MORGANTOWN — It wasn’t supposed to be like this, not with the recent history shared between Kansas and West Virginia.
While the Jayhawks have spent the last 14 seasons atop the Big 12, the Mountaineers spent the past four as the program looking to ascend to the top spot.
Their meetings during that time defined league standings and usually determined the Big 12 tournament winner.
They introduced West Virginia center Sagaba Konate to the rest of the world, as he swatted away one Jayhawks’ fast-break attempt after another last season and turned Juwan Staten’s last-second dash to the rim in 2015 into legend.
They created heartbreak in 2017, after the Mountaineers blew a 14-point lead at Allen Fieldhouse with 2:58 remaining in regulation before losing in overtime.
And Bob Huggins’ frustrations boiled over after losing at Kansas last season when the Jayhawks attempted 35 free throws to the Mountaineers’ two.
What had developed into a must-see series is now relegated to a ho-hum affair that will tip-off at 2 p.m. Saturday, at the WVU Coliseum.
No. 7 Kansas (15-2, 4-1 Big 12) armed with maybe the best player in the conference in forward Dedric Lawson, an experienced guard in senior Lagerald Vick and two of the Big 12’s top freshmen in Devon Dotson and Quentin Grimes are still the marquee team in the Big 12.
West Virginia (8-9, 0-5), following three straight seasons as the Big 12 tournament runner-up and who began this season as the No. 13-ranked team in the country, has taken a hard tumble.
“I haven’t gone through this in quite a long time,” Huggins said Friday, as the Mountaineers went through preparations for the Jayhawks. “Other than the TCU game, we’ve been close, but close doesn’t get you much.”
The TCU game — a 98-67 throttling — saw the Mountaineers go through the motions for much of the second half, prompting Huggins to say his players simply didn’t compete.
And now the Jayhawks — minus big man Udoka Azubuike, who is out for the rest of the season with torn ligaments in his hand — will visit the Coliseum looking to keep pace with No. 8 Texas Tech and surging Kansas State and Iowa State for the top spot in the Big 12.
It is not a situation of confidence the Mountaineers find themselves in for this moment.
“We’ll take what’s there,” Huggins said. “If we can get out and run, we’ll try to do that. If not, we’ll try to lock them down at half court.
“We can’t really say we’re going to do this or we’re going to do that. We’re just not there.”
And so the question becomes: Do the Mountaineers have enough spirit to drum up enough fight to make one more Kansas-West Virginia game one to remember?
“Practice was good [Thursday]. They were actually better than they’ve been in a while,” Huggins said. “We still threw it all around, but they were in a whole lot better spirits.”
Note
Konate, who has missed the last eight games with a right knee injury participated in a short shooting drill Friday before practice. He wore a brace on the knee while shooting.
“He’s got a bunch of strengthening to do,” Huggins said. “I don’t think anybody knows a timetable. I think it’s kind of a let’s wait and see. He had the non-weight bearing period on crutches. I don’t think they want him running and jumping.”
FOLLOW on Twitter @bigjax3211
