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WVU Concludes Regular Season at No. 19 Baylor
March 04, 2016 11:03 AM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia concludes the regular season with a 2 p.m. matchup on Saturday in Waco against 19th-ranked Baylor.
A victory Saturday against Baylor would give the 10th-ranked Mountaineers sole possession of second place behind Big 12 regular season champion Kansas and the No. 2 seed in next week’s Phillips 66 Championship taking place in Kansas City.
WVU coach Bob Huggins said his guys will be made aware of that fact before they step on the floor Saturday to face a very good Bears team.
“I’ve always been honest with them. I’m not going to dwell on it, but we are going to make them aware of where we are and where we can be,” he said.
In order to beat Baylor, Huggins says the formula is a simple one. “We need to make some shots, I know that’s redundant, but when we make shots we’re pretty good,” he said.
West Virginia (23-7, 12-5) certainly made shots on Wednesday night against Texas Tech, running the Red Raiders right out of the gym midway through the second half on the way to an easier-than-expected, 22-point victory.
As he’s done all year, senior guard Jaysean Paige led WVU coming off the bench with 17 points, and sophomore guard Daxter Miles Jr. rediscovered his shooting stroke by knocking down five threes to score 15.
WVU also made shots the first time it played Baylor in Morgantown back on February 2, an 80-69 Mountaineer victory. West Virginia shot 49.1 percent for the game and led the Bears by as many as 19 points with 9:29 remaining in the game.
Baylor forward Taurean Prince has had big games against West Virginia in the past, but the Mountaineers were able to limit him to just 10 points on five-of-17 shooting in the 11-point win in Morgantown.
“I think Nate Adrian did a great job,” said Huggins. “I think he made everything hard.”
Huggins pointed out that Prince was not really a factor in Baylor’s amazing second-half run against Oklahoma earlier this week when the Bears stormed back from 26 points down to take the lead with 3:50 left in the game.
The Sooners eventually pulled out the victory, 73-71.
“When they made their great run in the second half to take the lead, it wasn’t Taurean Prince. It was the rest of the guys,” explained Huggins. “They have a very, very deep bench when it comes to guys that can score the ball and I think Taurean Prince is a first team all-league guy - he’s a pro, and I think he’ll have a great pro career - but it’s great when your guy who is probably going to be a first-round pick, doesn’t score and the others guys step up and score. They’ve got that. They’ve got a host of guys that can make shots.”
What Huggins saw on tape was a Baylor team that took advantage of every single defensive mistake Oklahoma made in the second half.
“It seems like every time Oklahoma broke down and they got a look, they made a three, and they drove it at the basket. I thought they were terrific in the second half,” said Huggins.
Baylor (21-9, 10-7) has become well known for it’s zone defense, but Huggins said he actually expects to see more man-to-man from the Bears on Saturday.
“I think they’re going to start in zone and see how we attack it and then I think they’re going to play man,” he noted. “When you look at what they did against Oklahoma earlier in the week, they made an incredible run with their man-to-man defense.”
Prince (15. 3 ppg.), Al Freeman (11.6 ppg.), Rico Gathers (11.5 ppg.) and Jonathan Motley (11.4 ppg.) are averaging double figures, while WVU’s double-digit scorers are Paige (14.3 ppg.) and junior forward Devin Williams (12.9 ppg.), who is coming off his lowest scoring output of the year (two points) against Texas Tech on Wednesday night.
West Virginia (79.2 ppg.) and Baylor (78.2 ppg.) are two of the better scoring teams in the Big 12 this year, so it should be an entertaining game for fans to watch.
Saturday’s contest will be televised nationally on ESPN; the Mountaineers Sports Network from IMG’s coverage on stations throughout the state and online via leanStream and the mobile app TuneIn will begin at 1 p.m.
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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
