The Mountaineers’ woes continue this season after losing their second straight game to 14th ranked Oklahoma State. This moves West Virginia’s record to 13-14, which puts them in 7th place in the Big 12. It doesn’t get any easier for the Mountaineers though as their next four games are against some of the best in the Big 12. On Wednesday, they will take on the Baylor Bears who have already beaten them once this season.
The last time these two teams faced off West Virginia was only down by four at the half, but their defense allowed Baylor to take a monster lead and the Bears ended up winning by 20 points. This has been a more current trend with the Mountaineers since usually during the
first half they’ll either be ahead or they’ll be keeping the game close. However, once the second half rolls around they completely fall apart and at times it seems as though they forgot how to play basketball.
Another example of them slacking off in the second half came Saturday when West Virginia was only down by two at halftime. Once the second half started the Cowboys were able to explode out of the gate and drop 38 points on the Mountaineers. West Virginia cannot allow this to happen on Wednesday; otherwise it will be another blowout loss.
Another area the Mountaineers need to desperately improve on is their shot selection. Not a single player on the team is averaging over ten points per game. The closest one to the mark is Aaric Murray who is averaging 9.2 PPG. Murray has been coming off the bench recently and if he does better than the starting lineup then Bob Huggins might want to consider starting him. That’s not to say the entire starting lineup is bad, in fact a couple of players have really stepped it up in these last few games.
Deniz Kilicli has played extremely well in recent games by putting up big points and grabbing some key rebounds. Against Texas Tech Kilicli dropped a career high 25 points and hauled in 8 rebounds. When West Virginia traveled to Kansas State, Kilicli showed up again by scoring 16 points and grabbing 6 rebounds. One reason why he is having so much success recently may be due to the fact that he hasn’t gotten into foul trouble early. This has happened to Kilicli many times this season and it forced him to miss nearly entire halves of play. With his fouls going down he has been able to contribute heavily, even in the losses.
Another player who really isn’t too big on scoring, but can snatch rebounds is Kevin Noreen. Noreen has stepped into the starting spot well and he has been able to keep the Mountaineers from blowing some big leads. So far this season, he has pulled down 50 offensive rebounds and many times this has led to second chance points. Noreen is also the second best rebounder on the team averaging 4.3 rebounds per game. While that may not seem very impressive his rebounding has been key for some big plays made by the other starters.
The Mountaineers will definitely have their work cut out for them on Wednesday since the Bears are better rebounders, and are much better shooters. As a team Baylor is pulling down 38.4 rebounds per game which ranks them at 31st in the NCAA. West Virginia on the other hand is averaging 35.6 rebounds per game which makes them 135th in the NCAA. Even a small margin like that can be all the difference as to who wins this game. Although the last time these two teams faced off, the Mountaineers outrebounded the Bears 27-22. However, this didn’t make much of a difference since the Mountaineers ended up losing in the end.
Aside from being dangerous rebounding the ball, the Bears are also a deadly team when it comes to shooting. Their field goal percentage of around 45% ranks them 79th in the NCAA. This percentage in turn has allowed them to score around 75 points per game which puts them at 28th in the NCAA. The last time Baylor played West Virginia they shot just over 50% from the field and were able to drop in 41% of their three point shots. The Mountaineers have had a very hard time defending against the shots from downtown and this has caused many teams to keep the game close or pull ahead and win. West Virginia must do a better job of defending the outside shot, and if they can it should slow Baylor down a little.
Even though on defense the Mountaineers are prone to giving up a ton of three pointers, one positive is that they cause a ton of turnovers. As a team West Virginia has stolen the ball 203 times this season and if they have any hope of keeping this game close they will have to continue to poke the ball loose. The best player at stealing the ball has been Juwan Staten who has 34 steals on the season. Staten hasn’t seen a lot of action recently which is unfortunate since he is an all-around good player, and with the number of steals he has this season, Huggins may want to consider playing him more. The last time West Virginia played Baylor; they stole the ball four times and caused the Bears to turn the ball over nine times. If the Mountaineers want to be successful in this week’s matchup, they have got to force more turnovers.
One player that the Mountaineers have to limit is senior guard Pierre Jackson. Jackson is averaging nearly 20 points per game, along with an average of 3.5 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game. He is a dynamic player, and if the Bears are down he can easily bring them back with some big time shots. Jackson is currently the second best three point shooter on the team, making about 35% of his shots from downtown. From the looks of things the Mountaineers have their work cut out for them when it comes to defending Jackson. However, he does have one weakness and West Virginia has got to exploit this if they have any chance of slowing him down. Jackson currently leads the team with 94 turnovers on the season and the last time these two teams played he only turned the ball over twice. The Mountaineers have done a much better job at causing turnovers since then.
While West Virginia can pretty much kiss their NCAA Tournament hopes goodbye there is still no reason for them to take this game lightly. The best case scenario for the Mountaineers at this point is to beat anyone in the Big 12 who is headed to the tournament in order for them to get a lower seed. Baylor is one of these teams since there is a possibility they can make the tournament, but a loss to West Virginia could possibly knock them out. Tipoff for this game will be at 8 PM.
Prediction: WVU-68 Baylor-85
WVU Player of the Game: Deniz Kilicli 13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks
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