MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is in the midst of perhaps the toughest stretch of basketball games in school history.
On Tuesday night in Morgantown, the Mountaineers were able to get past No. 1-ranked Kansas, 74-63, on the strength of 26 points from senior guard Jaysean Paige coming off the bench.
Now this Saturday, West Virginia get its first look at college basketball’s second-ranked team – the Oklahoma Sooners.
OU is now 14-1, 3-1 following Wednesday’s Bedlam win over Oklahoma State in Stillwater. The Sooners got 26 points and four assists from senior guard Buddy Hield. The All-American candidate made six of 12 from 3 while also pulling down seven rebounds.
Hield is having a terrific season, averaging 26.6 points and 5.7 rebounding per game while shooting an unbelievable 51.8 percent from 3. He already has six 30-point scoring performances this year, including a remarkable 46 in a triple-overtime loss at Kansas.
Hield is now eighth in OU history with 1,765 career points and enters Saturday’s game against West Virginia scoring at least 20 points in nine straight games.
Hield gets plenty of support in the backcourt from junior guard Jordan Woodard (15.3 ppg.) and Isaiah Cousins (12.1 ppg.).
Woodard scored a career-high 28 points in a win against Harvard earlier this year and had 27 in the loss to Kansas. He’s failed to reach double figures just three times in 15 games so far this season and like Hield, is shooting better than 50 percent from 3 (55.1).
Cousins has also been impressive, scoring double digits in 11 of his last 15 games and shooting 41.9 percent from 3 on 62 attempts. Cousins scored a season-high 19 points in a 78-55 win over Villanova and had 15 in a four-point victory over Iowa State back on January 2 to begin conference play.
“Their guards are terrific,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “Cousins they’ve kind of given the ball to and he distributes the ball and Buddy Hield can get 46 against Kansas and I think he followed it up with (31) the next game (against Kansas State). He’s become everyone’s choice for the national player of the year and I think Woodard is really, really good.
“What is forgotten in the Kansas game is Woodard got (27) and seemingly made every shot,” said Huggins.
Oklahoma’s primary scoring threat in the paint is 6-foot-8-inch, 234-pound junior forward Ryan Spangler, who is averaging 11.2 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. Spangler is shooting 58.4 percent from the floor and has topped 50 percent from the floor in 31 out of his last 35 games heading into Saturday.
“Spangler is a great screener, he’s making shots and passes the ball extremely well, doesn’t turn it over and is averaging a double-double,” said Huggins.
Defensive specialist Khadeem Lattin rounds out Oklahoma’s starting lineup and shows averages of 6.6 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-9-inch Lattin scored a season-high 17 points against Hawaii and had a 10-point, 14-rebound double double in the loss at Kansas.
“Lattin has been good and he’s been their rim protector,” said Huggins.
Those five players get the bulk of the minutes, with Dinjiyl Walker, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, Oklahoma’s top player off the bench. Walker is averaging 4.4 points and 1.1 assists in 13.9 minutes per game.
Oklahoma’s top big coming off the bench of late has been 6-foot-7-inch freshman Dante Buford, who saw 10 minutes of action in the Oklahoma State win and also played 10 minutes at Kansas. He’s averaging 2.2 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” admitted Huggins.
Hield (506), Spangler (500), Cousins (475) and Woodard (451) are playing big minutes this year and all four played at least 33 minutes in Wednesday night’s two-point win at Oklahoma State.
West Virginia is hoping to use its deep bench to its advantage against the Sooners on Saturday. The Mountaineers’ reserves came up with 40 big points in the Kansas victory – 26 of those coming from Paige.
Jaysean Paige scored two of his game-high 26 points during Tuesday night's 11-point victory over top-ranked Kansas (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo).
Nine West Virginia players are averaging at least 14.1 minutes per game and two more – junior guard Teyvon Myers and junior forward Brandon Watkins are close with averages of 9.9 and 8.6 minutes per game respectively.
“I don’t think our players have any doubt that they can play with, and beat the best teams in America, so we’re looking forward to the challenge,” said Huggins.
Junior forward Devin Williams shows averages of 14.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, and had a solid 17-point, 12-rebound performance in the victory over top-ranked Kansas on Tuesday night.
Paige is now averaging 13.4 points per game, including 20 points per game in Big 12 play; he scored 25 in West Virginia’s double-overtime win at Kansas State and also scored 20 in a road win at TCU.
Sophomore guard Jevon Carter is averaging 13.4 points and a team-best 3.1 assists per game, while sophomore guard Daxter Miles Jr. is averaging 11.5 points per game.
Paige, Carter, Miles Jr. and junior guard Tarik Phillip, who averages 7.7 points per game coming off the bench, are going to have to try and keep pace with Oklahoma high-scoring backcourt if the 11th-ranked Mountaineers want to pull off the road upset.
“We gave them (Wednesday) off to get rested up and get in the training and whatever they need to get taken care of and then you go back to work,” said Huggins. “We’re playing the No. 2 ranked team in the country and if they beat us they will go back to being No. 1, so we’ve got an opportunity to put ourselves in really great shape here.”
Saturday’s game represents the first time since 1988 that West Virginia is playing top five teams in back-to-back games. That year, the Mountaineers played top-ranked Temple in consecutive games when the two teams were members of the Atlantic 10 Conference (both WVU losses).
The only other time West Virginia played back-to-back games against top five teams happened in 1957 in the Kentucky Invitational when WVU faced No. 5 Kentucky and No. 1 North Carolina on consecutive days. West Virginia won both games to go from No. 8 to No. 1 in the AP poll – still the biggest jump to No. 1 in AP poll history.
Saturday’s game will tip off at 4 p.m. EST and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s coverage begins at 3 p.m. throughout the state and online through leanStream and the mobile app TuneIn.
