There’s never a good time to play at Allen Fieldhouse as a visitor — but there are times that are theoretically worse than others. Pretty high on that list, I think, is when two of your top three scorers are sidelined with injuries.
Such was West Virginia‘s reality on Tuesday, though.
The Mountaineers were missing both Tucker Devries and Amani Hansberry, leaving them down two starters who are combining to average 25.5 points per contest. That’s why they were 12.5-point underdogs at Kansas in both teams’ Big 12 opener. That’s why what happened next isn’t something any reasonable person could have seen coming.
Final score: West Virginia 62, Kansas 61.
Javon Small made the game-winning free throw with 1.8 seconds remaining and handed the Jayhawks their first conference-opening loss since — believe it or not — January 1991. In its latest disappointing performance since being ranked No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, KU missed 15 of its first 19 shots, trailed 9-0 to start the game and by as many as 18 points in the second half.
“That’s as miserable of an offensive team as I’ve seen play in this building in 22 years,” said Kansas coach Bill Self. “That was horrid.”
(This is where I gather some Kansas fans would like for me to note that KJ Adams was 1-of-5 from the field while finishing with just two points and two rebounds in 28 minutes. So, KU fans, consider it noted. I understand your frustration. It’ll be interesting to see if Self does any lineup-tinkering in the coming weeks.)
I’ve dropped Kansas to No. 14 in Wednesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings and pushed West Virginia to No. 24. The Mountaineers going from unranked to No. 24 caused Georgia, Baylor and North Carolina to each be pushed down one spot each, no fault of their own. That means UNC is now what amounts to No. 27.
