West Virginia Needs Home Court Magic to Continue Against Kansas

West Virginia looks to keep undefeated home streak alive versus hated Jayhawks

During my last check in, West Virginia was about to travel to Norman to try and secure its first conference road win of the year. Obviously, that didn't happen and West Virginia continues seesaw from sensational one night and uninspired the next. While road magic remains elusive, the Mountaineers have been absolutely iron clad at home this season, which is all the better considering the Kansas Jayhawks descend on Morgantown tonight. 

The Jayhawks, who currently sit at second place in the Big 12 standings, own a 20-3 overall record and are riding an eight game win streak dating back to its January 11th loss to top-ranked Baylor. Per usual, the Jayhawks are good. Very good. Devon Dotson is averaging nearly 20 ppg on 46.5% shooting and fellow Wooden award contender Udoka Azubuike is patrolling the glass every bit as good as Oscar Tshiebwe and Derek Culver, grabbing nearly 10 rebounds a game. If there's been any discord following the now-famous melee with Kansas State, it's well hidden. Next to Baylor, Kansas is without question the next best team in the Big 12. 

That said, it's at the Coliseum. Fourteen times this season, the Mountaineers have barred the door and played great basketball, even obliterating several teams in the process. It stands as a great mark but don't get caught up in attributing to any degree of mysticism - it's home for a reason. While we've said time and time again that West Virginia has all the tools - size, depth, athleticism, defensive urgency - to make a big splash come March, it is still trying to put it all together. 

When you roll back the tape and review several of its losses away from Morgantown, like Kansas State, Oklahoma or the first meet up with Kansas, you see that this is a team that probably knows it has talent yet frequently lacks an edge. Saturday's loss in Norman certainly proves that point. West Virginia held an early lead before the Sooners found a rhythm, made big buckets fall and held West Virginia scoreless at one point for almost 10 minutes. West Virginia looked wobbly, off-kilter and couldn't counter the Sooners defensively. The Mountaineers clawed and fought back into it and closed the gap on numerous instances but fell just short of tipping the scales back in its favor. It was too little, too late. 

Assuming West Virginia breaks even with Kansas tomorrow night and wins out at home the rest of the way, that will be five more checks in the win column. Further, if the Mountaineers highway blues continue on, they'll collect four more losses and end the season 20-9. Not a bad season but certainly not enough chips to cash in on a top-3 seeding like many hope. 

First things first: make sure Kansas goes home a loser tomorrow night. A win over the nations third-ranked team would do wonders for West Virginia's national optics and would be a sort of-salve for the pain associated with remaining winless at the Phog. Kansas has been playing stout defense of late after holding TCU and Texas under 60 points in its last two games. But West Virginia has a tandem in Tshiebwe and Culver that can hold practically anyone off the glass and a sold out home court means mayhem in favor of Huggy Bear and co. If it can clear Kansas, West Virginia absolutely has to figure out a way to bottle up that hometown mana and bring it with them on the road. It's the 11th hour now and far past time to have figured out how to do something, anything , of consequence on enemy turf. 

With two rounds against Baylor yet to be played, this is where West Virginia can really, truly take control of its season and prove to itself, as well as the rest of the nation, that it's not a charlatan. Hold Azubuike at bay and find some real, honest-to-god offense. That's a recipe for a win and may well present the blueprint needed to re-tool things for the few remaining away games.