MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Welcome to the Little Apple, where the 12th-ranked WVU men’s basketball team hopes to avoid another tough day in Manhattan. The Mountaineers (14-2, 3-1 Big 12) fell to St. John’s earlier this season in the Big Apple and now hopes to write a different chapter against K-State (7-9, 0-4).
As for the bigger picture, this is not a crazy weekend for top 25 teams or even the strongest lineup of games for Big 12 teams. The most interesting match-up in the Big 12 is TCU traveling to Oklahoma, where maybe we find out if either school is for real or not.
Unless there are a ton of upsets today, it’s hard to predict much shake-up when the rankings come out Monday, which means the Mountaineers are simply looking to avoid an upset on the road and move on.
As for playing on the road, there is one thing to note here. West Virginia finished 0-10 in true road games last season in what ended up being a 15-21 season. The Mountaineers are 3-2 in true road games already a year later, so if you’re wondering where some of the biggest differences are, playing better on the road has made a pretty good impact on this season.
A few things to discuss today, so let’s get right into it with the things you need to know:
TV: ESPNU (Comcast 174, 853 HD; DirecTV 208; DISH 141) for the 2 p.m. game. BETTING LINE: West Virginia is a 5.5-point favorite.
BRUCE WEBER IS A RUSH FAN
During Friday’s media call, WVU head coach Bob Huggins spoke positively on Kansas State’s defense, which allows just 61.8 points per game and only three schools have scored more than 70 this season against the Wildcats. This is some insight as to why K-State is generally one of the better defensive teams in the Big 12:
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS
WEST VIRGINIA
F–Emmitt Matthews Jr., Soph., 6-7, 210, 7.4 ppg. F–Oscar Tshiebwe, Fr., 6-9, 258, 11.8 ppg. F–Derek Culver, Soph., 6-10, 255, 10.8 ppg. G–Jermaine Haley Sr., 6-7, 215, 9.2 ppg. G–Jordan McCabe Soph., 6-0, 188, 3.1 ppg.
KANSAS STATE
F–Makol Mawien, Sr., 6-9, 245, 7.1 ppg. , F–Xavier Sneed, Sr., 6-5, 220, 14.6 ppg. F– Montavious Murphy, Fr., 6-9, 215, 5.4 ppg. G–Cartier Diarra, Jr., 6-4, 190, 12.6 ppg. G–DaJuan Gordon, Fr., 6-4, 170, 6.3 ppg.
THREE GOOD QUESTIONS
WHAT DOES THE NET SAY? The NCAA’s Evaluation Tool (NET) currently has the Mountaineers at No. 8 in the country, which is the highest WVU has been this season.
What that basically means is WVU is line for a No. 2 seed right now for the NCAA tournament, which is where ESPN’s Bracketology currently has WVU sitting in its projections. What you might also notice is Baylor and Kansas are Nos. 1-2, and the Mountaineers still have three games remaining against those schools.
A lot can happen between now and March, but basically the Mountaineers have to avoid upsets to keep its ranking. To improve means avoiding upsets, beating Kansas at home and at least splitting with Baylor. Then, say, WVU advances to the Big 12 tournament championship game, or even wins it, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for WVU to jump up to a No. 1 seed, but that is a long ways off from now.
ANYTHING STAND OUT FROM HUGGINS’ MEDIA CALL? One thing did, and it was Huggins’ talking about the personalities of his players. So often we hear about players today worried about getting their stats and putting themselves in a position to get drafted and such.
Huggins said he hesitates to single out players in his press conferences this season, because his players do not see themselves as a collection of individuals with different goals in mind.
“For that matter, the deal about talking about this guy or talk about that guy, they don’t want that,” Huggins said. “They want it to be about the team. They get along. I’ve said that since they got on campus. They hang out together. They’re in the gym together. If there’s one guy in the gym, generally there is three or four. They’re in here in the morning. They’re in here at night. They like basketball and they want to be good.”
WAS WVU’S OFFENSE AGAINST TCU A ONE-TIME DEAL? The Mountaineers put up 81 against the Horned Frogs, the most since Dec. 14 against Nicholls State.
Chase Harler was asked after the game if shots just happened to fall or if the Mountaineers are actually starting to play better on offense?
“I think we had 20 assists and we kept our turnovers low. We had 20 assists on 35 made baskets, so I think we’re doing a better job of just not catching the ball and dribbling. We’re looking for open guys and we’re making shots. It always looks better when you’re making shots.”
PREDICTION TIME
K-State makes a habit, especially playing at home, at making games ugly. They’ve done that many times against WVU since the Mountaineers joined the league in 2012. The feeling here is this game will be a grind-it-out ugly game, but I still believe WVU’s defense will have the greater impact. WVU wins and covers, 64-53.
JUSTIN’S SEASON PREDICTIONS AGAINST THE SPREAD: 6-8.
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