Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Predictions: West Virginia Mountaineers

The Kansas Jayhawks open the home conference slate against the West Virginia Mountaineers tonight, and the crew figured you could use some last minute intel into how the game is going to go.

Disagree with anything you see here? Feel free to give your own prediction in the comments below!

Fizzle406: I have to bet against Kansas here. WVU always plays us close and having AFH is sometimes that difference maker. We won’t have this this time and I like WVU in a close one. WVU 67, Kansas 65

David: Get ready for another rock fight. I’m not sure who has the advantage here: WV, who has two really solid bigs going up against a team with none? Or KU, who can play five out and dare those same bigs to run up and down the floor and guard out to the perimeter? My big concern here is WV getting too many of their own misses, and the Jayhawks being unable to stop them from scoring easy second chance buckets. West Virginia 64, Kansas 61

Kyle_Davis21: Offensive rebounding and shots at the rim are going to be key. I can’t imagine WVU shoots as poorly as it did against Iowa State, though Kansas is also probably due for a better shooting performance. To Fizzle’s point, it would be better to have 16,300 in attendance for this one. But something is telling me that Kansas will edge this one out. I’m probably wrong, but give me KU in another nail-biter. Kansas 68, West Virginia 65

Brendan: If you like small guys defending big men, we’ve got the game for you tonight. I’m still stuck in the 2019-20 season and thus I still believe West Virginia has absolutely no help on the outside. Obviously the Mountaineers’ big men are scary, especially with how bad McCormack has been, but the thought of Oscar Tshiebwe ending up on Jalen Wilson is also arousing. I still need to get a feel for some of these teams across the league, so I’ll, unsurprisingly, lean with the Jayhawks. Kansas 61, West Virginia 60

Mike.Plank: I think everyone is right, I think this will be another close one or two possession game that comes down to the final minute. And if that’s the case, I’ll take Bill Self every time. Give me Kansas 66, West Virginia 65.

dnoll5: We get to see a floptastic defense followed by a “we dare the refs to call all of these and we know you won’t so we’ll foul on literally every possession” defense. Cool. Anyway, I think KU will win this and then this team should definitely be the faves to win the conference. Kansas 70, WVU 65.

Andy Mitts: I just know that there is going to be a game that should be super close that is instead a blowout. Probably one Kansas loses and one they win. This team is tough, but there are real deficiencies down low. The problem is, I don’t think West Virginia is going to be able to counter the Kansas attempts to neutralize Derek Culver and Tshiebwe, and when Kansas throwing 5 guards out there for large portions of the game, it’s going to be tough to have both of them out there consistently. I don’t think David Mccormack gets going here, but I also don’t think it will matter. I think Kansas makes a statement late in this game and pulls away, but it will be ugly until then. Kansas 72, West Virginia 61.