No. 13 West Virginia Looks to end Road Skid in Norman

Norman, OK – The West Virginia Mountaineers (18-4, 6-3) are seeking their first road win in over a month as they make the trek to Norman to take on the Oklahoma Sooners (14-8, 4-5) Saturday at 2:00 pm est. The Mountaineers trail in the all-time series 9-10 but have won five out of the last six meetings including a win over the Sooners in the Big 12 Conference Tournament last season.

Brady Manek (Jr. F 6-9, 231) leads the Sooners in scoring averaging 16.0 points per game, ranking him third in the Big 12, but during conference play, Manek leads the Big 12 with 16.7 ppg. He is also second in the league in three-point percentage at 43.7 %.

Austin Reaves (Jr. G 6-5, 202) comes into the game averaging 14.6 points per game. Although he’s only shooting 37.8% from the field, along with 25.6% from behind the arc, he’s one of the conference’s best at getting to the free-throw line, ranking third in free throw attempts and makes the most of the opportunity hitting 81.4%.

After averaging 15.8 points through the first five Big 12 games, Kristian Doolittle (Sr. F 6-7 232) has averaged 7.2 points in the last five games. However, he’s still working the glass with a team-leading 9.0 rebounds per game.

Alondes Williams (Jr. G 6-5, 205) has come off the bench and provided an offensive spark as of late, averaging 13.3 points in the three games prior to the four-points tallied in the loss at Texas Tech on Wednesday.

“Lon’s (Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger) a pretty good coach,” said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins. He does a great job of finding mismatches. It’s a lot of the NBA stuff. Figure out who can beat who and do it. It’s what he did with Buddy Hield, that’s what he’s done with all his really good players.”

“He does a great job at finding the hot hand,” Huggins later added. “If you look at the games earlier in the year, Reeves is the guy that they got ISO-d and then Doolittle was the guy and now, it’s Manek. Manek’s got the hot hand and that’s what Lon does. He does a great job at finding the guy who’s got a hot hand going at that particular time and he does a great job of ISO-ing those guys or running sets that’s are going to get them the ball to go downhill with.”

Despite West Virginia’s offensive struggles, the Mountaineers lead the Big 12 in scoring during conference play averaging 71.4 ppg on 44.3% shooting from the field. The struggles have come from the perimeter, shooting a league-worst 27.8%.

Chase Harler (Sr. G 6-3 210)is starting to find his stroke shooting 41.2% from three in the last three games, including coming off a season-high 14 points on Wednesday and along with Taz Sherman (Jr, G 6-4, 185), should get more opportunities with Sean McNeil out again due to an illness.

Emmitt Matthews Jr (So. F 6-7 210) broke the double-digit barrier for the first time since mid-December with a 12-point performance in the win over Iowa State.

However, for West Virginia, it’s about their two big men Derek Culver (So. F 6-10, 255) and Oscar Tshiebwe (Fr. F 6-9, 258). The offense is at it’s most productive when the offense flows through Culver, whether getting him the ball at the top of the post or feeding him down low, he’s been the Mountaineers workhorse, while Tshiebwe runs the floor and snares rebounds.

Tshiebwe recorded his eighth double-double of the season Wednesday after being held in single digits in points and rebounds in the previous two games.

With all the Mountaineers success they sure have struggled on the road this season, shooting 38.5% from the field in conference road games. While that has been one of the glaring issues, it’s really been about West Virginia not matching its opponent’s energy.

The home crowd affects the visiting team but according to Huggins, he believes the crowd has a bigger influence on the home team. In essence, the players are more juiced up.

While you can question effort in the loss at Kansas State, that hasn’t been the case in the last two losses. The team has been focused and they played with effort but it was a lack of energy. That’s the difference-maker. If West Virginia can at least match the Sooners energy and get half of the 50/50 balls, the Mountaineers should end their three-game road skid.

The Mountaineers and the Sooners tip-off at 2:00 pm on ESPNU.