WVU celebrates legend Jerry West as underdogs against No. 2 Iowa State

MORGANTOWN — At first glance, it would likely be the type of situation Jerry West would have loved.

The WVU and NBA icon, who died last June at the age of 86, will be celebrated inside the Coliseum Saturday, as the Mountaineers host No. 2 Iowa State at 5 p.m.

Expected to be in attendance will be Jerry’s wife, Karen, as well as his son Jonnie, who played at WVU from 2007-2011.

WVU STATS

They will be witnesses to a sold-out crowd with the Mountaineers (12-4, 3-2 Big 12) viewed as major underdogs against the high-powered Cyclones (15-1, 5-0), the type of environment West thrived in back in his day.

“Obviously he’s the NBA logo and a big icon to the basketball community,” said WVU guard Joseph Yesufu, who will play today despite twisting his ankle Wednesday in WVU’s loss against Houston. “Losing him was very devastating. We’re looking to honor his name.”

And maybe pull off a major upset, too.

To do it, WVU must overcome the same type of physical and gritty defense it saw against Houston, while also trying to keep pace with the highest-scoring team in the Big 12.

“I think they are championship-level good,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “They’re a team, that when they get into the (NCAA) tournament, they have a chance to win it all.”

How do the Mountaineers attack that?

“I was hoping maybe you all could come up with a weakness for me today,” DeVries joked.

What Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger has put together is a defensive-minded mentality — the Cyclones were second only to Houston in the Big 12 last season in points allowed — with players who also excel offensively.

Iowa State’s 85.4 points per game leads the Big 12, and even without starting forward Milan Momcilovic — out with a hand injury — the Cyclones still rolled Kansas by 17 points in their last outing.

Senior guard Curtis Jones moved from sixth man to starter and scored 25 points in that one.

Jones leads the team in scoring at 17.8 points per game — he’s averaging 24.7 points over his last three games — but four players in Iowa State’s lineup will be averaging double figures Saturday, while center Dishon Jackson adds 9.9 points per game.

“If they’re not the most balanced team, they’re one of them,” DeVries said. “There are a lot of hard decisions to make on the defensive side of it. You can’t take away everything, so you’ve got to pick something and then have a Plan B as well. They present those types of challenges and you have to be able to compete at every single position.”

Defensively, the Cyclones will likely go after WVU point guard Javon Small in the same fashion Houston did earlier in the week. That means constant double teams when Small comes off a ball screen, making Small work extra hard to get around two guys or to try and force a pass over or around them.

“I think we’ve seen it throughout the year,” DeVries said. “Javon is going to get a lot of attention coming off ball screens. Iowa State is very good defensively and they are going to challenge him. Javon is going to see two guys to the ball a lot.”

The moment will likely call on someone other than Small picking up the slack.

Amani Hansberry did that in the second half against Houston, scoring all 16 of his points after halftime.

Yesufu was the guy last week against Colorado, scoring a season-high 18 points.

Or maybe it will be freshman Jonathan Powell or senior forward Toby Okani.

WVU may need all of them against the Cyclones.

“Offensively, Javon got off to a great start (against Houston),” DeVries said. “I thought in the second half, they tries to take him away, but it was still one of our more productive halves from an offensive standpoint. A lot of that was Javon made the right play. Two guys came to the ball, Javon was able to get it out and we got Amani step-in threes.

“From a coaching standpoint, we’d like to find more ways to get him shots when teams are trying to take him away. But our offensive production was still pretty good, even though he wasn’t a major part of the scoring.”