MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s tour of school basketball’s high 25 continues Wednesday night time when 11th-ranked Iowa State makes an look on the WVU Coliseum.
The Cyclones are coming off a powerful, 68-53 dwelling victory over Kansas final Saturday to spice up their file to 16-6, 7-3.
Statistically, Iowa State is the Big 12’s greatest defensive workforce, permitting simply 61 factors per recreation total, and 63.8 factors per recreation in convention play.
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins believes Iowa State’s nice defensive numbers are a product of operating good offense.
“They don’t put themselves in bad positions in transition,” he defined. “They’re really good transition defensive team, so everybody has to play against their set defenses, and they’ve got shot blockers. They’re harder to score on around the goal and they’re harder to drive it at because of their shot blocker, but they also go back and do a good job of fortifying the lane.”
Second-year coach T.J. Otzelberger has used the switch portal to his benefit in assembling a four-guard lineup that leads the convention in steals (9.36), turnover margin (+5.18) and rebounding protection (30.86).
“Credit to them, they turn people over, but I feel like we have smart enough guys not to put ourselves into those positions,” West Virginia guard Joe Toussaint mentioned. “Obviously, turnovers happen throughout the course of the game, but I just feel like if we don’t put ourselves in that position we’ll be fine.”
Guards Caleb Grill (UNLV) and Gabe Kalscheur (UNLV) had been introduced two years in the past and carried out nicely on Iowa State’s 22-13 workforce that knocked off LSU and Wisconsin in final yr’s NCAA Tournament.
Then, Otzelberger went to Olean, New York, to nab two extra good gamers – 6-foot-4 guard Jaren Holmes and 6-foot-10 shot Osun Osunniyi, the 2022 Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year.
Holmes is Iowa State’s main scorer and ranks 13th within the Big 12 this week at 13.6 factors per recreation. Osunniyi is fifth in blocks per recreation (1.14) and is 10th in offensive rebounding with 41.
Kalscheur is correct behind Holmes with a 13.2 points-per-game common, whereas Grill is tops on the workforce with 48 3-point discipline targets to associate with his 10.7 scoring common.
Otzelberger stayed native to herald Ames High guard Tamin Lipsey, who’s third within the Big 12 in assists (5.0) and third in steals (1.9) per recreation. The 6-foot-1 freshman can be averaging seven factors and three.4 rebounds per recreation.
“They all take good shots,” Huggins mentioned.
Holmes and Osunniyi mixed for 28 factors and 11 rebounds in final Saturday’s victory over the Jayhawks. Jalen Wilson scored 26 factors, however the remaining of the Jayhawks managed solely 27 on 10-of-28 taking pictures.
Iowa State compelled 20 Kansas turnovers, which led to 19 factors.
The Cyclones are undefeated at dwelling in Big 12 play with 15.8 points-per-game common margin of victory at Hilton Coliseum.
On the highway, Iowa State is simply 2-3 with early January wins at Oklahoma and TCU earlier than dropping three straight at Kansas (62-60), Oklahoma State (61-59) and Texas Tech (80-77 in extra time). Against the Red Raiders, the Cyclones had been main 59-36 with 12:36 remaining earlier than the wheels got here off.
Iowa State and West Virginia cut up final yr’s video games, the Cyclones successful 84-81 in Ames and dropping 79-63 in Morgantown.
If Iowa State has its manner, it desires to pressure the problem and make West Virginia run its offense five-on-five in a halfcourt setting and attempt to preserve the rating within the 60s.
“It’s a matter of who wants it more,” Toussaint mentioned. “I’m just preaching to our guys, ‘We want it more.’ From here on out, we want every game more than everyone else.”
West Virginia (14-9, 3-7) can be coming off a powerful Saturday efficiency when it routed Oklahoma 93-61. Guard Erik Stevenson poured in a career-high 34 factors to spice up his season common to 14.9 factors per recreation, now 10th-best within the Big 12.
Stevenson had 31 towards Auburn the prior Saturday and has scored 82 factors in his final three video games towards Auburn, TCU and Oklahoma, connecting on 29 of 57 total and 14 of 27 from 3-point distance.
“The fact of the matter is, if everybody plays to their potential, we’re really good,” Huggins mentioned. “Erik is just starting to play to what we all thought Erik would be.”
The 11th-rated Cyclones are one of three high 14 AP-ranked groups West Virginia faces within the subsequent 5 days, two of these coming on the highway at No. 5 Texas on Saturday and at No. 14 Baylor on Monday night time.
Six of the Mountaineers’ eight remaining common season video games are towards groups presently on this week’s Top 25.
Wednesday night time’s recreation will tip off at 7 p.m. and will likely be televised nationally on ESPN2 (James Westling and King McClure).
Mountaineer Sports Network radio protection with Tony Caridi, Jay Jacobs and studio host David Kahn suggestions issues off at 6 p.m. on stations all through West Virginia and on-line by way of WVUsports.com and the cell apps WVU Gameday and The Varsity Network.
Satellite radio protection is obtainable on SiriusXM channel 383.
Briefly:
* West Virginia has performed the sixth-toughest schedule within the nation and has the third-toughest remaining schedule, in line with the newest NCAA power of schedule scores.
* Bob Huggins has greater than half of West Virginia’s all-time wins towards nationally ranked groups (57 of 113).
* The Big 12 continues to dominate the NET rankings as the one convention in America with all groups within the high 71 as of Monday. Seven of the ten are within the high 21, together with No. 12 Iowa State and No. 21 West Virginia.
* The Big 12’s convention NET rating of 26.8 is the bottom of any league. The subsequent lowest rating is 57.4.
* All 10 Big 12 groups are in analytics guru KenPom’s high 69, together with No. 14 West Virginia. Eight of 10 Big 12 groups are within the high 35 on this week’s ESPN Basketball Power Index.
* The 9.0 common scoring margin within the Big 12 is the smallest of the A5 leagues and third-best total. Twenty-two of the Big 12’s 50 convention video games have been determined by 5 or fewer factors, a mean of 44%. Iowa State has the very best common scoring margin within the Big 12 at +7.7 factors per recreation. West Virginia, which has misplaced seven of its 10 Big 12 video games this yr, is one of six groups with a plus scoring margin at +1.1.
* ESPN.com’s newest Bracketology, launched Tuesday morning, has moved West Virginia as much as the final 4 byes following its 32-point victory over Oklahoma. Eight Big 12 groups are presently in Joe Lunardi’s discipline of 68 with 4 weeks left within the common season.
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