BYU, WVU both have opportunity to separate themselves from Big 12 pack

MORGANTOWN — There are hundreds of times more miles of separation — about 1,900 of them to be exact — between West Virginia and Provo, Utah that you won’t find in the Big 12 men’s basketball standings.

A league spread out across three time zones has become a jumbled clutter in the middle of the pack, where a modest three-game winning streak could, in theory, propel a team in 14th place all the way up to sixth.

In short, the world’s mightiest calculator may run out of juice before all tiebreakers are decided for the Big 12 tournament come March.

WVU STATS

“The margins in this league, there are some really high-level teams and there’s a lot of teams in the middle,” said Utah head coach Craig Smith after WVU’s 72-61 victory over the Utes last week. “It’s kind of like you flip a coin to decide a winner.” 

The Mountaineers (15-8, 6-6 Big 12) host BYU at 7 p.m. Tuesday inside the Coliseum in a matchup of two teams in the exact same place, which is to say they’re in the middle of a large pack all scratching and clawing for a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Like WVU, BYU (15-8, 6-6) has had its good moments and bad, including a win against Baylor, but the Cougars also lost to in-state rival Utah, as well as Cincinnati.

They’ve had a four-game winning streak in conference play, as well as a three-game losing streak and they’ve lost two straight heading into today’s game.

The ultimate divider between the pack may come down to situational play in the final minutes, where the Mountaineers have been on both ends of the spectrum.

Take WVU’s last two games. With 8:30 remaining against TCU on the road, the Mountaineers trailed by six points.

At the exact same 8:30 mark at home against Utah, the Mountaineers had a six point lead.

“To be honest, our mentality is the same in both, which is to play consistently for 40 minutes,” WVU forward Amani Hansberry said. “We have stretches where we play great defense and we’re hitting shots.

“Then, I guess, the switch flips and we are a step late to certain things that we’re usually not a step late to.” 

In those final minutes of both games, WVU got back into it and tied the game against TCU, before the Horned Frogs pulled out a 65-60 victory.

Against Utah, WVU made sure the Utes never got closer than five points down the stretch.

“When you’re down, you’re a little more desperate and take a few more chances,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “When you’re ahead, you’re still aggressive, but you try to be smart about it.

“You have the meat of the game for the first 35 minutes, and then you have the last five minutes. You’re up or playing from behind or tied. You’re pressing or trying to run clock. All of those things we work on all the time, and I think our guys have done a pretty good job throughout the year of executing in those types of situations.” 

While the Big 12 standings may say there’s not much difference between BYU and WVU, the two teams are near opposites in style of play.

Under first-year coach Kevin Young, who made the move from the Phoenix Suns of the NBA to take over the Cougars, BYU is the Big 12’s top 3-point shooting team with 244 makes from behind the arc.

BYU is also one of just five teams in the Big 12 averaging 80 or more points a game.

WVU hasn’t hit the 80-point mark since Dec. 14.

The one similarity is both teams have dynamic guards.

Javon Small is the Big 12’s top scorer at 18.9 points per game, while also averaging 5.3 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game.

BYU freshman Egor Demin is a 6-foot-9 projected NBA lottery pick who is third in the Big 12 in assists (5.6), while averaging 11.1 points per game.

“We’ve talked to him about being more aggressive for sure,” Young said. “We like him being aggressive. He’s at his best getting downhill and getting to the rim.”