On Tuesday afternoon in Lawrence, Kansas, two Big 12 teams clashed in an exciting matchup to tip off the 2024-25 conference schedule.
No. 7 Kansas hosted unranked West Virginia in a classic back-and-forth Allen Fieldhouse battle. After nearly missing the flight to Lawrence (the team airplane was delayed until 2:00 a.m. with flat tires), West Virginia showed up with some unbelievable fight despite the adversity, all while down two key players. Darian DeVries‘ squad fended off a late run from Kansas with a few key trips to the free throw line to seal the deal and take home their first win at Allen Fieldhouse in program history.
With that said, here are three takeaways from the contest.
Mountaineer Resilience
West Virginia’s win on Tuesday afternoon can be chalked up to a multitude of things: pace, effort, rebounding, maturity, and a little bit of good fortune down the stretch.
The adversity the team had to face started many hours before arriving in Lawrence, as the team’s flight ran into some mechanical issues that had to be fixed. The team plane landed for departure, but it was discovered that their transportation had flat tires, which required the team to board a different flight.
Due to the mix-up, the Mountaineers landed in Lawrence several hours later and took on the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse with little to no sleep. In addition to flight issues, the team was down two of their top players, Tucker DeVries and Amari Hansberry.
That didn’t stop West Virginia from stepping up.
DeVries’ squad saw impressive performances from Oklahoma State transfer Javon Small with 13 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists, as well as a massive day from Fresno State transfer Eduardo Andre. The London native finished his day with a season-high 15 points, six rebounds, three assists, and four blocks.
Bill Self Gets it Right
While the Jayhawks ended up losing an incredibly tough matchup to a resilient bunch, the biggest change for Kansas came with the decision to roll out a new lineup in the second half. Self elected to insert freshman forward Flory Bidunga onto the court alongside Hunter Dickinson in place of KJ Adams.
Adams had become somewhat of a scapegoat for the majority of Kansas fans through the team’s first 12 outings, and while Bill Self pushed back on the notion multiple times, West Virginia tailored their entire defensive game plan for Adams specifically.
West Virginia elected to stay back and give up the open shot to the senior forward, which forced Self to make a switch. In Adams’ absence, Bidunga finished with a career-high 11 rebounds and eight points. Adams returned to the court during the final minutes of regulation, however, and had some nice moments on the glass and on defense.
Unfortunately for the talented freshman, Bidunga was baited into fouling West Virginia’s Javon Small with 1.8 seconds remaining, leading to the game-winning point from the foul stripe.
Regular Season NCAA Tournament
While the Big 12 conference schedule is two days old, the bulk of matchups have felt like NCAA Tournament games.
Following opening night of league play with a Top 25 upset win and a tightly-contested matchup between Iowa State and Colorado, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein made a bold statement about the Big 12 Conference in 2024-25.
“Every single conference game in the Big 12 feels like an NCAA Tournament game, and we say that tonight,” Rothstein said. “Cincinnati goes on the road to Kansas State, and K-State wins a close game. Then, tonight in Boulder, we saw a Colorado team, a team that was picked to finish 15th in the Big 12 Preseason Poll, take Iowa State to the brink without Andrej Jakimovski, who was the hero when Colorado beat UConn in the Maui Invitational.”
This was the case for Kansas and West Virginia, which traded possessions down the stretch in a one-score victory.
Kansas hits the road next to take on Johnny Dawkins and the UCF Knights, while West Virginia returns home to clash with Oklahoma State.
