Coming off a 55-51 loss to a tough Notre Dame team, West Virginia now has to face an even tougher Louisville team. This will be no easy task as the Mountaineers have struggled in their last few games against both ranked and unranked teams.
One of the biggest problems the Mountaineers have is no one can hel out Kevin Jones. He constantly shows up to play, but it seems like the rest of the team doesn’t care. Truck Bryant dropped 32 points against Providence and then against Notre Dame he had zero. Bryant is a good player, but he is very inconsistent and he needs to become more consistent if he wants to help out Jones. Another problem the Mountaineers have is the bench plays. In the game against Notre Dame, Gary Browne was the only one who scored and it was a measly four points. The bench has to play better so that the starters can get significant rest.
Even some of the starters are streaky, one of them being Deniz Kilicli. Kilicli is averaging 11.6 points per game and has been on a tear the last two games. Against Notre Dame he had 16 points and against Providence he had a career high 22 points. Hopefully, he will continue on this track and put
up some big numbers against Louisville. Another player who can be hot or cold is Jabarie Hinds. Hinds lead the team in scoring on Wednesday with 17 points. He is averaging 8.3 ppg, Hinds will have also have to contribute this kind of scoring if the Mountaineers have any hope of beating the Cardinals.
Defensively the Mountaineers have done a pretty good job at holding opposing teams at bay. They held off a very good Fighting Irish team and they did in a way drop the ball against Providence, they should have blown the Friars out. The Cardinals have been averaging 71.6 ppg which makes them ranked 94th. One player the Mountaineers must keep track of is senior guard/forward Kyle Kuric. Kuric has been averaging 13 ppg and 5 assists per game. In Louisville’s past two games Kuric dropped 14 points against Rutgers and only 10 points against UCONN. While these aren’t very impressive numbers the Mountaineers have to play him hard. Another player the Mountaineers have to look out for is junior guard Peyton Siva. While Siva is not the best scorer he is an assist machine, so while he may not take the shots he will dish the ball out to his teammates.
The Mountaineers will definitely have their work cut out for them as the whole team has to bring their A game if they want to come away with an upset win. The biggest factor for the Mountaineers will be the play of their bench, if they can keep the pace the starters set for them then West Virginia should pull off the upset.
Prediction: WVU-72 Louisville-80
WVU Player of the Game: Kevin Jones 18 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists
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