After their fifth Big-12 loss in as many games, the West Virginia Mountaineers will return home on Saturday afternoon still in search of their first conference win. While the venue will be welcoming, the opponent surely won’t as it’ll be the Kansas Jayhawks coming to town over the weekend.
A top-10 team in basically any rankings system and perennial National Championship contender, the Jayhawks represent—perhaps—the biggest test to date for a Mountaineers team that’s had a disastrous start to their conference play.
We almost know how this one ends before it even begins as Kansas should enter as the sizeable favorites, even on the road. Still, West Virginia has made it close in other conference games, eventually coming up short. Can it do that against Kansas and cover the spread or will the Jayhawks run away with this one?
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Kansas Jayhawks vs. West Virginia Mountaineers
Date and Time: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 2 p.m. ET
Location: WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, West Virginia
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Jayhawks vs. Mountaineers TV Coverage: ESPN
Much like the Mountaineers, the Jayhawks started off the conference schedule with disappointment as Iowa State upset Kansas in their first in-conference road game. Since then, however, the Jayhawks have won three straight to improve to 4-1 in conference and 15-2 overall.
Since the loss to Iowa State, Kansas has rolled over TCU and has also beaten Baylor and Texas. The win against Baylor came at home.
It’s clear that Kansas is still feeling the loss of Udoka Azubuike whose injury has left a massive void inside the paint on both sides of the ball. This team isn’t nearly as strong without him, but they’ve found ways to get by.
Dedric Lawson is now the lone forward in a lot of Kansas’s sets. He’s performing well and has 19.2 PPG and 10.6 RPG, but the rebounds have fallen a bit of late. Still, Lawson alone sets Kansas ahead of West Virginia inside the paint.
On the outside, Kansas is stacked. Ochai Agbaji was recently added to the mix with Coach Self pulling his redshirt status as a response to the Azubuike injury. Agbaji is already playing meaningful minutes and contributing.
Lawson is a clear all-American level player, but he’s not the only star on the team. LeGerald Vick has been shooting exceptionally well and is a real weapon outside. He’s got 15.2 PPG as a compliment to Lawson’s inside game. Meanwhile, Devon Dotson and Quentin Grimes have been exceptional freshman contributors.
Kansas is really a dynamic, well-rounded team. There are some questions about shooting from the free-throw line, but Azubuike was the weakest link there.
Even with the Azubuike injury, the outlook on Kansas’s season to date and going forward—including Saturday’s game—is positive. That’s certainly not the case for West Virginia.
The Mountaineers have lost all five conference games so far and was dominated by TCU on Tuesday, 67-98. That blowout loss came against a team Kansas beat by nine points.
Traditionally, West Virginia is a strong defensive team, but that’s not the case this year. This team is bad in all facets of the game. Defensively, Bob Huggins hasn’t been able to find the right formula. TCU nearly doubled up West Virginia on takeaways factoring in both steals and blocks and shot nearly 43-percent from three-point range.
The 98 points scored by TCU was telling though Oklahoma State scored 85 the prior Saturday, showing a bit of a trend.
The Mountaineers played tough against Texas Tech in their initial Big 12 game, but from there, it’s seemingly been all downhill.
Statistically, West Virginia just struggles shooting the ball. They’re shooting a dismal 42-percent from the floor on the year.
Much like Kansas, West Virginia is desperately missing a key player to the team’s frontcourt. Unlike the Jayhawks, however, the Mountaineers don’t have the personnel to replace Sagaba Konate as well ask Kansas has replaced Azubuike.
James Bolden has played well the last two games with 46 points. He’s a nice piece on the outside, but there’s little else out there.
As for the frontcourt, the loss of Konate is notable and there’s nobody that matches up well with Lawson.
Live Betting
The KenPom ratings, even in the post Azubuike world, consider Kansas a well above average offense with a solid defense. West Virginia is painted as a much more vulnerable team, particularly defensively.
West Virginia has progressively allowed more PPG over the last four games with the opponent point totals rising until hitting the 98 allowed to TCU last time out. Watch if the Mountaineers come out with a different defensive approach early in hopes of turning the trends.
The matchup of the Mountaineers more than questionable defense against the strong Kansas offense is paramount to whether West Virginia will even be able to keep this one close. That’s how they managed to battle Texas Tech down to the wire. Of course, that’s a different opposition, more defensively focused. Granted, Kansas’s defense shouldn’t have trouble stopping West Virginia’s offense either.
Take advantage of the live betting opportunities throughout the course of the game at BookMaker.eu.
Key Player
Lawson, Vick, Dotson and Grimes should have good games, leaving Agbaji as the key player on the Kansas side. There, however, are far more questions on the West Virginia side of this matchup, leaving th game’s key player as Derek Culver.
The 6’10” freshman has only played seven games and the Mountaineers have struggled through those games to the tune of a 2-5 record, but his numbers have been good, looking as much like those put up by Konate as anyone on the team.
Culver needs to do a better job on blocks. Without Konate, West Virginia’s defense inside has suffered. As a result, Lawson should have a good game here on Saturday, but Culver is still a threat for an occasional block. More so, however, Culver replaces Konate’s production on the glass.
In his seven games, Culver has 8.6 RPG and three double-doubles.
Jayhawks vs. Mountaineers Live Betting
Even without Azubuike for Kansas, this is still essentially a battle of David versus Goliath of sorts, at least in terms of the Big-12. David is not winning this one; not even at home.
Look for Kansas to walk away with the win by a sizeable margin even though West Virginia did play Texas Tech and Kansas State tough earlier in the conference schedule. The Mountaineers seem to be the kind of team to play up to the competition, but that can only go so far.
Without Konate on the court, Bolden isn’t enough to outscore Lawson, Vick, Dotson and Grimes collectively and don’t count on any other Mountaineer playing all that well.
When it’s all said and done, it’s simple: Kansas is the better team and the better team should win this handily.
Check out all of the live betting at BookMaker.eu for this weekend’s college basketball action.
NCAA Basketball Score Prediction: Kansas 82, West Virginia 67
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