of Kansas’, the Mountaineers have allowed less points per game. Opponents generally score 65.4 points each game, while the Jayhawks allow 68.9.
For West Virginia, they truly excel in their ability to score off of rebounds. The team averages 40.1 rebounds each game, which is significantly higher than that of Kansas’. Forward Devin Williams leads the team with an average 8.8 rebounds per game. If West Virginia is able to continue to convert these rebounds to points, as well as hold off the Jayhawks’ offense, they may be able to win for the second time against this team.
My prediction: For this game, I will have to go with Kansas. They have continuously scored phenomenally well at home, especially in comparison to some of their away games. Selden has improved drastically throughout the last few games, as in the Kentucky game, he solely scored about a third of Kansas’ total points. The combination of playing in the Phog and Selden’s increasing statistics, the Jayhawks should be able to carry out another win.
*according to ESPN and KU Athletics
