Saturday, January 29
Fayetteville, Ark.
2:00 p.m.
West Virginia University
at
Arkansas
Photo by: USA Today
Mountaineers Conclude Regular Season Non-Conference Slate Saturday at Arkansas
January 28, 2022 01:55 PM | Men's Basketball
| Tale of the Tape |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Points Per Game | 78.4 | 68.4 |
| Points Against | 68.3 | 64.8 |
| Field Goal Percentage | 45.3 | 42.3 |
| Field Goal Percentage Against | 41.7 | 42.8 |
| 3-PT Field Goal Percentage | 29.8 | 31.3 |
| 3-PT Field Goal Percentage Against | 34.2 | 31.5 |
| Free Throw Percentage | 74.1 | 68.9 |
| Rebounding Margin | +5.7 | -2.1 |
| Turnovers Per Game | 13.0 | 12.6 |
| Turnovers Per Game Against | 15.5 | 16.5 |
| Steals Per Game | 8.3 | 8.1 |
| Blocks Per Game | 4.4 | 5.1 |
It's West Virginia's first- visit to Fayetteville and only its second-ever meeting against Arkansas. The other came when the Razorbacks defeated the Mountaineers 71-64 in the championship game of the 2006 Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Florida.
Coach Bob Huggins' last visit to Fayetteville occurred in 1995 when he was coaching Cincinnati and Nolan Richardson was in the midst of his impressive run there. President Bill Clinton was at that game, requiring the Secret Service to thoroughly check each participant's luggage before they entered the arena, including Huggins'.
"That guy threw my underwear all over the floor and then told me to pick it up," Huggins said. "I was kind of offended."
This year's Arkansas team sports a 15-5 record and a 5-3 mark in SEC play following its 64-55 victory at Ole Miss on Wednesday.
Guard J.D. Notae, a 6-foot-2 super senior guard who began his collegiate career at Jacksonville, poured in 25 points against the Rebels on 10 of 23 shooting, including 4 of 10 from 3. Notae currently leads the SEC in scoring with an average of 18.9 points per game including a season-high 31 in an 86-81 loss to Texas A&M earlier this month.
He also tallied 30 in the season opener against Mercer and has reached double figures in all 19 games in which he's played this season.
Au'Diese Toney, a 6-foot-6 senior transfer from Pitt, is averaging 10.7 points per game and shooting an impressive 57.5% from the floor.
Jaylin Williams, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound sophomore forward, is averaging 9.0 points and a team-best 8.9 rebounds per contest.
Joining those three in Arkansas' starting lineup are 6-foot-6 super senior Trey Wade, a Wichita State transfer, and 6-foot-6 super senior guard Stanley Umude, a South Dakota import.
Umude shows averages of 9.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per outing.
The Razorbacks brought three players off the bench in Wednesday night's Ole Miss victory: 6-foot-4 sophomore guard Davonte Davis, 5-foot-7 guard Chris Lykes and 6-foot-7 forward Kamani Johnson.
Lykes is averaging 9.6 points, Davis 9.3 points with a team-best 71 assists and Johnson 3.1 points in 12 contests.
Arkansas began the season winning nine straight games before suffering its first loss of the season against Oklahoma. The Razorbacks dropped four of their next five games before righting things with an 87-43 win over Missouri on Jan. 12. They haven't lost since with consecutive wins over LSU, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Ole Miss.
"They're playing really well together," Huggins said. "Defensively, they're doing a really good job, particularly guarding pick and roll."
West Virginia, meanwhile, is looking to put an end to its current four-game losing streak following Wednesday night's disappointing 72-62 loss to Oklahoma.
WVU's top two scorers, Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil, combined to hit 5 of their 18 field goal attempts for 18 points – 14 below their combined season scoring average – in the loss to the Sooners.
Super-senior forward Gabe Osabuohien picked up some of the slack by scoring a career-high 17 points on 5 of 6 shooting.
"Yeah, that shocked me, too," Huggins joked when asked by an Arkansas writer about Osabuohien's offensive performance on Wednesday night.
He also converted a season-best seven free throws to boost his season scoring average to 5.1 points per game. Incidentally, Osabuohien began his collegiate career at Arkansas.
"Gabe's been great," Huggins said. "He's played with a lot of energy. The first few years he was here he was primarily a defensive guy that we put in in situations that he could really change the game for us, and he's really worked hard on his offense."
Sophomore forward Jalen Bridges contributed 12 points and six rebounds in the Oklahoma loss.
"In our last game, we were arguably as bad as we've been in maybe the last seven years," Huggins said. "We weren't just bad, we were horrible and our guys realize that."
Sherman leads the Mountaineers with an 18.5 points-per-game average, while McNeil is scoring at a 13.6 clip. Guard Malik Curry show an 8.6 points per game average coming off the bench following a recent 23-point performance at Kansas, but he was held to only 6 in Wednesday's loss to the Sooners."We didn't really practice much (Thursday)," Huggins said. "We sat and watched game film and talked about where we were, and why we were where we were and went out on the floor and walked through some things. It was more of a mental day, which I needed.
"We're obviously looking to play better and get the bad taste out of our mouths, but I probably would have picked somebody else," he added.
Saturday's game will tip off at 2 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Kevin Fitzgerald and Dane Bradshaw).
Mountaineer Sports Network coverage with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs starts at 1 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
WVU resumes Big 12 play at No. 4 Baylor on Monday night at 9 p.m. in an ESPN Big Monday telecast.
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