Three guys in stripes gave this a shot at the Coliseum Saturday. https://t.co/JNZrhRBXQ1

— Mike Casazza (@mikecasazza) February 12, 2017

As though playing at Allen Fieldhouse isn’t hard enough, Kansas is stacking the deck tonight and aiming for a Guiness World Record.

This is interesting — apart from the surely coincidental arrival of West Virginia, which has put a scare into regular-season and tournament title hopes at Kansas the past few years — because the noise was already what had the Mountaineers talking … or, I guess, talking and cupping their ears, but you get the idea. “It’s hard to play in there because it’s hard to focus,” Elijah Macon said. “It’s hard to talk to your teammates even when they’re right next to you. They can’t hear you. It’s that loud.”

But there’s another interesting description, and it does get to the core of the challenge awaiting the Mountaineers. Every game is a big game at the Phog. Some opponents are bigger than others, but the fans treat every game like a significant occasion and an opportunity to celebrate the Jayhawks and also themselves.

Ask Teyvon Myers.

“It’s like a club,” he said. “They’re in there two hours before a game. There’s music. They’re partying. You see old MySpace pictures of yourself up in the stands.”

When Myers looked around last season to take it all in, he recognized a photo of himself from several years earlier and realized Kansas fans had pulled it off the internet and weaponized it as part of their mind games.

“They had a seventh-grade MySpace picture of me,” he said. “I was sad. They didn’t have to put that picture up.”