The familiar finish Tuesday night had to have something to do with everything that felt familiar before it. West Virginia was playing well at home. Kansas was in the rear view mirror. Esa Ahmad was doing things. (That guy!) The lead was double digits … and then it was gone.

And then Jevon Carter, perhaps unequivocally the player who can come up with and then get away with this, decided enough was enough.

A 55-45 lead was gone and the Jayhawks were in front. WVU quickly got ahead again, thanks to Ahmad, and Carter told his teammates to act like they were losing. Imagine that. The advice was not to remember what the Mountaineers did to get the 10-point lead but instead play like a team that was trailing by as much or more.

After Kansas turned a 55-45 deficit into a 59-58 lead with 9:52 remaining, the 18th-ranked Mountaineer outscored the second-ranked Jayhawks 27-10 and rollicked to an 85-69 win before a crowd of 13,694 at the Coliseum. WVU is the first team in five years to beat the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the Associated Press poll in the same season.

“I thought if we continued to play like we’re losing and we stay after it and we don’t let down, then we wouldn’t start thinking, ‘I turned it over. It’s all right, we’ve got a lead. My man scored. It’s all right, we’ve got a lead,’ ” said Carter, who tiptoed around a triple-double with nine points, eight rebounds and nine assists. “I think we saw we’ve got to play like that on every possession.”

It’s WVU’s fourth straight win against Kansas at the Coliseum. The Mountaineers have wins against No. 6 Virginia, No. 1 Baylor and No. 2 Kansas. WVU beat the Bears and the Jayhawks, who are ranked No. 1 in the coaches’ poll, by 21 and 16 points.

“To be quite candid, I don’t we think we’ve played exceptionally well here, but I think that West Virginia has a good team,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “I think if we’re going to look at it over time, I think when they’re turned up, which they were [Tuesday], I think they’re certainly one of the best teams in the country.”

Three key notes:

1. Rebounds: WVU finished plus-seven, and six players had four or more because the Mountaineers said they thought they could beat up the Jayhakws on the glass.
2. Assist ratios: WVU had 22 baskets on 29 assists and just eight turnovers while Kansas had 16 assists and 13 turnovers
3. The free-throw disparity: The Mountaineers were 19-for-23 and Kansas was 6-for-15. WVU committed four fewer fouls, Ahmad was 7-for-9 and Frank Mason was 0-for-0.

What a weird team and weird season. Three wins against top-10 teams — and by a combined 46 points — and four losses — by a combined 11 points — that really don’t make much sense when you read the start of this sentence. It’s like a closer who can’t pitch in a 10-2 game. When the Mountaineers need to be up to a task, they’re there. Why they can’t see the Temples and Oklahomas of the college basketball world as a task, I do not know but I think this from the day-after-Oklahoma blog remains true. Saturday is a dicey game now, but the Mountaineers are still going to be tough to beat at home against Kansas. They’re a miserable draw in tournament play.

And now Texas A&M, near the bottom of the SEC standings, is either the best or worst opponent for the Mountaineers.