MORGANTOWN — Esa Ahmad said any shot he attempts on Jan. 20 will come as part of WVU’s offense and not out of curiosity to see what Texas’ 6-foot-11 center Mohamed Bamba, who leads the Big 12 with 76 blocked shots, is all about.
Just in case, Ahmad joked that he’ll always know where Bamba is on the floor.
“He’s the one in the paint,” he said with a smile.
Most certainly the Longhorns’ lanky and athletic big man will be in the paint. He’ll likely be joined by several sizeable teammates.
Freshman forward Jericho Sims (6-9, 240) and junior Dylan Osetkowski (6-9, 245) — a transfer from Tulane — are no slouches either when it comes to size and strength, although Osetkowski is more of a matchup problem with his outside shooting.
“Their starting lineup is probably the biggest in college basketball,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “It’s really hard to score against them at the rim.”
Just like any construction project, when you have something big in the way, it has to be moved.
As simple as that may sound, the sixth-ranked Mountaineers (15-3, 4-2 Big 12) will attempt to do just that in handling Bamba.
“It’s really not much different than what we worked on against Baylor,” WVU guard James “Beetle” Bolden said. “They have a similar guy in the middle with [Jo Lual-Acuil Jr.]. Baylor has a long zone and Texas has an active zone, so we’ve got to move the ball as a team and get that big guy out of there.”
Passing, having players positioned in the right spot of the zone and making shots will be at a premium for the Mountaineers, who are trying to end a two-game losing skid.
The part about making shots is in question.
WVU could not get any half-court offense going in the second half in its 71-66 loss against Kansas on Monday.
The Mountaineers were held to 39 percent shooting in its loss against Texas Tech, on Jan. 13.
In both games, the Mountaineers lost double-digit leads in the second half and were unable to keep forcing turnovers in the second half.
“We just got stagnant,” Huggins said. “We had too many guys trying to make plays on their own.”
Huggins did say that WVU’s lack of defensive pressure in the second half against Kansas left him puzzled.
Kansas, “Only had two turnovers in the second half, because we didn’t press them,” Huggins said. “The same thing happened at Texas Tech.
“Our guys took the press off. No one [the coaches] else did. Defensively, all we talked about at each timeout was what we’re going to do with our pressure and there wasn’t any.”
Other things to keep an eye on in today’s game:
Huggins said freshman forward Teddy Allen would likely not play against the Longhorns (12-6, 3-3) today, in what has been a struggle of getting Allen on the same page as the rest of the team.
“I think like most 18- and 19-year olds, he had some success and didn’t know how to handle it,” Huggins said. “That was the root of the problem. He’s not a problem off the floor.”
Texas junior guard Kerwin Roach II could play a major role for the Longhorns today after returning from a hand injury that caused him to miss two games. Roach scored 20 points in 29 minutes off the bench in Wednesday’s 67-58 victory against Texas Tech.
