MORGANTOWN — For better or worse, the WVU men’s basketball team will once again walk back into Allen Fieldhouse at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
For 11 long years, that situation has meant nothing more than heartache, sometimes confusion, but the Mountaineers have always walked out of the arena with a loss.
Some have been expected blowouts. Others took WVU (9-2) to the edge of the cliff of anticipation, only to have the Jayhawks (9-2) throw a dagger into the Mountaineers’ hearts and casually push them off the side.
Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was the basketball gods exercising a twisted sense of humor. Either way, there have been many similar tales narrated over the years by numerous opponents who had a glimmer of hope of walking into Kansas’ home arena and knocking off the Jayhawks, only to come up short.
“It’s a hard place to play. I don’t think West Virginia is the only one that has a hard time going into Allen Fieldhouse and winning,” said first-year WVU coach Darian DeVries, who will be writing his first chapter with the Mountaineers traveling to Lawrence.
DeVries said he doesn’t exactly believe in twists of fate or basketball gods, but history is not on WVU’s side in, possibly, the most historic arena in all of college basketball.
Wilt Chamberlin — of all iconic figures — opened Allen Fieldhouse in 1955. Danny Manning dominated there. Paul Pierce dazzled there.
“Our approach, it’s kind of boring to say, but our approach is the same, no matter who we play,” DeVries said. “We want to put the best version of ourselves out there every single night, whether we’re playing Kansas or whomever it may be.”
That’s sort of the thing, because there have been plenty of “best versions” of past WVU teams who only walked out of Allen Fieldhouse frustrated.
Jevon Carter-led teams. Juwan Staten-led teams. Deuce McBride-led teams. Teams with great size or experienced guards and a Hall-of-Fame coach in Bob Huggins.
None of it made enough of a difference. Come close? Sure, but the only ones smoking the cigars in the end were Kansas coach Bill Self and his players.
WVU’s most recent trip to Allen Fieldhouse — in 2023 — may sum up the Mountaineers’ experience the best.
Down 76-74 with 23 seconds remaining, WVU had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead, but guard Joe Toussaint got caught off to the side, unable to make the pass to set up the play.
Instead, Toussaint just kept dribbling and attempted to drive to the basket, where his shot was blocked right back to him.
And then panic. A pass was finally made, and then the ball came back to Toussaint, who was called for traveling with 0.4 seconds left.
Insurmountable WVU leads — a 64-50 lead with 2:58 remaining in 2017 comes to mind — have magically been overcome by the Jayhawks. Calls or no-calls by referees have never been under a heavier microscope than when WVU travels to Kansas.
“You have to go in there and play well. That’s what it comes down to,” DeVries said. “The reason you like to play at home is because you do have an advantage. and they certainly have one of the better advantages in the country.”
DeVries and his rebuilt WVU roster will, for the most part, be experiencing it for the first time.
Javon Small — the Big 12’s leading scorer at 19.7 points per game — played there once last season with Oklahoma State.
WVU guard Joseph Yesufu spent two years playing in the arena as a member of the Jayhawks, but this will be his first time sitting on the visitor’s sideline.
“Let’s go play, nothing changes,” DeVries said. “It’s a tough road environment. We’re going to see those all year long in conference play, but this is certainly one of the better ones. You need to make sure you’re really good at all of the little things to give yourself a chance to win on the road.”
To compete against the No. 7 Jayhawks this time, means finding a way to deal with Kansas’ inside-outside combo of 7-foot-2 center Hunter Dickinson and guard Zeke Mayo. Dickinson averages 15.5 points and is second in the Big 12 in rebounds at 10.3 per game.
Mayo has 24 3-pointers and has scored 51 points over his last two games.
DeVries left the door open that WVU center Amani Hansberry will return from an ankle injury, but at 6-8, Hansberry still will be out-sized in the paint.
“There’s a lot of ways they can hurt you, because they do have great balance,” DeVries said. “You can’t take away everything. A lot of times when you try to, you end up taking away nothing. You have to be willing to live with something, whatever that is. As the game goes on, if you need to make an adjustment to that, then you do that.”
