After eight days, nearly 2,000 miles, and three games — and three overtimes — the Kansas Jayhawks finally ran out of gas.
The nation's top-ranked team turned in perhaps its worst performance of the season Tuesday night, and in turn was hammered by No. 11 West Virginia, 74-63.
The loss, which dropped the Jayhawks to 14-2 overall and 3-1 in Big 12 while propelling the Mountaineers (15-1, 4-0) into sole possession of first place in the conference, came eight days after one of the best regular-season games in recent memory, last Monday's 109-106 triple-overtime win over No. 2 Oklahoma.
Since then, Kansas made the 1,100-mile round trip to Lubbock, Texas, to beat Texas Tech 69-59 on Saturday, but Tuesday's trip to Morgantown proved to be too much for Bill Self's squad. Especially after snowy conditions and traffic gridlock outside delayed the Jayhawks' arrival to the WVU Coliseum from their nearby hotel to just an hour before the game — and that was with the help of a police escort.
Kansas committed a season-high 22 turnovers, scored a season-low in points and shot just 42 percent from the field. The Jayhawks trailed by 12 at the half and never got closer than six the rest of the way.
But don't tell the Mountaineer fans the Jayhawks were gassed and ripe for the upset — West Virginia fans stormed the court and sang John Denver's "Country Roads" after the Mountaineers' first win over a top-ranked team in 33 years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
