FORTH WORTH, Texas — Good morning from the campus of TCU, where West Virginia makes its second visit to the Lone Star state hoping to pick up its first Big 12 win of the season.
The Schollmaier Arena is an intimate setting that holds 8,500 after a $72 million renovation back in 2015, but it is the smallest arena in the Big 12. It is also an arena the Mountaineers have had much success (5-1) with the one loss coming last season in an 83-72 setback that saw WVU get called for 29 fouls and all five starters had at least three fouls and Jevon Carter fouled out.
Injuries are the theme to this game, as the Mountaineers are expected to be without forward Sagaba Konate (knee) and the Horned Frogs will be without star guard Jaylen Fisher for the rest of the season, according to a report in the Forth Worth Star Telegram. TCU (12-3, 1-2 Big 12), which was ranked No. 25 a week ago, will also be dealing with a shortened bench after Yuat Alok, Angus McWilliam and Kaden Archie have all left the team earlier this season. All three players were reserves, but Alok (6-11, 255) was the top-rated junior-college prospect last season. He was averaging a minimal 3.3 points and 2.5 rebounds before announcing his transfer at the end of the fall semester.
In any sense, WVU coach Bob Huggins still believes there is time for some sort of turnaround for the Mountaineers (8-8, 0-4), and while a conference title or even a top three finish is likely out of the picture, Huggins would like to see the Mountaineers climb out of the conference cellar and possibly into a middle-of-the-road seeding for the Big 12 tournament.
“Look back at Texas Tech, we’re a stop, a basket or a call away from winning the game,” Huggins said. “We go to Kansas State and we’re up 21. We should win that game. At Texas, they make a fall-away three or we we have a great chance to win that game. The game we were most out of was the Oklahoma State game, but we really weren’t out of that game. We’re just a couple shots away from being in that game. We’re not that far away.”
Here’s what you need to know about the game:
TV: ESPNU for the 7 p.m. tip-off. BETTING LINE: TCU is favored by 6.5 points.
THREE GOOD QUESTIONS
What’s going on with West Virginia’s defense? Maybe the most concerning thing is the Mountaineers have no base defense it is comfortable with. They’ve tried the press and it didn’t work. They’ve taken a look at the 2-3 and the 1-3-1 and those haven’t worked all that well, either. Huggins is usually a man-to-man guy, but that hasn’t helped with this bunch. I go back to the start of the season when Huggins said the Mountaineers don’t have the foot speed to press, well, that lack of foot speed probably hurts them in man-to-man, too. You have to close out on shooters and play help defense in man-to-man, and if guys are a step slow for the press, that means they are slow in closing out on a 3-point shooter, too. The result? West Virginia (72.4) is one of only two teams (Kansas is the other) in the Big 12 allowing more than 70 points per game. WVU opponents are shooting 42.5 percent from the field, which is last in the Big 12. Teams are also shooting 34.8 percent from 3-point range, which is also last in the Big 12. To break it down, WVU is not athletic enough or fast enough to keep up on defense and that is hard to fix in practice.
What do we look for at TCU? Traditionally, look for a lot of fouls to be called on WVU. The 29 in last year’s game was eye-opening, but not nearly as much as the 33 that WVU was whistled for in the 2016 game at Schollmaier Arena. WVU is 12-1 all-time against the Horned Frogs, the best record the Mountaineers have against any Big 12 opponent. As for a scouting report, Huggins said point guard Alex Robinson is the key to TCU and he had 17 points, seven rebounds and nine assists in that win over the Mountaineers last season. He’s a very smart guard who can shoot (40 percent from three), but he also once had 17 assists in a game against Iowa State last season.
What’s the positive/negative spin here? There isn’t much positive at the moment, unless the Mountaineers can get Konate to return to the lineup and then you pair him with the emerging Derek Culver and then you have something to build around. The negative is another loss sets WVU up for Saturday’s home game against Kansas, which the Mountaineers will be a big underdog. If 0-5 turns into 0-6, who knows what will happen against Baylor and then West Virginia travels to No. 3 Tennessee, which will probably be No. 2 by then after top-ranked Duke fell to Syracuse on Monday. If a win(s) don’t come soon, you begin to wonder how long players will simply keep working before just going through the motions.
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