There are some statistical trends 10th-ranked West Virginia is going up against tonight at Texas.
One, the Longhorns have enjoyed considerable success against the Mountaineers, winning five out of the last six games, including a 56-49 victory in Morgantown back on January 20 – easily the worst offensive performance by West Virginia this season.
Secondly, Texas has lost two straight to Oklahoma and Iowa State after running off four consecutive wins over TCU, Vanderbilt, Baylor and Texas Tech, so the Longhorns are backed into a corner and will likely come out with both guns blazing.
Also, Texas is 2-0 this year at the Frank Erwin Center against AP Top 20 teams, beating then-third-ranked North Carolina 84-82 on December 12 and defeating then-No. 17 Iowa State 94-81 on January 12.
Therefore, Texas, at 16-9, 7-5, needs a win to improve its NCAA tournament resume and believes it can get one tonight against West Virginia.
And it will happen if the Mountaineers shoot as poorly as they did against Texas earlier this season.
WVU made just 19 of its 61 field goal attempts (11 of 48 if you take away the close ones Jonathan Holton and Elijah Macon made), and converted just 34.8 percent of its free throws by missing 15 out of 23.
It was clearly a case of West Virginia not being ready to play and Texas putting it to them defensively.
Coach Bob Huggins was asked during his weekly Monday morning teleconference if he plans to do anything differently in order to get his guys better prepared for tonight’s game.
He said he won’t.
“We have a ritual we go through before every game and it really doesn’t vary according to who we play. It’s pretty much the same thing,” he explained.
WVU is seeking to keep pace with Kansas at the top of the
Big 12 standings.
A win on the road at Texas would put West Virginia (20-5, 9-3) in a great place heading into Saturday’s sold-out game against third-ranked Oklahoma at the Coliseum. The Mountaineers are currently tied with Kansas atop the Big 12 standings with six regular season games remaining – two of those on the road following tonight’s game.
Kansas plays at Kansas State on Saturday and also has road games left at Baylor and Texas, sandwiched between home games against Texas Tech and Iowa State.
Obviously, what happens in the next two weeks is going to determine whether or not Kansas wins a 12th straight Big 12 regular season title.
Huggins said his guys know the deal.
“We’ve got a board in the locker room so they see it every day,” he said. “We don’t dwell on it but they certainly know what’s going on.”
That means playing much better against Texas tonight than it did the first time around if West Virginia wants to remain in contention for the Big 12 regular season title.
“We’ll be ready,” said junior forward Devin Williams following Saturday’s 31-point win over TCU.
We’ll see.
Tip off is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN2. The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s pregame coverage begins at 6 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via leanStream and the mobile app TuneIn.
Briefly: West Virginia has achieved 20 wins in a season for the 30th time in school history and the sixth under Huggins … Huggins now has 27 20-win seasons as a college coach … WVU is seeking its fifth Big 12 road win this season, which would be its most since joining the conference in 2012 … Texas shot just 41.2 percent and allowed Iowa State to shoot 55.4 percent in the Cyclones’ 85-75 win over the Longhorns last Saturday night … Freshman Tevin Mack came off the bench to score 18 points and grab five rebounds in 27 minutes of action against Iowa State … WVU freshman Esa Ahmad is also coming off an outstanding performance last weekend, the forward scoring a season-high 14 points in West Virginia’s win against TCU … Sophomore guard Daxter Miles Jr. was injured late in Saturday’s game and Huggins said Monday he is not sure Miles will be ready to go tonight, “I don’t play guys that don’t practice because they are not prepared to play” … Huggins was asked Monday if he plans to make any tactical changes based on the success Texas had against West Virginia’s press in Morgantown, “I don’t think you can change things in midstream - our guys are pretty much conditioned to do what we do” … West Virginia is forcing its opponents to turn the ball over on 25.9 percent of its possessions, the best percentage in the country … Texas had just eight turnovers the first time these two teams played, and Longhorn coach Shaka Smart credited his three-guard lineup of Isaiah Taylor, Javan Felix and Kendall Yancy for handling West Virginia’s pressure … Felix had another good game against West Virginia, scoring a game-high 17, including the dagger with 1:34 left in the game to put the Longhorns ahead by seven … Taylor leads Texas in scoring with an average of 15.2 points per game, while Jaysean Paige continues to lead West Virginia with an average of 14 points per game coming off the bench … Paige may be inserted into the starting lineup tonight if Miles can’t go … Texas leads the overall series by a 7-4 count.
