MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia will take one other crack at entering into the win column in Big 12 play on Saturday afternoon at Oklahoma.
The 10-6, 1-3 Sooners personal a convention victory in time beyond regulation over Texas Tech on Jan. 7 and slim league defeats to Texas (one level), Iowa State (three factors) and Kansas (4 factors).
“They’re a veteran team,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins stated through Zoom Friday morning prior to the workforce’s constitution flight out to Oklahoma. “They don’t have a bunch of young guys or a bunch of portal guys, they have a bunch of guys who came back from last year to try and have a better year this year, I would assume.”
In the Kansas loss on Tuesday evening, the Sooners trailed by two at halftime and overcame a seven-point deficit early within the second half to take the lead. OU expanded its margin to 10 factors with 5:19 left earlier than Kansas got here alive.
Kansas closed the sport with runs of seven and 9 factors to pin a third convention defeat on the Sooners.
Grant Shearfield, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, poured in a game-high 25 factors on 9-of-15 taking pictures for OU. Sam Goodwin got here off the bench to match his season excessive with 12 factors, whereas 6-foot-10 senior ahead Tanner Groves produced his 10th double-double of the season with 10 factors and 10 rebounds.
Shearfield at the moment ranks fifth within the Big 12 in scoring averaging 17.4 factors per recreation. The Fort Worth, Texas, resident is taking pictures 45.2% from the ground and has made a team-best 40 3s.
Groves can be contributing 10.7 factors and seven.4 rebounds per recreation and actually damage West Virginia in a pair of Sooner victories final 12 months. He scored 21 factors and grabbed 9 rebounds in Oklahoma’s 72-62 win in Morgantown and scored 17 and had 10 boards in a 72-59 victory in Norman late within the season.
“They’re as good as anybody in the game at slowing down the pace and making people defend for an extended period of time,” Huggins stated. “The purpose of playing slower is to make people guard longer into there is a breakdown. We haven’t really had to play against that a whole lot, but our guys know what’s coming.”
The Lloyd Noble Center has been a very tough venue for West Virginia, the Mountaineers successful simply twice there in 10 conferences. WVU’s final win in Norman got here on Feb. 5, 2018, when it clipped the Sooners 75-73.
West Virginia’s solely different victory there was a 61-50 triumph on Feb. 8, 2017.
The Mountaineers (10-6, 0-4) dropped an 83-78 determination to Baylor on Tuesday evening to fall to 0-4 in convention play. It was the third time in 4 video games West Virginia was unable to maintain on to a second-half lead. WVU led the Bears 59-54 with 7:52 left earlier than poor free throw taking pictures reared its ugly head.
West Virginia missed 18 free throws in its six-point time beyond regulation loss at Kansas State, 11 free throws in its seven-point loss at Oklahoma State, 10 free throws in its 76-62 defeat to Kansas and 9 free throws in opposition to the Bears.
The Mountaineers are taking pictures simply 62.2% from the road of their 4 convention video games whereas taking pictures 70.1% total.
Guard Erik Stevenson and ahead Tre Mitchell are West Virginia’s high two scorers, Stevenson averaging 13.8 factors per recreation whereas Mitchell is scoring at a 13.4 points-per-game clip. Mitchell had 14 factors and 15 rebounds in Tuesday evening’s loss to Baylor.
“I thought we really competed in the Baylor game,” Huggins stated. “In this league, teams are so close and a missed shot here, a missed free throw or a difficult call can change games because they are all so close. They made tough shots at the end of the game, and we didn’t, and we missed free throws once again down the stretch.”
Despite the four-game shedding streak, West Virginia’s pc numbers are nonetheless strong. The Mountaineers are No. 29 within the newest NCAA NET rankings, 30th within the BPI and 44th within the RPI.
WVU can be 27th within the newest Kenpom rankings – 30th in defensive effectivity and 42nd in offensive effectivity.
“I think this team is going to be a good team – it’s going to be an NCAA Tournament team and a team that’s going to compete in the hardest league in the country, and compete very well,” Huggins stated. “This league has been an adjustment for a lot of our guys and the reality is it isn’t like we haven’t competed, or not had opportunities. We’re 0-4 and we very well could be 3-1.”
Before taking questions this morning, Huggins learn a transient assertion on the choice to half methods with affiliate head coach Larry Harrison.
“The decision to make a change within our basketball staff was a difficult one. Larry and I have worked together for 24 years and shared many great moments,” he started. “The decision was made in the best interests of Mountaineer basketball.”
He declined to take any questions concerning the matter.
Saturday’s recreation will tip off at midday and will probably be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Chuckie Kempf and Tim Welsh). Mountaineer Sports Network radio protection with Tony Caridi and studio host David Kahn will get issues underway at 11 a.m. on stations all through West Virginia and on-line through WVUsports.com and the cellular apps WVU Gameday and The Varsity Network.
Satellite radio protection is on SiriusXM channel 381.
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