MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - This really goes without saying but it bears repeating anyway: if West Virginia plays the way it did on Wednesday night against Texas the Mountaineers are in for an awful, awful long trip back from Texas Tech this Saturday.
West Virginia’s marksmanship reached epidemic proportions against the Longhorns, WVU connecting on just 31.6 percent of its field goal attempts for the night and missing everywhere, including the free throw line.
As poorly as the Mountaineers shot the ball from the field, they were just as bad at the line where nobody was guarding them. West Virginia hit just eight of its 23 freebies for 34.8 percent.
Texas’ strategy was to pressure West Virginia in the back-court and then frequently fall out of the press into a half-court zone defense, daring certain Mountaineer players to shoot it.
“When you throw it to guys at the foul line and they back off of them and say, ‘Please shoot it’ … it wasn’t like we didn’t have looks,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “We had some guys they absolutely didn’t pay any attention to. They tried to do a little better job on guys like Jevon Carter, but the truth be known JC had pretty good looks. We just didn’t make any. I think anybody who is drawing up zone offense would be happy with the shots that we got.”
Clearly, West Virginia is going to have to shoot the ball better on Saturday afternoon at Texas Tech if it wants to avoid a repeat performance of Wednesday.
The Mountaineers are also going to have to contend with a vastly improved Red Raider team that is especially tough to beat at home.
Texas Tech (12-5) comfortably defeated the same Texas team that beat West Virginia by seven points at the Coliseum on Wednesday night, and the Red Raiders have won nine of its 11 games played at United Supermarkets Arena so far this year.
“They’re good. They’ve got two senior guards – (Devaugntah) Williams and (Toddrick) Gotcher are playing great for them,” said Huggins. “Williams has become very, very consistent for them. He’s a hard guard because he really drives it at you and keeps putting pressure on the rim. Gotcher has shot it really well from the perimeter and their inside guys are very athletic; they’re very long.”
Williams and Gotcher are leading Texas Tech in scoring with averages of 13.2 and 10.9 points per game respectively, but the Red Raiders also have a total of seven players averaging better than 7.6 points per game.
In Texas Tech’s win at TCU earlier this week, 6-foot-8-inch junior forward Aaron Ross came off the bench to score 16 points and 6-foot-6-inch sophomore forward Justin Gray also contributed 14 points off the bench.
Texas Tech shot a sizzling 55.3 percent from the floor against the Horned Frogs, including nine of 15 from three.
“He’s playing all experienced guys and they know what he wants,” explained Huggins. “They’ve done a great job of executing what he wants and it’s not a surprise because anybody who knows Tubby (Smith) - and I’ve know Tubby for a lot of years - and everybody says, ‘What about Tubby and Texas Tech?’ I said, ‘Don’t worry about Tubby, he’s going to be fine.’ They’re a good basketball team.”
Forward Jonathan Holton scored 10 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in Wednesday night's 56-49 loss to Texas (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo).
Based on Wednesday night’s performance, Huggins said he expects more full-court pressure from Texas Tech on Saturday. He also expects the Red Raiders to play a lot of zone and take their chances with West Virginia’s outside shooters.
“Nobody wants to run up and down with us. They want to get us in a half-court game and do everything they can possibly do to keep it in the half court.
“If we shoot it as poorly as we did against Texas it’s going to be a long, long night and a long plane ride back from Lubbock, but I don’t think that is going to be the case,” said Huggins.
The sixth-ranked Mountaineers (15-3 overall) have enjoyed lots of success in Lubbock since joining the Big 12 in 2012, West Virginia going 3-0 there including a 78-67 victory last year. WVU led by as many as 15 points in that game, its lead never dipping below eight in the second half.
Huggins right now would gladly sign up for a similar performance on Saturday afternoon.
West Virginia is looking to snap it’s two-game losing streak while Texas Tech is looking to win for a second time and push its league record closer to .500.
The Red Raiders are tied with Oklahoma State for seventh place in the league standings with a 2-4 record, while West Virginia is in a four-way tie with Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas for second at 4-2.
The Mountaineers are departing for Lubbock a little earlier than usual today to get a jump on the major snowstorm that is expected to blanket the Northeast this weekend.
Saturday’s game will tip off at 1 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNEWS. The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s coverage begins at noon on stations throughout West Virginia and online via leanStream and the mobile app TuneIn.
