Kansas basketball: Four Big 12 foes who could challenge the Jayhawks

West Virginia Mountaineers

After a 9-9 finish in Big 12 play last season, West Virginia is looking like they could make a run for the Big 12 title next season. They’ll be returning big men Oscar Tshiebwe and Derek Culver who dominated in the low post last season.

Tshiebwe and Culver earned second-team All-Big 12 and Big 12 honorable mention respectively, and they will both be huge parts of West Virginia’s success. Tshiebwe was especially great, averaging 11.2 points and 9.4 rebounds per game as a freshman last season.

The Mountaineers were considered by many to be one of the most physical teams in the conference, and that’ll probably carry over into next season as well since they’re returning essentially the same team.

Winning in the frontcourt will likely give the Jayhawks an edge in winning on the scoreboard. Despite losing Big 12 Player of the Year Udoka Azubuike who was arguably the best rim protector in college basketball last season, Kansas should be able to hold their own down in the post. David McCormack is a solid defender, and the Jayhawks will also have Mitch Lightfoot back too.

Kansas’ games against West Virginia will likely be those classic “grind it out” type games, so don’t expect either team to score more than 65 or 70 points.