Oklahoma Preview
January 12, 2015 02:16 PM | General
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| West Virginia coach Bob Huggins says his team is going to have to shoot better than it did against Iowa State if it wants to knock off 18th-ranked Oklahoma on Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum. |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia continues its difficult stretch of games against nationally ranked teams with Tuesday night’s matchup against 18th-ranked Oklahoma at the WVU Coliseum.
The Sooners (11-4, 2-1) are coming off a 66-63 road loss at Kansas State on Saturday where guard Buddy Hield scored a game-high 31 points on 11 of 20 shooting.
Forward TaShawn Thomas added a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds for Oklahoma, which shot just 40.4 percent from the floor and was outrebounded 40-37 by the Wildcats.
Seven players saw action for the Sooners during Saturday’s game and veteran coach Lon Kruger generally goes about eight deep for his rotation.
Isaiah Cousins (31.9 mpg), Ryan Spangler (30.7) and Hield (30.7) are averaging more than 30 minutes per game, while Jordan Woodard (29.9) and Thomas (28.1) are also averaging more than 28 minutes per game and that is important because of West Virginia’s full-court pressure defense.
“They’re really good,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins of Oklahoma. “They’re really experienced. Hield and Cousins have played together for three years and Woodard and Spangler, this is their second or third year, so they’re very experienced and they are extremely well coached. They take really good shots and they really defend.”
The Mountaineers are coming off a 74-72 loss to Iowa State on Saturday when they struggled to find their shooting stroke.
West Virginia shot just 32.4 percent from the floor and also missed some key free throws in the second half to drop its second decision of the year.
“We’ve got some guys that just haven’t made shots,” said Huggins. “But we're capable.”
Juwan Staten led everyone with 23 points on 7 of 17 shooting, while sophomore forward Devin Williams contributed 14 points and 15 rebounds. Huggins mentioned after Saturday’s game that he thought his players should have gotten the ball to Williams more often in the paint. He was the only player to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor against the Cyclones.
Overall, West Virginia is shooting just 42.5 percent including 30 percent from 3. The Mountaineers jacked up 29 3s against Iowa State on Saturday, making just seven for 24.1 percent.
Oklahoma is a little better from the floor, shooting 44 percent overall and 33.6 percent from 3. Where the Sooners are considerably better than West Virginia is in their 3-point field goal percentage defense. Oklahoma is allowing its opponents to shoot just 28 percent from behind the arc this year while West Virginia’s opponents are making nearly 35 percent of its 3-point tries.
West Virginia’s defense did come up with nine steals and 18 Iowa State turnovers on Saturday night, giving the Mountaineers 357 forced turnovers so far this year.
West Virginia also had a 68-50 disparity in shots attempted against the Cyclones, which is right around its average of 19 more shots taken per game than its opponent.
“I think what we’ve done is we’ve made a bunch of key baskets and (during Saturday’s loss to Iowa State) we missed a bunch of key baskets,” noted Huggins. “We missed a couple point-blank, follow shots and didn’t make it at the free throw line either. Those are the things we’ve done a better job at.”
Staten (16.5 ppg.), Williams (10.8) and Jonathan Holton (10.0) continue to average double figures for West Virginia, while Hield (16.8), Cousins (12.8) and Thomas (11.9) are Oklahoma’s double-digit scorers.
Tuesday night’s game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN News. The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and also online through leanStream and WVU’s GameDay app.
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Notebook: West Virginia dropped two spots to No. 16 in this week’s AP Top 25 poll following Saturday’s loss to No. 17 Iowa State … Oklahoma (18) is the second of three straight nationally ranked teams the Mountaineers are facing … Following Tuesday night’s game against the Sooners the Mountaineers go back out on the road to play at 10th ranked Texas … Earlier today, the Mountaineer Ticket Office announced West Virginia’s January 24 game against TCU at the Coliseum is now sold out … ESPN national college basketball writer Jeff Goodman will be in town on the telecast for Tuesday night’s game … West Virginia’s RPI dropped seven spots to No. 18 today following last Saturday’s loss to Iowa State, according to ESPN.com’s Joe Lunardi’s Daily RPI … The Sooners are No. 33 in today’s RPI, according to Lunardi … Senior guard Juwan Staten now has 1,081 career points putting him 41st on WVU’s career scoring list … Next up for Staten is guard Lionel Armstead at No. 40 with 1,083 career points.
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