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Big Games on the Horizon at the Coliseum
January 06, 2016 02:41 PM | Men's Basketball
While coach Bob Huggins and his 17th-ranked West Virginia University men’s basketball team is getting prepared for Saturday’s important Big 12 game against Oklahoma State at the WVU Coliseum, the rest of us can take a little peek at what’s on the horizon – a possible Tuesday night meeting against college basketball’s top-ranked team.
The last time the WVU Coliseum had college basketball's top-ranked team was in 2006 when No. 1 UConn came to town (WVU Photographic Services photo).
On Monday night, while West Virginia was beating TCU on the back end of an exhausting six-day road trip, No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Oklahoma were playing one of the best regular season games we’ve seen in years. The Jayhawks overcame a double-digit second half deficit to outlast the Sooners, 109-106, in triple overtime.
Kansas, as usual, is really good with big-time weapons all over the floor. If Kansas can get past Texas Tech in Lubbock on Saturday – and that’s a very big if considering Tubby Smith has the Red Raiders rolling along at 11-1 with impressive wins this year over Minnesota, Mississippi State, Richmond and Texas – the Jayhawks will become just the sixth No. 1-ranked team to play at the Coliseum since the facility opened in 1970.
The prior No. 1s that played in the Coliseum were UNLV in 1983, Temple in 1988, Massachusetts in 1995 and Connecticut in 1999 and 2006.
West Virginia defeated the top-ranked Runnin’ Rebels, 87-78, in front of an overflow crowd of 15,638 during an early Sunday afternoon game televised nationally on CBS that is considered one of the best-ever victories at the 46-year-old venue.
Five years later, in 1988, the Mountaineers played their first league game against No. 1 when John Chaney’s once-beaten Owls came to Morgantown to face WVU in a late February Atlantic 10 Conference showdown.
Temple, the alpha male of the A-10 at that time, was coming off an impressive 17-point victory over fifth-ranked North Carolina and needed some defensive heroics from lanky forward Tim Perry to survive a 62-61 verdict over the fired-up Mountaineers. Temple made just two field goal attempts in the game’s final 13:21, but escaped when forward Mike Vreeswyk’s three free throws in the final 19 seconds sealed it for the Owls.
In 1995, West Virginia had top-ranked UMass on the ropes with four minutes left, leading the Minutemen by 18, but the Mountaineers couldn’t pull off the upset. UMass used a 20-4 run over the remaining 3:22 to come away with a 97-94 victory – the 18-point comeback matching the largest in NCAA history with less than five minutes left.
“We had an opportunity to make history and we made it, but on the wrong side,” West Virginia guard Cyrus Jones told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review last year on the 20th anniversary of that unforgettable game.
“I remember, their students came out of the stands and circled the court getting ready to storm it,” former UMass coach John Calipari said.
And twice, West Virginia played Jim Calhoun’s top-ranked Connecticut Huskies in Morgantown, once not so successfully when UConn rolled to a 35-point win in 1999, and then much more competitively in 2006 when the 11th-rated Mountaineers fell 81-75.
West Virginia’s answer for UConn’s powerful inside game was to launch 3s, and shooting center Kevin Pittsnogle’s triple with 1:14 left got the Mountaineers to within 75-72, but Rashad Anderson answered with a three at the other end of the floor to help give Connecticut its 23rd victory of the year.
Another memorable night could be in store for the Coliseum on Tuesday night against always entertaining Kansas; but, first things first.
West Virginia has 9-5 Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. in an important Big 12 game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU. The Cowboys have been a thorn in West Virginia’s side, winning the first four times the two teams met since West Virginia joined the Big 12 in 2012, including a pair of victories at the Coliseum in 2013 and 2014.
It wasn’t until last February’s game in Stillwater that West Virginia finally beat Oklahoma State for the first time since 1958 when Jerry West was playing for the Mountaineers.
If WVU wants to keep pace with Kansas in the league standings and enhance its national profile, it has to protect its home court this Saturday afternoon against Oklahoma State, and then once again on Tuesday night when the Jayhawks come to town.
Yes, two very meaningful basketball games are on the horizon for Huggins’ Mountaineers – home games that could put West Virginia on an upward trajectory toward even bigger things down the road.
We hope to see you here!
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Ross Hodge, Honor Huff & Brenen Lorient | Oklahoma Postgame
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Ross Hodge, Treysen Eaglestaff & Brenen Lorient | Creighton Postgame
Saturday, April 04
Ross Hodge & Honor Huff | Stanford Postgame
Thursday, April 02
