By SAM LANCE
The road to 18 Big 12 titles in 21 years under Bill Self just got much more complicated for Kansas with a 91-85 road loss to West Virginia on Saturday. The Jayhawks have now lost two Big 12 conference road games to teams likely to finish in the bottom half of the conference (WVU and UCF).
Kansas — ranked No. 3 in this week’s AP Poll — sits at 15-3 and 3-2 in the Big 12 conference. The loss will drop the Jayhawks multiple spots in the Big 12 standings. The Jayhawks came into Saturday tied for first place at 3-1.
“The league is a monster,” Self said postgame. “We’re certainly not happy where we’re at in the league race, but there’s going to be games like this for everybody.”
The Mountaineers, led by first-year head coach Josh Eilert, pick up a much needed signature win and move to 7-11 overall and 2-3 in Big 12 play. Transfer guard RaeQuan Battle caught fire in this game and helped WVU seal the victory with 23 points and nine rebounds. Junior forward Patrick Suemnick (20 points) and transfer guard Kerr Kriisa (15 points) added to WVU’s offensive attack that ultimately killed Kansas in this game. West Virginia shot over 50% from the field and 12-of-21 (57%) from the 3-point line.
“We weren’t really locked in defensively,” center Hunter Dickinson said on postgame radio. “We just have to do a better job of guarding our man.”
“We lost the game because we couldn’t guard,” Self added in his postgame press conference.
Despite the poor defensive effort, Kansas turned in its third most efficient offensive game of the season at 1.269 points per possession, per Torvik. The Jayhawks also had some role players step up, which is a positive since the Jayhawks’ depth has been a question mark all season. Freshman guard Johnny Furphy and senior transfer guard Nick Timberlake combined for 25 points and shot 5-of-14 from deep.
Kansas’ veterans and potential first team All-American’s Kevin McCullar (24 points, 10-of-14 FG) and Dickinson (19 points, 7-of-14 FG) also played well offensively, but the Jayhawks just couldn’t get enough stops.
Up next for the Jayhawks is a Big Monday contest at home vs. Cincinnati. WVU will travel to Orlando on Tuesday to play UCF, who also has upset Kansas in recent weeks.
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