Tuesday, December 4
New York, N.Y.
9:00 p.m.
West Virginia University
vs
Florida
Photo by: Norville Kennedy/Texas Tech Athletics
WVU, Florida Meet Tonight in Jimmy V Classic
December 04, 2018 09:48 AM | Men's Basketball
| Tale of the Tape |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Points Per Game | 71.7 | 86.4 |
| Points Against | 62.4 | 75.9 |
| Field Goals Per Game | 26.4 | 28.3 |
| Field Goal Attempts Per Game | 57.1 | 61.6 |
| Field Goal Percentage | .463 | .459 |
| 3-Point Field Goals Per Game | 8.4 | 9.6 |
| 3-Point Field Goal Attempts Per Game | 23.3 | 27.0 |
| 3-Point Field Goal Percentage | .362 | .354 |
| Free Throws Per Game | 10.4 | 20.3 |
| Free Throw Attempts Per Game | 16.0 | 28.9 |
| Free Throw Percentage | .652 | .703 |
| Rebounds Per Game | 34.0 | 42.3 |
| Assists Per Game | 14.1 | 16.7 |
| Steals Per Game | 9.0 | 5.9 |
| Turnovers Per Game | 11.3 | 14.4 |
| Blocks Per Game | 4.0 | 5.3 |
It was supposed to be a marquee matchup of two top 25 teams following Notre Dame-Oklahoma, a preview of a possible late March matchup in the NCAA Tournament.
And while that still remains a possibility, both teams are going to have to do a considerable amount of improving for that to happen.
Youthful West Virginia (5-2) is a better team than it was three weeks ago when it opened the season by blowing a double-digit second half lead and losing to Buffalo, and then a week later throwing the ball all over the place in a six-point loss to Western Kentucky down in Myrtle Beach.
Since then, WVU has won four straight over St. Joseph's, Valparaiso, Rider and Youngstown State by scoring lots of points, at least 88 in all four victories, but veteran coach Bob Huggins says his guys still have a lot of work to do defensively.
Florida (4-3) lost their season opener to Florida State by 21, and also dropped games to Oklahoma and Butler before finally getting back over the .500 mark last Saturday when it defeated North Florida 98-66.
Still, Gators coach Mike White is not pleased with his team's unexpected slow start.
"We should be better than we are," he said last week. "It's a process with every team. I was hopeful this team wouldn't have to go through this process – we wouldn't be having to send messages to the guys – but that's not where we're at right now."
White's top two returning offensive players, senior guards Jalen Hudson and KeVaughn Allen, are averaging only 8.7 and 6.9 points per game respectively. Allen is shooting 40.8 percent and Hudson just 32.7 percent, including a frigid 24 percent from 3.
No Gator player has scored more than 19 points in a game this year, that coming from sophomore guard Deaundrae Ballard in Florida's 72-49 victory over Stanford.
"They're a little bit like us," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "Their couple main guys haven't shot it well yet but I'm sure they will and they're young at guard."
Despite coming off the bench in all seven games this year, Ballard leads the Gators in scoring with an average of 10.9 points per game. He's the only player averaging double figures, although eight different players are averaging at least 6.4 points per game.
That showed up in the box score against North Florida when six different Gators reached double figures and 12 of the 13 players who got into the game scored.
Florida is averaging 71.7 points while shooting 46.3 percent as a team, compared to West Virginia's 86.4 points and 45.9 percent field goal shooting rate.
WVU's top three scorers come from the forward trio of Esa Ahmad (16.6 ppg.), Sagaba Konate (14.6 ppg.) and Lamont West (13.9 ppg.).
Ahmad poured in a career-high 30 points in the Valparaiso win on 12-of-15 shooting, Konate showed his improved 3-point shooting by knocking down five triples and scoring a career-high 26 points against Valpo, while West lit up St. Joseph's for a career-high 27 and recently had a 20-point performance in the Rider win.
Konate did not play against Rider and his five points and six rebounds were a contributing factor in West Virginia's 57-point performance in the Western Kentucky loss. Ahmad had four turnovers in the WKU game and made just 4-of-13 from the floor, while West was just 1-of-6 and scored seven points against the Hilltoppers.
Junior guard Beetle Bolden is giving West Virginia 13.4 points in the five games he has played so far this year while junior guard Chase Harler has gotten the most court time with 198 minutes in seven games.
He's averaging 6.9 points per game and is shooting 45.9 percent from the floor.
Nine different players have started at least once for the Mountaineers this year, and the lineup Huggins used most recently against Youngstown State consisted of Ahmad, Konate and junior Wesley Harris at forwards with Bolden and Harler at guards.
Florida's probable starting lineup for tonight consists of 6-8 junior Keith Stone and 6-9 senior Kevarrius Hayes up front, with a three-guard backcourt featuring 6-5 freshman Andrew Nembhard, 6-2 senior KeVaughn Allen and 6-3 freshman Noah Locke.
Tonight's game will be the ninth overall meeting between the two schools, the last time coming in 2016 in Gainesville in the Big 12/SEC Challenge when the Gators won 88-71.
Florida owns a 5-3 advantage in the series.
Tipoff will be approximately 9 p.m. once the Notre Dame-Oklahoma game is finished. ESPN (Dan Shulman, Dick Vitale and Allison Williams) will televise the contest nationally.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's coverage begins at 8 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.
Tuesday night's game will be West Virginia's 88thappearance at Madison Square Garden, and the 18thunder Huggins.
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
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