Taz Sherman, Ochai Agbaji overcame obstacles on their way to the top of the Big 12 leaderboard

MORGANTOWN — You see their names resting easily at first and second among the Big 12’s best scorers this season, but it has been a challenging course filled with obstacles that led both Ochai Agbaji and Taz Sherman to the top.

The two high-scoring guards will be on display at 2 p.m. Saturday, when Sherman and West Virginia travel to No. 9 Kansas.

Combined, Sherman and Ogbaji have connected on more 3-pointers this season (75) than 24 Division I teams across the country.

WVU STATS

Agbaji leads the Big 12 in scoring this season at 20.6 points, while Sherman is right behind him at 19.9 points. Yet at one point in their careers, they were almost an afterthought.

Sherman, from just outside of Houston, had no Division I offers coming out of high school and made his name in junior college, while Agbaji, who is from Kansas City, was redshirting his first season with the Jayhawks until injuries that season forced him into action.

Neither were the highlight of their signing class at WVU or Kansas, but through time and perseverance, have developed into two of the Big 12’s best.

“I think he’s using his athleticism a little bit more,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said of Agbaji, who has been held to just 8.4 points per game in seven previous meetings against the Mountaineers. “He’s a heck of an athlete. I think he’s got a little more versatility. He shot more behind the (3-point) line his first couple of years than what he is now. Now he’s a great guy attacking the rim and he’s a big-time shot maker.”

The same can be said of Sherman, who has kept West Virginia (13-2, 2-1 Big 12) near the top of the conference standings despite the Mountaineers losing two star players in Deuce McBride and Derek Culver from last season.

He has scored in double figures in all 14 games he’s played — Sherman missed one game due to COVID-19 protocol — and has gone for more than 20 six times.

“Sherman and Gabe (Osabuohien) are our unquestioned leaders,” Huggins said. “You’re not a very good leader if you’re selfish and (Sherman) is certainly not that. He just wants to win. He couldn’t care less about who leads the league in scoring.”

Winning against the Jayhawks (13-2, 2-1) hasn’t come easily. Sherman is 1-3 in games he’s played against Kansas and WVU is 0-9 all-time at Allen Fieldhouse.

In the three games Sherman has lost against the Jayhawks, he scored a total of six points. In the game WVU won, Sherman finished with 25.

The flip side to the marquee is Agbaji, who broke out this season with 29 points against Michigan State in the season opener. He followed that up with 25 points in each of his next two games.

He’s scored more than 20 points nine times this season.

Yet Agbaji was the low man on the totem pole in Kansas’ 2018 recruiting class that also included Devon Dotson and Quentin Grimes.

Dotson became the team’s leading scorer as a sophomore and left school early for the NBA, while Grimes later transferred to Houston, but is also in the NBA now with the New York Knicks.

“I don’t know that I envisioned him being one of the leading scorers in the country,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of Agbaji. “But he prepared himself to have a good year. He’s playing with confidence. I think the first game (against Michigan State) did wonders for his overall confidence, and he’s playing well. He’s not forcing anything and playing within himself, and he’s very efficient.”

Note

Kansas point guard Remy Martin sat out the team’s 62-61 win against Iowa State on Tuesday with a knee injury and Huggins said the team has prepared mainly for those who played against the Cyclones.

“We have no idea if he’ll play or how much he’ll play,” Huggins said. “We’ll deal with that if he comes into the game.”

Martin was the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year after transferring from Arizona State, but he’s struggled this season, averaging 9.8 points per game after finishing second in the Pac-12 in scoring last season at 19.1 points.

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