It’s No. 11 Baylor tonight and then No. 24 Iowa State to conclude the regular season for the 10th-ranked West Virginia University men’s basketball team.
The Mountaineers improved to 23-6, 11-5, with a 61-60 victory at TCU on Saturday afternoon.
Junior guard Jevon Carter continued his scoring ways with a team-best 15 points - the third straight game he has led the Mountaineers in scoring - to boost his season average to 12.7 points per game. Carter is now averaging a team-best 14.5 points per game in conference action.
Senior forward Nathan Adrian was the only other WVU player to reach double figures against the Horned Frogs with 13.
West Virginia shot a frigid 36.9 percent from the floor, including 21.4 percent from 3, but made up for its shooting difficulties by outscoring TCU 34-22 in the paint, 19-10 off of turnovers and 18-7 from its bench.
The Mountaineers also took 19 more shot attempts than TCU, another stat category the coaching staff pays close attention to.
Baylor, meanwhile, lost 72-69 at Iowa State on Saturday to fall ½ game behind West Virginia and Iowa State in the Big 12 standings with a week to go in the regular season.
The Bears are going to need to win their two remaining games against West Virginia and Texas, and get some help this week in order to jump past the Cyclones and Mountaineers to land the No. 2 seed in next week’s Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship in Kansas City.
West Virginia, regardless of what happens tonight in Waco, can still secure the second-seed in the tournament with a win against Iowa State Friday on Senior Night.
Baylor has leveled off since beginning the season 15-0, ranked No. 1 in the country, before losing at West Virginia 89-68. The Bears have lost five times since then, including dropped three of their last four games at Texas Tech, Kansas and at Iowa State.
The lone recent win was a 60-54 home victory against Oklahoma on Tuesday, February 21.
Last Saturday, Iowa State outlasted Baylor in a back-and-forth game at Hilton Coliseum. Baylor’s Johnathan Motley led everyone with 27 points on 12-of-19 shooting. The 6-foot-10, 230-pound junior forward also pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds against the Cyclones.
Motley, one of the top players in the Big 12 this year with averages of 17.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, scored just eight points and grabbed five rebounds the first time Baylor played West Virginia in Morgantown. He is currently fourth in in scoring and first in rebounding in the Big 12.
The Bears shot just 44.6 percent for the game and turned the ball over 29 times - something they are obviously going to have to clean up tonight. Baylor has done a better job of handling the basketball in its last two games, committing 13 miscues against Oklahoma and 11 at Iowa State.
Baylor is averaging 13.2 turnovers per game while West Virginia is forcing 21.6 turnovers per contest.
The Bears hold a 7-4 advantage in the series, although the Mountaineers have won the last three, including a 69-58 victory in Waco last year.
West Virginia has won one other time at the Ferrell Center on January 28, 2014, 66-64.
Tonight’s game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNU (Mitch Holthus and Reid Gettys).
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s radio coverage will begin at 6 p.m.
Briefly:
* West Virginia will be finishing the regular season against two top 25 opponents - the fifth and sixth times the Mountaineers will be facing ranked teams this season. Last year, WVU played 13 games against ranked opponents and two years ago, the Mountaineers played 14 games against top 25 opponents.
Since joining the Big 12 in 2012, West Virginia has faced 56 ranked foes heading into tonight’s game against Baylor.
* With a week to go in the regular season, West Virginia shows an RPI of 25, according to ESPN.com. Facing No. 8 Baylor tonight, and No. 37 Iowa State could improve the Mountaineers’ profile heading into the conference tournament next week.
* Both teams have been nationally ranked in the last six West Virginia-Baylor matchups.
* The one statistical area where Baylor had a distinct advantage against West Virginia the first time around in Morgantown was rebounding, the Bears out-boarding the Mountaineers 41-32.
* If the Mountaineers can win both games this week, they will match their season-best 13 victories in Big 12 play achieved last season. WVU is now 35-17 in Big 12 play over the last two-plus years.
* West Virginia is 6-2 in its last eight games against AP Top 25 teams, with two of those victories coming against Baylor.
* WVU is the only team this week ranked among the top two in scoring offense and scoring defense in the Big 12. The Mountaineers are averaging 84.5 points per game, ranked second behind Oklahoma State (85.7) and are giving up just 66.4 points per game, ranked second behind Baylor (62.4).
The Mountaineers’ +18.1 scoring margin is easily the best in the conference this year; Kansas is second at +11.0.
The only other team with a double-figure scoring margin this year is Baylor, at +10.6
All six of West Virginia’s losses this year have been by seven points or less, including five by four points or less.
* West Virginia coach Bob Huggins has produced 43 conference road victories during his 10-plus seasons at WVU, including 15 Big 12 road victories over the last three seasons.
