No. 18 West Virginia gets 27 points from Esa Ahmad in an 85-69 win over No. 2 Kansas. (1:08)

MORGANTOWN, WVa. -- It was a straightforward bucket. Nothing to it, really. Esa Ahmad flashed from the baseline to the free throw stripe. He caught the pass, glanced back over his shoulder, found himself free and casually shot a 15-foot jumper. It went in. Simple as that.

Simple, sure, but hugely important -- maybe the most crucial bucket any Mountaineer scored all night.

Or maybe that came later in the second half, as West Virginia began to open the slimmest slice of breathing room between itself and No. 2 Kansas, which had steadfastly refused to fade -- despite the Mountaineers' brutal defensive pressure and the bumping WVU Coliseum crowd. Jevon Carter missed a good look at a 3, and WVU forward Nathan Adrian tipped the rebound to himself, and the crowd went nuts, but the Jayhawks resumed their 2-3 defensive shape and held off WVU for most of the ensuing possession. And then Ahmad, again from the baseline, dove to the paint, caught a cross-court feed from Adrian and finished simply off the glass.

Ahmad put No. 18 West Virginia in the lead, 60-59, after a brief KU run. Adrian extended that lead to 70-61 with just under five minutes to play in a game the Mountaineers would finally blow open.

As important as they were, both Ahmad and Adrian, their role in WVU's success is easy to overlook. If Ahmad hadn't scored 27 points in a career-high night, en route to an 85-69 win that snapped Kansas' 18-game winning streak, the duo might have been ignored entirely.

Esa Ahmad scored 27 points against No. 2 Kansas by making 10 of 17 shots. Ben Queen/USA TODAY Sports

"Um, no," Kansas forward Landen Lucas said when asked whether anything in the scouting report had suggested a potential 27-point night from Ahmad. Kansas coach Bill Self's scouting report urged his bigs to prevent Ahmad from getting to his strong right hand, where he uses his body to ward off challenges around the rim. So it's not as if the Jayhawks didn't do their homework. But it's safe to say they also didn't see this coming: Admad's 10-of-17 shooting night, plus a 7-of-9 mark from the free throw line.

Why would they? For much of the 2016-17 season, the focus on West Virginia has revolved around its disruptive defensive style. Rightfully so: In recent seasons, no program has more ruthlessly forced opposing offenses to cough the ball up. Along the way, Bob Huggins' team earned a perfect nickname, "Press Virginia," which has stuck so thoroughly it now enjoys prominent placement in WVU Coliseum's pregame Jumbotron hype-reel.

What's more, the latest Mountaineers are the best version -- so far -- of Press Virginia. They force opponents into mistakes on nearly 31 percent of their possessions -- a ridiculous pace that, if it holds, will place them among the best, if not the best, in the stat in the past half-decade. If not longer.

For much of the season, while the Mountaineers were setting those face-melting turnover rate stats on a nightly basis, while guards Carter, Daxter Miles and Tarik Phillip were flying around the floor, Ahmad was quietly fueling a vastly improved offense. After a promising but unsung debut season a year ago, Ahmad had been called upon to help replace forward Devin Williams, whose surprising departure for the NBA left the Mountaineers without a clear frontcourt option last spring. For the first two months of this season, even among a precisely balanced attack, Ahmad was WVU's most-used offensive player and its leading scorer.

Then came the slump -- another reason why Ahmad's breakout night Tuesday seemed to come from nowhere.

In the four games prior to the matchup with Kansas, Ahmad failed to score in double digits once. His best game, an eight-point outing in a rout of then-No. 1 Baylor on Jan. 10, preceded his four points in a two-point win at struggling Texas, a six-point performance in a home loss to Oklahoma and just three last Saturday, when the Mountaineers fell 79-75 at Kansas State.

Something was off. Ahmad wasn't as assertive. He didn't feel at ease. His teammates stayed positive with him, even as one week of discomfort turned into two.

Huggins had a simpler appraisal.

"He wasn't very good," Huggins said Tuesday night. "He wasn't very good in the Kansas State game, he wasn't very good in the Oklahoma game."

And the solution?

"[Huggins] just told me to get in the gym," Ahmad said. "Just stay in the gym. So I did."

Said Huggins: "He got in the gym. I know you guys get tired of me saying that, but he got in the gym. He was in the gym last night at 9 o'clock after being in there early before practice and late there after. That's what it takes.

"It wasn't the kinder, gentler approach, in case you were wondering. It wasn't the kinder approach."

The approach was, if nothing else, simple. But it was also clearly effective. Ahmad's re-dedication led to a game that hammered home the difference between West Virginia when it's firing on all cylinders -- when it's "turned up," as Self said -- and when particular pieces go missing. Without Ahmad's steady supply of straightforward buckets, perhaps the Jayhawks' respectable 13 turnovers in 66 possessions would have been few enough to keep them in the game as the Mountaineers tightened the screws late. Perhaps, instead of falling apart under the weight of a widening deficit, Kansas would have hung around. Taken the crowd out of the game. Who knows?

Long before that outcome became clear, all the way back in the opening moments after tip, Ahmad drove right and finished a perfectly nice -- though hardly eye-popping -- dunk. Other than two points, the finish had no tangible impact on the flow of the game.

Then again, if it got Ahmad going, maybe it was the most important moment of the night.

"I haven't done that in a minute," Ahmad said. "But I feel good."

And what comes next?

"Stay in the gym," he said.

Simple enough.