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Two Top 15 Teams to Meet in Ames Tuesday Night
February 01, 2016 05:20 PM | Men's Basketball
On the same day Cindy Crawford announced she is officially retired from modeling, the West Virginia University men’s basketball team is flying out to Ames, Iowa to face 13th-ranked Iowa State in a key Big 12 game on Tuesday night.
The two are unrelated, of course, other than the fact that veteran coach Bob Huggins is far from retiring from his personal assault on the NCAA record book.
Huggins enters Tuesday night’s game against Iowa State 10th all-time in wins with 782, and he needs just four more victories to tie Lefty Driesell for ninth place with 786. Then comes Eddie Sutton at 806 and from there it’s simply a matter of padding the resume of a hall of fame coaching career.
In the meantime, Huggins has to figure out how to get his 17-4 Mountaineer team playing more like the one that defeated top-ranked Kansas, 74-63, back on January 12 instead of the one that lost by 17 at Florida in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Saturday afternoon.
With the exception of a 12-0 run midway through the first half that reduced Florida’s lead to four, the Mountaineers were never really in the game.
The Gators shot 53.1 percent from the floor, including an alarming 12 of 20 from three, and forced West Virginia into committing 18 turnovers – the most by the Mountaineers since the TCU game when they fumbled away the basketball 22 times.
If West Virginia can’t hold onto the ball and allows Iowa State to shoot anywhere close to the way Florida did on Saturday, it will be another long night for the Mountaineers.
Iowa State, 16-5, 5-3, is also coming off a disappointing road loss in its SEC/Big 12 Challenge game against No. 5 Texas A&M, but the Cyclones had won four straight prior to that, including victories over No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 4 Kansas at Hilton Coliseum.
Iowa State is 10-1 at home this year and has won 32 of its last 34 games there, including 12 straight when coming off a loss.
Coach Steve Prohm is in his first season at Iowa State taking over for native son Fred Hoiberg, now coaching the NBA Chicago Bulls. Hoiberg left Prohm a tremendous roster of players featuring preseason All-American Georges Niang, explosive point guard Monte Morris and 2015 Big 12 defensive player of the year Jameel McKay.
All three are having outstanding years so far, Niang averaging 19 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game, Morris showing averages of 15.1 points and 6.9 assists per game, and McKay contributing 12.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per contest.
Matt Thomas, a 6-foot-4-inch junior guard, and Abdel Nader, a 6-foot-6-inch senior forward, join those three in the Cyclone starting lineup.
Huggins says Niang has been one of the premier players in the Big 12 all four years he’s been at Iowa State and will be a handful to contain on Tuesday night.
“He presents problems for everybody,” Huggins explained. “He can score. He can create for other people and he rebounds the ball offensively. He creates a lot of problems.”
Like West Virginia, which is in the midst of the most difficult portion of its schedule, Iowa State is facing its third nationally ranked foe in as many games in the No. 14 ranked Mountaineers.
The Cyclones defeated West Virginia by 20 points last year in Ames, and Iowa State has never lost to WVU at home since WVU joined the league. Iowa State also topped West Virginia, 74-72, in Morgantown to sweep the season series last year.
West Virginia’s lone victory against Iowa State happened in 2014 in Morgantown.
Tuesday night’s game will tip off at 9 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s coverage will begin at 8 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online through leanStream and the mobile app WVU Gameday.
Briefly … West Virginia ranked No. 14 in this week’s RPI, has won eight times away from the WVU Coliseum this year … There is no update on forward Jonathan Holton’s status with the team … Holton was suspended prior to last Saturday’s Florida game for a violation of team rules … Nathan Adrian took Holton’s place in the starting lineup and scored 10 points the Gators … Huggins said on his weekly Big 12 coaches’ teleconference earlier today that he doesn’t have the time to dramatically alter what he’s doing with his team while Holton is out, “At this point in time we can’t make wholesale changes with two days prep for every game” … Adrian is listed as a probable starter for Tuesday night’s game, along with junior forward Devin Williams, freshman forward Esa Ahmad and sophomore guards Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles Jr. … West Virginia’s two starting guards Carter and Miles Jr. have really struggled shooting the basketball in their last five games since the Mountaineers defeated No. 1 Kansas back on January 12 … Since then, Miles Jr. is making only 28.6 percent of his field goal attempts (10 of 35) while Carter is shooting a frigid 20.9 percent (9 of 43) … Both players are also shooting under 25 percent from 3-point range as well … Junior forward Devin Williams scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in last Saturday’s Florida loss, but made just four of 15 from the field while committing three turnovers … Guards Jaysean Paige and Tarik Phillip continue to be West Virginia’s two most consistent offensive performers coming off the bench, Paige and Phillip contributing a combined 30 points in the loss at Florida … Paige leads the team with an average of 13.6 points per game, while Phillip is third on the team averaging 10.4 points per game in Big 12 action this season … The Mountaineers are currently tied with Oklahoma and Baylor atop the league standings at 6-2, but West Virginia is facing the toughest portion of its schedule with games coming up against 14th-ranked Iowa State on Tuesday night, against No. 15 Baylor at home on Saturday and then at No. 7 Kansas in Lawrence three nights later.
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