Mountaineers, Wildcats to Meet Wednesday
February 10, 2015 11:10 AM | General
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(18-5)
(12-12)MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kansas State coach Bruce Weber hopes his team’s second crack at West Virginia’s full-court pressing defense will produce much different results.
The first go-around three weeks ago back on January 27 in Manhattan resulted in a 65-59 West Virginia victory. The Mountaineers pressed and trapped their way to 13 steals and forcing the Wildcats into committing 25 turnovers.
“It’s really hard to simulate in practice,” Weber said during Monday morning’s Big 12 coaches’ teleconference. “You can tell the guys to watch film but until you go against it – 40 minutes of chaos – and it’s not just the full-court stuff. Some if it is half court where they run and jump you or trap ball screens and they just never let you get a rhythm.”
Following that loss, a frustrated Weber wasn’t too thrilled with the style of play the game took on that evening.
“It’s just bad basketball, but they’re what, 17-3? I’d be happy too,” he said.
Three weeks later, Weber said his team failed to cash in on some opportunities that could have made a difference in the game.
“You go back and watch the tape and obviously the free throws could have been a big difference maker – 20 for 35 (15 misses). We figured we had 14 missed layups. Some of that is they get you to go fast. They are physical on plays, but we had four or five that we’ve got to make the layup.”
Speeding teams up has been a hallmark of West Virginia’s success this year, but the last two games the Mountaineers played against Oklahoma and Baylor both teams played fast and effectively.
The Sooners shot 61.4 percent from the floor (several baskets coming on wide-open shots in transition) and Baylor shot 54.9 percent last Saturday at the Coliseum. Both games were double-digit losses for the Mountaineers.
“(Baylor) took some shots that you want people to take and they made them,” said Huggins Monday morning. “I thought they shot the ball extremely well. Once the ball started going in – I guess it went in from inception – but once that happened they got it going. That’s what we want – we want people to take quick shots.”
And miss them, which Baylor did during Monday night’s 74-65 loss to Oklahoma State.
On the flip side, West Virginia (18-5, 6-4) has to come up with a way to make more shots. The Mountaineers have shot below 40 percent in four of their last six games against teams playing predominantly zone defenses.
Against Baylor’s zone on Saturday West Virginia shot 36.4 percent, including 26.1 percent on its 23 3-point field goal tries. Over its last six games the Mountaineers have attempted 133 3s, making only 36 for 27 percent.
In West Virginia’s three most recent losses to Texas, Oklahoma and Baylor, WVU has attempted at least 20 3s in each of those games while making just 24.6 percent of them.
Huggins said after Saturday’s Baylor game that he wanted to get more shots closer to the goal but his team struggled to make those as well against the Bears’ athletic front line, the Mountaineers missing 11 of their 18 field goal attempts from 1-foot away from the basket, according to the coach.
Despite the recent struggles, Huggins believes his guys will bounce back and give great effort on Wednesday night against the 12-12 Wildcats at the Coliseum. A lack of effort has not really been an issue at all this season for the Mountaineers.
“I think we will be fine,” said Huggins. “We’ve got good guys. They have, for the most part, tried to do the right things – they don’t always do them - but they try hard to do the right things.”
Tip off for Wednesday’s game is 7 p.m. and the contest will be televised nationally on ESPNU (Clay Matvick and Tim Welsh). The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s radio coverage begins with the pregame show at 6:30 on stations throughout West Virginia and online through leanStream and West Virginia’s mobile application WVU GameDay.
Notebook: Weber updated reporters Monday on the status of suspended guard Marcus Foster, the team’s leading scorer with an average of 14 points per game … “It’s on-going,” said Weber. “Marcus is a good kid. (Suspended backup forward) Malek (Harris) is a good kid. They made some immature decisions, violated team rules and we’ve got to go with what we’ve got and that’s just part of it. I anticipate them back sooner than later, but right now we’ve just got to worry about getting ready for West Virginia and making sure that we are prepared” … In Foster’s two-game absence (both losses to Texas Tech and Texas), Kansas State used a starting five consisting of Nino Williams, Thomas Gipson, Justin Edwards, Wesley Iwundu and Brian Rohleder against Texas Tech, and Williams, Gipson, Jevon Thomas, Edwards and Iwundu against Texas … West Virginia will be K-State’s eighth opponent in its last 10 games that is either nationally ranked or receiving top 25 votes … Weber said on Monday that he has noticed teams have had more success attacking WVU’s press a second time around, specifically mentioning Oklahoma’s success last Tuesday night … “It was probably a 40-some-point differential change from one game to the next, but they were playing them at home, but you have a little better feel of what you’re doing,” Weber said … West Virginia forward Devin Williams is coming off one of his strongest performances of the year in last Saturday’s loss to Baylor, the sophomore scoring a season-high 20 points and matching his season-high of 15 rebounds … Williams has scored 38 points and grabbed 23 rebounds in his last two games while missing the Oklahoma game in between because of illness … Williams has now upped his season to 11.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game … Following Wednesday night’s game against Kansas State, all seven of West Virginia’s remaining regular season games will be against teams either ranked in the top 25 or receiving top 25 votes … Asked on Monday about what confronts his team, Huggins said he never looks beyond the next game on the schedule, “It’s kind of scary if you do, I think,” he said ... Plenty of tickets still remain for Wednesday's game and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800 WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
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