Another classic? No. 13 West Virginia travels to Oklahoma in a series that’s had tons of drama

MORGANTOWN, W. Va, — Khadeem Lattin’s last-second tip-in in 2016 counted. Buddy Hield’s half-court heave in 2016 did not.

Christian James’ buzzer-beater in last season’s Big 12 tournament did count, but was later ruled a long two-pointer rather than a three that could have sent the game into overtime.

What has already been a drama-filled series between the West Virginia and Oklahoma men’s basketball teams resumes at 2 p.m. Saturday, at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.

The 13th-ranked Mountaineers (18-4, 6-3 Big 12) are looking to avoid a three-game losing streak on the road, while the Sooners (14-8, 4-5) are looking for a signature win against a ranked team that could improve their chances for an NCAA tournament bid.

What makes these two teams so compatible that the all-time series has Oklahoma with a slight 10-9 edge with two games going into overtime, while four others have been decided by two points or less?

WVU head coach Bob Huggins said some of that credit goes to Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger and his ability to put his players in good offensive match-ups.

“Lon is a pretty good coach,” Huggins said. “He does a great job of finding the mismatches. It’s a lot like the NBA stuff. You figure out who can beat who and put him in a position to do it. That’s what he did with Buddy Hield. That’s what he’s done with all of his good players.”

Kruger will likely test West Virginia defense with junior forward Brady Manek.

The 6-foot-9, 235-pounder has the size to match-up inside with either of WVU’s forwards in Derek Culver or Oscar Tshiebwe, but Manek is also second in the Big 12 with 57 3-pointers.

“Lon does a great job of finding the hot hand,” Huggins said. “If you look earlier in the year, (Austin) Reaves was the guy. And then (Kristian) Doolittle was the guy. Now, it’s Manek. He’s had the hot hand. That’s what Lon does. He does a great job of isolating those guys or running sets that are going to get them the ball with the ability to go downhill with it.”

It’s likely Huggins will look to Culver to defend Manek on the perimeter.

Culver has defended on the perimeter for much of the season already, but usually against smaller or faster players.

Does it make a difference if Culver is guarding a player his own size beyond the 3-point line?

“I don’t think it should,” Huggins said. “I can’t say that it won’t, but I don’t think it should.”

Some other things of note about today’s game:

McNeil is out

Sophomore guard Sean McNeil will miss his second consecutive game with an illness.

“No, I don’t think so,” Huggins said when asked if McNeil would be back.

Rebounds and lots of them

Oklahoma’s opponents this season are averaging 9.8 offensive rebounds per game and the Sooners are last in the Big 12 in giving up 38 rebounds per game.

Meanwhile, West Virginia leads the Big 12 in total rebounds and offensive rebounds.

If there is an area to exploit the Sooners, it just may be on the glass.

“We always want to exploit that,” Huggins said. “We want to be the premiere rebounding team in the country, like we have been in the past at times. With the personnel we have, there’s absolutely no reason we can’t be, but they’ve got to put the effort in to do that. There’s been times that they have and times that they haven’t.”

The second half

Saturday marks the start of the second half of the conference season for Big 12 teams.

Yet this will be the first game of the season between WVU and Oklahoma. The Mountaineers haven’t played top-ranked Baylor, either.

WVU will first host the Bears next Saturday, in what will be the 12th Big 12 game of the season for both schools.

“It’s pretty much what I said when I first saw the schedule. Let’s see how it works,” Huggins said. “We’re halfway through. I don’t know if now is the time to make a decision as to if this was good or if this was bad. I think we let it play out and we evaluate it. As a coaching body, we say we like this or didn’t like this or this didn’t matter.”

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