The Kansas Jayhawks will take on the West Virginia Mountaineers on Tuesday night in a battle of the last two unbeaten teams in Big 12 play. Kansas comes into this game at 14-1 (3-0) and ranked number one in the nation while West Virginia comes in 14-1 (3-0) and ranked 11th in the nation.
Kansas has won 13 consecutive games since suffering their only loss against Michigan State in the second game of the season. The Jayhawks were also involved in what was maybe the best game we will see all year when they defeated Oklahoma in three overtimes last week. Kansas was able to recover from that game and win on the road at Texas Tech on Saturday and come into this big game with a lot of momentum.
Kansas is led by senior forward Perry Ellis who is first on the team with his 16 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Ellis is making 50 percent of his field goal attempts on the season and has also made 12 of his 22 three point attempts so far. Ellis has not been scoring efficiently in his last two games as he is just 41 percent from the field in that time but in each of those games he has racked up a double-double.
Another player to watch for Kansas is junior point guard Frank Mason III. So far this season Mason is averaging career highs in points (13.5), assists (5.5) and rebounds (4.6) while also making 41 percent of his threes. Mason has also been playing tremendous defense for Kansas and is coming off a big time game against Texas Tech when he had 17 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
West Virginia also only has one loss this season and that one loss was also to a very good team in Virginia. The Mountaineers have surrounded that loss by separate seven-game-winning streaks but their schedule outside of that Virginia game has been kind of soft. This home game against Kansas is huge for them to prove that they are for real and can contend in the Big 12 this season.
West Virginia is a very balanced team that spreads around it's scoring as they have six guys averaging at least 7.7 points per game. The leader among these players though, is junior forward Devin Williams as he leads the team with his 14.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. Williams' last two games have not gone as well as he had hoped as he dealt with foul trouble against TCU and has shot poorly in each. Williams will look to break his current 5-17 stretch against the number one team in the nation.
A player to look out for on the Mountaineers is sophomore guard Jevon Carter. Carter is second on the team with his 12.7 points per game and leads the team with his 3.3 assists per game. Carter's role has grown from last season and with it his efficiency has also grown as he is making 37 percent of his threes this year (up from 31 percent last year). Carter is coming off of a team-high 16 point performance in Saturday's win over Oklahoma State and will look to continue his solid play.
These two teams split a couple of very close games last season as each team won on their own home court. This will be the sixth time ever the number one ranked team has visited West Virginia and they have lost the last four such games.
The game is scheduled to tip off at 7 P.M. Eastern time on ESPN 2 and to watch the live broadcast go here. For the Kansas radio broadcast go here and for the West Virginia radio broadcast go here.
