Quick Hitters: West Virginia (Round Two)

The Kansas Jayhawks dropped their eighth game of the season as they fell 92-86 in Morgantown this afternoon. Kansas came back from a 25-point deficit to within four points with 11 seconds left in the game but couldn’t pull out the complete comeback. Let’s take a look at how Kansas came up short:

1. Black to Black? Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, Tarik Black wasn’t able to put up two consecutive big performances, which left Kansas without their typical inside presence in Morgantown. Per usual, Tarik got himself into foul trouble early and had to sit for a majority of the game. In 22 minutes of play, Tarik recorded just two points and four rebounds, which wasn’t enough to give the Jayhawks an edge in the paint.

2. Tharpe trending again? The answer to that is no. Naadir wasn’t effective on the offensive end, as he was held scoreless during his 16 minutes of play. He was torched on defense in the first half. Thankfully Kansas was saved at the point guard spot with a pretty heroic performance by back up Frank Mason. Mason put up 10 points which included a couple of clutch baskets down the stretch to keep the Jayhawks in the game. If Kansas is going to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, Naadir is going to have to start playing more consistent because Frank isn’t always going to be able to step up and help out.

3. Avoiding the “trap game”? The Jayhawks did everything but avoid this trap game as they found themselves down 25 to a mediocre West Virginia team. Granted, West Virginia played out of their minds during the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half, but there is no reason why Kansas should lose to this type of low caliber team. There are those who say that Kansas had nothing to play for because they’ve already won the Big 12, but this loss could definitely hurt their seeding in the tournament. If for some reason the Jayhawks don’t win the Big 12 tournament, they could end up getting a two seed instead of a one. In my opinion, I believe that losing the last game of the season can be spun into a positive. I feel that this loss will humble this young Kansas team and when the post season starts next Thursday the Jayhawks will be ready to play.