West Virginia Looks to End Allen Fieldhouse Hex – West Virginia University Athletics

Tale of the Tape
Points Per Game	79.2	77.5
Scoring Margin	+13.2	+13.6
Field Goal Percentage	.498	.442
OPP Field Goal Percentage	.386	.373
3-PT Field Goal Percentage	.355	.354
Opp 3-PT Field Goal Percentage	.303	.287
Free Throw Percentage	.716	.778
Rebounds Per Game	38.2	37.2
Assists Per Game	18.8	14.5
Turnovers Per Game	10.5	11.7
Steals Per Game	7.2	8.2
Blocks Per Game	4.9	6.0
Streak	W2	W5

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Coach Darian DeVries‘ Mountaineers are going to try and do something Tuesday afternoon that no West Virginia men’s basketball team has ever done – win a game at Allen Fieldhouse.
 
Eleven times WVU has played games in The Phog and 11 times it has left there in a fog.
 
There have been some blowouts, like the 26-point loss in 2013 and the 26-point defeat two years ago, and there have been some real nailbiters that could have gone the Mountaineers’ way if they made more plays down the stretch or got a couple of breaks.
 
On March 3, 2015, “Press Virginia” had the Jayhawks down 40-22 with 1:22 left in the first half and led by 14 at intermission, but KU limited West Virginia to just 19 second-half points to tie the game with 11.5 seconds remaining. 
 
Jevon Carter missed a 3, Nathan Adrian’s putback try was swatted away by Landon Lucas on the final possession of regulation, and the Jayhawks outscored the Mountaineers 17-10 in overtime to pull out a 76-69 victory.
 
Two years later, on Feb. 17, 2017, West Virginia was leading third-ranked Kansas by 14 points with less than three minutes remaining when the wheels came off. KU scored an amazing 34 points in a span of eight minutes – the three final minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime – to win 84-80.
 
Kansas got two free throws from Frank Mason III with 21.6 seconds left to tie it – two of 16 the guard made for the game. The Jayhawks cashed in on 33 of their 44 free throw attempts to overcome a miserable 21 of 61 shooting effort from the floor.
 
Incidentally, that was the game when Kansas established a Guinness World Record for the loudest noise ever recorded at an indoor sporting event.
 
Speaking of free throws, Kansas took 35 compared to West Virginia’s two the following year in a 77-69 victory in Lawrence.
 
The game was tied 34-34 at halftime, and WVU led 66-58 with 3:47 to go, but a key sequence occurred with 28 seconds left when Daxter Miles Jr. passed up a 3-point try that could have given the Mountaineers the lead. Instead, he turned the ball over, which led to a pair of game-sealing free throws.
 
By then, WVU coach Bob Huggins had seen enough and was ejected.
 
Free throws were not the determining factor in West Virginia’s most recent visit to Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 25, 2023, a 76-74 Jayhawk victory.
 
West Virginia battled back from a seven-point deficit and trailed 75-74 with 33 seconds to go on Emmitt Matthews Jr.’s steal and dunk.
 
Ten seconds later, Jalen Wilson missed the first of two free throws, opening the door for West Virginia to either tie the game or win it with a 3. However, the Mountaineers were unable to get a clean look at the basket as Joe Toussaint turned the ball over with one second left. KU inbounded the ball, and the game ended.
 
So, that’s four out of 11 games that went right down to the wire.
 
West Virginia also lost by seven in 2020 and by 10 in 2016, meaning several of the games there have been very competitive.
 
Can the Mountaineers finally overcome their Allen Fieldhouse woes on Tuesday afternoon?
 
Does DeVries, coaching his first Big 12 game in Lawrence, believe in an Allen Fieldhouse mystique?
 
“No, not at all,” he laughed. “It’s a hard place to play. I don’t think West Virginia is the only team that’s had a hard time going into Allen Fieldhouse and winning. They are very good there. They have a great home-court advantage; they are well coached, and they have good players. That has more to do with it than anything.”
 
With seventh-ranked Kansas, now 9-2 after its recent blowout victory against Brown, you just change the names each year.
 
Instead of Udoka Azubuike, it’s now 7-foot-2 center Hunter Dickinson.
 
Instead of Frank Mason III, it’s now Dajuan Harris.
 
Instead of Devonte’ Graham, it’s now Zeke Mayo.
 
DeVries is more concerned about figuring out a way of slowing them down rather than any supernatural happenings taking place in the arena.
 
“Typically, when you put together a game plan you can’t take away everything,” he explained. “A lot of times, when you try to you end up taking away nothing, so you have to be willing to live with something, whatever that is.”
 
Meanwhile, the health and well-being of DeVries’ team is still a matter of conjecture.
 
Tucker DeVries missed his third straight game against Mercyhurst with an undisclosed upper body injury.
 
Forward Amani Hansberry left the floor 18 seconds into West Virginia’s Mercyhurst victory with a sprained ankle and didn’t return, while senior guard Jayden Stone has missed all 11 games with an upper body injury he suffered during preseason practice.
 
DeVries said the status of all three remains the same as it was when they left for Christmas break a week ago.
 
When West Virginia (9-2) has been close to full strength, it has performed well enough to earn a spot in ESPN’s latest bracketology, but it’s not something DeVries is celebrating with his team.
 
“There are just too many games left, and conference play is coming up, but the one thing we did talk to our team about was you have different portions of the season and nonconference play is one of them,” he noted. “For our guys to be in this position, to have some quality wins to be where you need to be in the NET, those are important. But none of that means anything if you don’t line up in conference play and you’ve got to continue to stack up quality wins.”
 
In WVU’s last three home wins against North Carolina Central, Bethune-Cookman and Mercyhurst, freshman guard Jonathan Powell came off the bench to lead the team in scoring against North Carolina Central, while Javon Small was the top point-producer against Bethune-Cookman and Mercyhurst.
 
Small leads the Big 12 in scoring, averaging 19.7 points per game, and has topped 20 or more in five of his last eight games. He scored eight against Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse last year when he played for Oklahoma State.
 
The only other Mountaineer player with experience in that arena is guard Joseph Yesufu, who actually played two seasons at Kansas before transferring to Washington State last year.
 
That’s it.
 
Therefore, what happens inside there on Tuesday will be new to almost everyone on the team, including its coach.
 
What’s not new is playing a difficult opponent on the road in a hostile environment. West Virginia has already done that once this year at Pitt, and the results were less than desirable.
 
The Mountaineers are hoping Tuesday’s outcome will be different. If it is, they will have done something no other team in school history has ever accomplished.
 
The game tips off at 2 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+ (Mark Neely and Kevin Lehman). Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Brad Howe and David Kahn will get things started at 1 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
 
Overall, Kansas leads the series 21-7 and has won 11 out of the last 13 meetings.
 
Last year, West Virginia upset third-ranked Kansas 91-85 in Morgantown.