Mountaineers look to maintain Utah winless on the highway Wednesday
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Buoyed by a 74-67 win at UCF on Saturday, the WVU males’s basketball group enters the ultimate third of their Big 12 slate Wednesday night time when the Utah Utes come to Hope Coliseum.
For the second consecutive highway sport, the Mountaineers erased a double-digit second-half deficit towards the Knights, night their highway file at 3-3 on the season.
“It is a 40-minute game. There’s going to be ebbs and flows. You would hope they wouldn’t be as dramatic as some of those have been,” mentioned WVU head coach Ross Hodge. “I feel our guys do a extremely good job of staying collectively in these moments. There’s definitely not any panic among the many group. There is a few degree of confidence realizing that we are able to get the stops we have to get again in video games and make the performs when essential.
“We only had one turnover in the last 15 minutes of the second half. We have talked about that. It is not football so it all flows together. If you are taking care of the football and you get good shots and you are able to be efficient on offense and you are able to set your defense, that’s where we are at our best.”
At UCF, Honor Huff scored 21 factors, his most in a sport since WVU’s upset win over Kansas on January 10 (23 factors). Jasper Floyd added 17 factors, his greatest scoring effort for the reason that season opener vs. Mount St. Mary’s (25).
“He is our leader and he is our captain,” Huff mentioned of Floyd. “To see him step up the way that he did in this last game, sometimes it is like, where was that in some games where we needed it? I am proud of him. He is so selfless. Sometimes, we need him to be more selfish, like he was Saturday at UCF.”
“He made big shots and he has done that throughout his career in certain moments,” Hodge mentioned of Floyd. “He gives you another punch. We’ve talked about those opportunities being there for him. He’s got to step into those with confidence and he did.”
Despite going scoreless towards the Knights, heart Harlan Obioha led the Mountaineers with a plus-16 score.
“He has really become very good, borderline elite in his ball screen defensive coverages,” Hodge mentioned. “He was able to play, I think, the final 12 minutes of that game. His ability to communicate the coverage, be level, play both and get a couple deflections, there were a couple high-level defensive possessions that he had his hands all over it.”
Utah (9-16, 1-11 Big 12) has misplaced seven consecutive video games and their lone league victory came visiting TCU (82-79) on January 17. The Utes are 0-8 in true highway video games this season. Despite their struggles beneath first-year head coach Alex Jensen, the Utes characteristic two of the highest twelve scorers within the Big 12. Terrence Brown (20.4) ranks fourth within the league in scoring and Don McHenry (17.4) is twelfth.
“We’ve obtained a really gifted Utah group coming in enjoying a few of their greatest basketball of the 12 months. Obviously they’ve two dynamic scorers in Brown and McHenry. [Keanu] Dawes, who we really performed towards when he was youthful at Rice, he’s enjoying rather well and might be enjoying nearly as good as anybody ahead within the league over the past 5 video games. Like all nights within the Big 12, it’s going to be a giant problem,” Hodge mentioned.
“They score the ball. That’s what they do,” Huff mentioned. “They haven’t any issues scoring the basketball. I can inform you that a lot. We simply can not help them and provides them simple seems to be.
“We were the favorite for the Baylor game and they came in here and cooked us, cooked me specifically. I don’t even know when we are the favorite or when we are not, if I am being completely honest with you. I don’t even know. Just having the same mindset every game of just battling. We know it is going to be a dog fight no matter who we play in this conference.”
Former WVU ahead James Okonkwo has began 15 of twenty-two video games in his first 12 months with the Utes. He is averaging 2.5 factors and 5.7 rebounds per contest.
With a complete roster of gamers going by means of the Big 12 Conference gauntlet for the primary time, Hodge says his gamers are embracing the problem of constant competitors all through the ten weeks of league play.
“I think our guys are still excited to be around each other, which is important this time of year. They enjoy coming to practices. They enjoy coming to film sessions. Ultimately, they enjoy trying to get better. That’s really the same focus in our minds, how we can get better through these processes and through these games.”
WVU (16-9) enters Tuesday’s play tied with BYU for sixth place within the Big 12 standings (7-5). The Mountaineers stand 54th within the NCAA NET rankings with a 4-6 file in Quad 1 video games and a 2-3 mark in Quad 2 video games. In the newest Bracketology from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, the Mountaineers have entered the “Next Four Out” group. While the Mountaineers have an excessive amount of work to do to get on the nice aspect of the NCAA Tournament bubble, half of their remaining six common season video games are towards Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Utah, groups which have mixed for simply six league wins.
“You certainly want to be playing meaningful basketball games in February and March. I think that’s what every coach hopes for and every player hopes for. As a competitor, that’s what you hope for. We’ve discussed it with our group and it is true, to feel pressure is really a privilege,” Hodge mentioned.
“That nervousness you are feeling in your abdomen main as much as these video games and that nervous vitality, that is a sense that lots of people won’t ever get to really feel of their lives. It is absolutely arduous to clarify to individuals what that appears like.
“They live in a social media world. They don’t need me to tell them what is at stake. I think it is my job to counter that messaging and get the focused singularly on let’s beat Utah on Wednesday night. If you can do that enough times, the things that you hope for and want will be there at the end.”
“It definitely adds value to each game that we play this season because we want to be able to cement our names before the conference tournament so we don’t have to rely on winning in the conference tournament to go to the [NCAA] Tournament,” Huff mentioned.
