Jayhawks Mugged by Mountaineers 74-63

Kansas jumped out to an early 14-9 lead, but it was all downhill from there.  West Virginia quickly turned that around into a 27-19 lead for themselves, keeping the Jayhawks at arms length for the rest of the half on their way to a 37-29 advantage at intermission.

The Mountaineers extended their halftime lead to 43-30 early in the second half, causing Bill Self to burn a timeout before the under-16 TV timeout.  Kansas closed to 43-39, but then West Virginia re-asserted themselves and quite frankly dominated Kansas the rest of the way.

Final score - West Virginia 74, Kansas 63.

Stats

Perry Ellis led the Jayhawks with 21 points.

Mason (12) and Selden (11) were the only other Jayhawks scoring in double figures.

Mason and Selden combined for 13 turnovers against only 2 assists.

Kansas was outrebounded by WVU 41-39.  Ellis led the way with 7.

As a team, Kansas hit 10/20 (50.0%) from behind the arc.  Selden went 3/6, but  Svi and Greene combined for an 0/5 effort.

WVU was 3/12 (25.0%) from behind the arc.

Kansas went 13/21 (61.9%) from the free throw line.

WVU was 33/47 (70.2%) from the line.

It was the third straight win for WVU over KU in their home arena.

Which, if you've been reading RCT, you'll know that ties Texas Tech for the longest home winning streak against KU in the Bill Self era.

Takeaways

Yes, they stormed the court.

Surprisingly, no students bothered the KU players.

What in the world was the offensive gameplan for KU?

Whatever it was it didn't work.

Too many mistakes and turnovers.

23 mins into the game KU had 15 TOs (KU finished with 22 TOs).

Frank Mason had a real bad stretch right before halftime.

KU is not a gifted passing team - or at least they didn't show otherwise tonight.

Was #Motivation the biggest factor in this game?

Quotes from Tait on Twitter:

"KU all out of sorts on both ends."

KU "has looked extremely tentative in everything it's done tonight."

"No question which team wants it more & it's not even close."

At halftime, KU "had no energy coming out of the locker room."

"So many guys looked completely lifeless tonight. Disengaged at best. Just a complete no-show."

Look, you're never going to hear me blame officiating for a loss.  It's pretty rare that the officials actually win or lose a game for someone.

That said:

The most foul-prone team in the country started the game, the first 5:28 minutes, without being whistled.

West Virginia made more free throws (33) than Kansas attempted (21).

Kansas was called for significantly more fouls (32) as West Virginia (20).

How does that even happen, considering WVU's preferred style of play?

That was ugly.  Let's not do that ever again.

Up Next

The Jayhawks will return to the friendly confines of Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday, January 16.  The game is scheduled for a 1 PM tip (Jayhawk time) and will be televised on ESPN.