LAWRENCE, Kan. _ Bob Huggins' West Virginia basketball team has won four games and lost six against Kansas in his 10 seasons as coach at his alma mater. While certainly competitive in head-to-head matchups, the Mountaineers have been unable to unseat the Jayhawks as Big 12 Conference champs.
Kansas (22-3, 10-2 Big 12), which leads Baylor by one game and West Virginia (20-5, 8-4) by two in the league race heading into Monday's 8 p.m. game at Allen Fieldhouse between the Jayhawks and Mountaineers, has won 12 consecutive league crowns.
Huggins, who has been playing the Jayhawks regularly since West Virginia joined the Big 12 in 2012-13 and a year before that as coach at Kansas State, thinks he knows the reason for KU's success.
"They won 50-some games without losing at home. I think until people start winning in Lawrence, they (Jayhawks) are still going to have a great chance to win the league," said Huggins, whose Mountaineers are 0-4 against the Jayhawks in Lawrence, where KU had a 51-game home-court winning streak snapped by Iowa State on Feb. 4.
Iowa State's 92-89 overtime victory was first by a Big 12 team at Allen Fieldhouse in 38 games. The Jayhawks last lost consecutive home games in the 1988-89 season, Roy Williams' first of 15 at KU.
"They've got great players and they've got a Hall of Fame coach," Huggins said of KU's Bill Self. "When you have a Hall of Fame coach, you year after year get lottery picks playing for you. And (when) you are playing in arguably the best venue in college basketball you've got a great chance to win."
Huggins, who is ninth all-time in wins by an NCAA Division I coach with an 811-326 record in 35 seasons, directed his Mountaineers to a 85-69 victory over KU on Jan. 24 in Morgantown, W. Va.
West Virginia hit 48.3 percent of its shots and 19 of 23 free throws and won the rebound battle, 39-32, on a night the Jayhawks hit 42.4 percent of their shots and went 6 of 15 from the free-throw line.
The Mountaineers had 22 assists on their 29 baskets in that game.
"The big thing is we passed the ball. We did a terrible job of passing the ball before," Huggins said.
He said the Mountaineers, who had eight turnovers to KU's 13, followed a winning formula he outlined for his squad at the conclusion of the 2015-16 season.
"I told them in April, we can't turn it over and we've got to make free throws," Huggins said. "We did both those things. We play pretty well when we do that.
"We turn it over 23 times in Manhattan (in a 79-75 loss to Wildcats on Jan. 21). That's 15 less possessions than what you get when you turn it over eight times. That's a lot of possessions."
In the first meeting between KU and West Virginia, Mountaineers forward Esa Ahmad exploded for a career-high 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting with five rebounds. KU's forwards countered with a combined four points and 12 rebounds. Landen Lucas had two points and 10 boards, Carlton Bragg collected two points and one rebound, and Mitch Lightfoot had a rebound in 8 minutes.
"Anytime you get it handed to you and an opportunity to play the same team, that should be motivation enough. That certainly happened the first time," Self said.
The No. 13 Mountaineers, at this stage of the season, likely need a victory to have a realistic shot at catching the No. 3 Jayhawks in the standings. A victory and West Virginia would be one game back; a loss and it would be three games.
"I hope our guys approach the West Virginia game like it's not even part of our league race, that it's us against them," Self said. "They whipped us the last time we played. We know we've got to be a lot tougher. We've got to handle pressure. With a quick turnaround (after Saturday's 80-79 victory over Texas Tech in Lubbock), you don't have much time to prepare for that.
"Our guys need to have a good day off their feet (Sunday). We need to get Frank (Mason) healthy (he was ill on Saturday). We've got to play a lot more competitively than the first time we played them."
KU committed just nine turnovers Saturday. The Jayhawks, however, were torched by Tech guards Keenan Evans and Niem Stevenson, who scored 25 and 22 points, respectively.
"There are some similarities," Self said of Texas Tech and West Virginia. "The way Evans and Stevenson drove it is very similar to the way West Virginia does."
KU senior forward Lucas said the Jayhawks must be mentally prepared Monday after an emotional road win.
"We know we've got another game coming up against a team that beat us, so we've got to take them very seriously and get that home win streak started up again," Lucas said.
It would help KU if freshman Josh Jackson played as well as he did Saturday (a career-high 31 points) and as well as he did in the first meeting vs. West Virginia (21 points, including 4 of 4 3-pointers).
"If he could jump, he'd be really good," Huggins said jokingly. "He's a great athlete. Those are the guys that play 100 games for about 10 to 12 years.
"He's got to be a top-five pick," Huggins added of the 6-8 Jackson. "He has incredible athleticism. He plays the whole game. He's done a great job defensively running through balls, making plays on the defensive end. He's really started to make perimeter shots. I think that started in our game. He's so explosive. He can get the ball to the basket, finishing. I don't know there's much he can't do."
