WVU - #8 Kansas Preview: Regular Season Finale

Game Day Vitals

• West Virginia Mountaineers (16-14, 8-9 Big XII) vs. #8 Kansas Jayhawks (23-7, 14-3 Big XII)
• Series Record: 0-3, last meeting was a beatdown in the Phog 83-69
• Location: Oliver Garden (Capacity: 14,000) Morgantown, West Virginia
• Vegas Lines: (+5) for the good guys, O/U -149.0
• Date: Saturday, March 8th, 2014, at 12:00PM EST
• Television: ESPN / WatchESPN
• O/U on references to Wiggins coming from Huntington Prep: 1.5
• Radio Affiliates

Opponent Information

(click to embiggen)

• #8 Kansas Jayhawks (23-7, 14-3 Big XII)
• Head Coach Bill Self, 11th year at KU, (some ridiculous number-insanely low loss amount) with KU
• Last Result: Won handily in The Phog vs. Texas Tech 82-57
• Official Jayhawks athletics website
• SBN KU blog - Rock Chalk Talk

The Internet is Fun

I don't care how many times I do this in a row. As long as I'm writing the previews, this will always be my go-to for KU:

And... I almost forgot....

One more, just for fun...

Game Preview

I don't care what Wichita State's record is: Kansas should be a #1 seed with their resume at this point. They are the most proven team in the country and can dumptruck any opponent on any given night. They are the ten-time Big XII regular season champions and on the warpath for another national title. All that being said: no team is immune to becoming a Coliseum scalp and the Jayhawks are beatable.

The Mountaineers fate lies in Juwan Staten's hands. As Kirchner and I discussed on the podcast, there might not be one person that can guard Staten for 40 minutes and not get blown by him. We are not saying that Juwan has reached "unguardable" status, but his dribble drive us comparable with the best guards in the country. Even with Staten balling out, a huge disadvantage for both teams is two quality players in Joel Embiid and Terry Henderson are out (assuming there are no major updates.) As we saw last game, the Mountaineers deeply missed Terry's presence especially with a 5-point performance from Eron Harris. If WVU is to pull a huge upset, Staten needs to have a career day and the supplemental offensive production must to come from somewhere in the supporting cast.

Can it be done? Yes. Will it be done? Probably not. That being said, if WVU does pull this off, pants are prohibited throughout the entirety of spring break..... or at least until the conference tournament starts.

Prediction: WVU 75 KU 81