MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Bill Self’s pregame appraisal of Tuesday night’s Kansas-West Virginia game?
“It’ll be a war.”
The last three meetings certainly were.
Two years ago Andrew Wiggins dropped 41 inside the Coliseum—on 18 shots—but West Virginia’s Big Three of Eron Harris, Juwan Staten and Devin Williams combined for 74 in a court-storming 92-86 upset of the No. 8 Jayhawks.
Then, last February, Kansas ranked No. 8 again, and you won’t soon forget the court-long burst Staten made to score the go-ahead basket with 4 seconds, … or the 94-foot get-back Staten provided to disrupt Perry Ellis’ point-blank answer. Oh my, 62-61 WVU, still gets the blood pumping
And the most recent war, which still gets Bob Huggins’ blood pumping, occurred in Lawrence. With no Staten, West Virginia led the Jayhawks by 13 before the Phog witnessed a comeback. KU won 76-69 in overtime and cut down the nets on an 11th straight Big 12 title.
If West Virginia wants to prevent a 12th, it had better steal Tuesday night’s game in Morgantown, where No. 1-ranked opponents are rare. (The last time was UConn in 2006.) Still the hype isn’t fazing Devin Williams:
“They’re No. 1 but what does that mean? What if we were put in the top 10 when we started? Where would we be? There’s nothing we can do about that number beside them.”
“We had to put ourselves in the top 25. We should feel disrespected because we’re just as good as anybody in the country. Starting five to the bench, we can play with anybody in the country. Our coaching staff can outcoach anybody in the country.”