After a pair of tough road losses to Kansas State and Oklahoma State last week, the 10-4 West Virginia Mountaineers come home and will be greeted by the No. 3 and defending National Champion Kansas Jayhawks.
Since WVU arrived to the Big 12 in 2012, the Mountaineers and Jayhawks have had some classic battles. Since 2014, West Virginia has taken down Kansas six times at the WVU Coliseum, and a few of those were instant classics.
The first of those Mountaineer wins came in 2014 when the No. 8 Jayhawks took on a WVU team that would miss the NCAA Tournament and land in the NIT.
Kansas was led by NBA Champion Andrew Wiggins, who went off for 41 points against the Mountaineers, but the individual effort would not be enough to overcome a WVU team that saw three starters score 20 points or more.
The Mountaineers were led by guard Eron Harris, who scored 28 points while shooting 5-for-7 from three-point land in the win. Also contributing to the offensive barrage was Juwan Staten, who scored 24 points and Devin Williams, who added 22 of his own.
The offensive attack led the Mountaineers to a 92-86 win, and it marked the first victory over Kansas since joining the Big 12.
The 2015 matchup between Kansas and West Virginia in Morgantown was perhaps the most intense of them all, as the evening was already affected by a snowstorm that left a sold-out crowd looking more like an early-season game.
The No. 23 ranked Mountaineers, led by Juwan Staten, prepared to slow down the No. 8 Jayhawks, who were led by Perry Ellis, Frank Mason, and Kelly Oubre Jr.
The Mountaineers kept the Jayhawks at bay in the first half, as Kansas trailed by three points going into the locker room.
The Jayhawks started the second half on a 10-0 run, giving them a 40-33 lead with 17 minutes to play, but the Mountaineers didn’t back away.
Despite trailing, WVU stayed within striking distance and took one-point lead with under three minutes left when freshman Jevon Carter knocked down a huge pair of three-pointers.
After the Carter buckets, Kansas regained the lead with a Mason layup and took a one-point lead into the final seconds.
Down by one with eight seconds left, the Mountaineers inbounded the ball to the senior leaders Staten, who took the ball down the court, spun hard and finished with a left-handed layup to give WVU a 62-61 lead with three seconds left.
Kansas threw the ball down the court to Ellis, who missed a layup at the buzzer, and the Mountaineers won the instant classic dogfight.
The Mountaineers would go on to win the next two matchups in Morgantown against the Jayhawks, with the 2016 matchup being a win when Kansas was ranked No. 1.
While the 2016 Jayhawks were No. 1 when rolling into Morgantown, WVU was on a roll themselves, as they were ranked No. 11 in the country.
The Mountaineers would take down the No.1 Jayhawks by seeing three players reach double figures and were led by 26 points from Jaysean Paige off the bench.
West Virginia went on to defeat Kansas for the third straight year in Morgantown, and the students stormed the floor yet again.
In 2017, WVU sought a fourth straight win against Kansas in the Coliseum, and it got just that with a career-night from Esa Ahmad.
The No. 18 Mountaineers were led by the sophomore who scored 27 points while shooting 10-for-17 from the field.
West Virginia saw three others reach double figures, as Nathan Adrian recorded 11 points while Daxter Miles Jr. and Tarik Phillip each added 10 points.
The Mountaineers took down the No. 2 ranked Jayhawks by the score of 85-69 and clinched a fourth straight home win against Kansas.
In 2019, the Mountaineers struggling mightily after Carter and Miles graduated, as the NCAA Tournament quickly never really seemed plausible.
Despite being 8-9 at the time, WVU held the No. 7 Jayhawks to 64 points, and that opened the door for an upset victory.
Down by one point in the final seconds, WVU had the ball with a chance to take a late lead. Jermaine Haley, who already had 11 points on the night so far, took the ball to the basket and used his 6-foot-7 height advantage at the guard position to score a layup with eight seconds to play.
Kansas put up a three pointer for the win, but the shot missed, and the offensive putback attack was unsuccessful, as West Virginia won by the score of 65-64.
In the 2020-2021 season, WVU had a strong team that made an NCAA Tournament run, led by Miles McBride, Derek Culver, Emmitt Matthews, Taz Sherman, and others.
On this night, McBride would deliver his best performance in a Mountaineer uniform and Sherman would help put the Jayhawks away.
McBride scored a career-high 31 points against the No. 23 Jayhawks while shooting 9-for-16 from the field while shooing 4-for-5 from three-point range.
Sherman added 25 points while shooting 4-for-7 from three-point range and another 29 points from Culver and Matthews help jolt the No. 17 Mountaineers past Kansas.
The 2021 win over Kansas was the last time WVU was victorious over the Jayhawks, as Kansas went 3-0 against the Mountaineers in the 2021-2022 season.
WVU will look to pick up its seventh home win over Kansas on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. with the game being televised on ESPN+.
