MORGANTOWN — It’s become such an inhospitable arena to the Big 12 opponents who enter it, that Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse has become more than just a basketball court.
It’s become an obstacle complete with its own mind-numbing statistics, none of which are favorable to West Virginia, which travels to No. 3 Kansas at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The Mountaineers (16-12, 5-10) have never won in the building, an 0-10 record that includes the entire spectrum of overtime heartbreaks, blowouts, confusion and plain frustration.
Or as WVU head coach Bob Huggins put it, playing at Allen Fieldhouse is “a little bit like going down and buying lottery tickets that you already know what the outcome is.”
The stats back that up for the Jayhawks (23-5, 11-4), who just haven’t had success at home against WVU, but everyone else in the Big 12, too.
Examples of that success can be explained any number of ways, but maybe none more telling than WVU has lost the same amount of home games this season (four) than the Jayhawks have lost in the past five seasons.
For some, Kansas’ dominance at home — the Jayhawks are 13-1 at home this season — can be explained with its long list of all-Big 12 players, NBA Draft picks or by simply glancing at Bill Self’s coaching record.
To the fans, players and coaches of the other nine Big 12 schools, the Jayhawks’ success goes a little deeper than their talent pool.
“They’ve also got a ton of breaks,” Huggins said. “If you look back at the history of the deal, come on, they’ve got incredible breaks that nobody else gets outside of there.”
In an attempt to avoid a hefty fine, Huggins didn’t mention officiating, but it was easy to see that’s where he was leaning.
In its 10 previous trips to Kansas, officiating has played a factor.
Like in 2018, when Kansas attempted 35 free throws and WVU just two, a point Huggins emphatically made to the referees that night before he was ejected.
A year earlier, WVU held a 64-50 lead with just 2:58 remaining in regulation, only to see the Jayhawks pull off a miracle aided by several questionable calls and no-calls that propelled Kansas to an 84-80 win in overtime.
“It’s kind of like, well, they just get breaks that nobody else gets,” Huggins continued.
And so it’s another journey set up for the Mountaineers inside Allen Fieldhouse, this one with seemingly fewer expectations.
Kansas has won five in a row, while the Mountaineers have had little recent success — home or away — against the Jayhawks.
Kansas has won four in a row against WVU, nine of the last 10 and 13 of the last 15.
The final scores of those games are a consistent tale of WVU struggling to make shots and keeping pace.
In only three of the last 15 games against Kansas has WVU scored 70 or more points, while Kansas, the defending national champions, did it 12 times.
In Kansas’ 76-62 victory in Morgantown earlier this season, the Jayhawks connected on six of their first seven 3-point attempts and jumped out to a 22-10 lead.
“They shot the heck out of it when they came here and they’ve shot it well all year,” Huggins said. “They’re not as big and imposing as they have been in the past, but they really make shots.”
Kansas forward Jalen Wilson had 14 points and 14 rebounds in Morgantown, and Huggins called him the probable MVP of the Big 12 this season.
But Huggins said he’s seen defensive improvements since then, as well as improved play from forward Tre Mitchell, who had a season-high 22 points against Oklahoma State on Monday.
“I thought Tre had a great game,” Huggins said. “He made a lot of hard shots. He made threes. He made 15-footers. He made shots with his back to the basket. He scored right-handed. He scored left-handed.
If he had done that earlier in the year, he very well could have been the player of the year in the league with the way he played the other day.”
WVU at No. 3 KANSAS
WHEN: 4 p.m., Saturday
WHERE: Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, Kan.
TV: ESPN (Comcast 35, HD 850; DirecTV 206; DISH 140)
RADIO: 100.9 JACK-FM
WEB: dominionpost.com
TWEET @bigjax3211
