Kansas' 3-0 start in Big 12 play includes two critical road wins in hostile environments

MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Kevin McCullar Jr. has a wry smile on his face.

McCullar, Kansas basketball’s redshirt senior guard, is thinking back to the 3-pointer he hit early in the second half against West Virginia. He’s thinking back to how he banked that bucket in, as the Jayhawks once again took control of Saturday’s game. And he’s having some fun with how he’s describing it.

“Yeah, I work on that,” McCullar said. “So, just glad it went in. Got a good pass from my teammate, I was wide open and knocked it down.”

But however much that was a stroke of luck, or a product of practice, it was another sign of how this was just going to be Kansas’ night. The No. 3 Jayhawks led by as many as 22 points, and last trailed when the Mountaineers were up 6-5 in the first half, in a game they wound up winning 76-62. And it helped propel Kansas to a 3-0 start in Big 12 Conference play that now includes critical road victories at both West Virginia and Texas Tech.

“Well, it was the best we could do,” Jayhawks head coach Bill Self said of the back-to-back victories away from home. “I don’t know that it means a ton. You look at it, and everything’s so skewed. People could say, ‘Well, West Virginia started out 0-3.’ Well, they played their first two games on the road and they could have won them both. This league is just going to be a monster league, and things have a tendency to flip and balance out. And I’m sure it will in some ways. But we couldn’t have had a better week than what we did, and I thought we played pretty well in both games.”

Kansas (14-1, 3-0 in Big 12) could very easily be 1-2 through three games of conference play, and looking at an uphill battle to get back into contention for the Big 12’s regular season crown. It won by just two points against Oklahoma State, and three points against Texas Tech. But the Jayhawks pulled out both victories and handled West Virginia, and can now head back to Allen Fieldhouse for games against Oklahoma and Iowa State with all that momentum.

There’s pressure that comes with leading the pack, a pressure that Kansas has known well during Self’s tenure. But it’s a better pressure than what the likes of Texas Tech and Baylor are feeling right now. The Red Raiders and Bears, preseason contenders like the Jayhawks, have both started conference play 0-3 like the Mountaineers.

Kansas’ start may not have looked as pretty as a 3-0 record might indicate, but that’s not something the Jayhawks have to apologize for. They didn’t earn a share of the Big 12’s regular season crown last season while always looking like the national champions they became. A win is a win, and right now they’re tied with Iowa State and Kansas State atop the Big 12 standings.

“Yeah, that’s huge,” McCullar said. “In the Big 12, winning on the road is hard. It’s definitely tough, and it brings a team together for sure. Playing here and Texas Tech, those are two great wins for us early in the season. It’s going to prepare us for a long stretch here in the Big 12.”

Jayhawks freshman guard Gradey Dick added: “It’s huge. I mean, yeah, like Kevin was saying, the Big 12 — all those stats of how powerful this conference is and how it’s a big advantage for us to come on two road games and get a dub. So, I feel like going back home it obviously gives us just more momentum.”

Losing at home isn’t something Kansas does often under Self. In fact, last season the Jayhawks swept their Big 12 opponents inside Allen Fieldhouse. And that makes the idea of a 5-0 start to conference play for Kansas all the more likely than it might have looked ahead of that tip-off against Oklahoma State at home on Dec. 31.

A 5-0 start to conference play isn’t necessary right now, when it comes to the Jayhawks’ chances at repeating as Big 12 champions. But, the more they win now the greater the margin for error they’ll have in February and early March.

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball's 3-0 start in Big 12 includes two critical road wins