Quick Hits: Baylor Preview, Finding More Shots for Small, Team Morale + More

The West Virginia Mountaineers (15-9, 6-7) are on the road to take on the Baylor Bears (15-9, 7-6) Saturday afternoon. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m. EST and the action will broadcast on ESPN2.

Baylor Preview

Very, very talented offensively. [They] just got so many guys that can shoot it, and they put a lot of pressure on the rim, really from everywhere. So, they create some challenges from that standpoint.

They’re getting their guys back. They did lose their seven-foot center this week. They got a couple of guys back and lost one. That’s kind of been a little bit of some of their inconsistency. They’ve been short bodies for a good portion of the year, but they’re getting some of those key guys back.

Biggest Challenge Baylor presents

I think the biggest thing is, if you let them get into the paint, now they’re at the rim and they’re kicking out for threes. They are so gifted as individual players of going by you, getting by you. That’s our challenge, we’re going to have to really connected as a team defense.

Finding senior guard Javon Small more shots

That’s something we’re trying to do every game. There’s, at times, only so much you can do. If you want to commit two people to him all the time, now you got to take what they give you and I think Javon’s done that. He’s had nine assists and eight assists the last two games. Honestly, in the BYU game, that was as good as our offense has been and we scored almost 70 points, shot 55% in the second half. I thought Javon did a great job.

Team morale

Everybody’s in great spirits. They’re very focused on continuing to compete at a high, high level, and giving us great energy and effort. This time of year, that’s all you can ask for is continuing to make sure we’re well prepared and go out there and compete and do the best job we can for every 40 minutes we got left and hopefully that means there’s some wins on that side of it.

Playing for an NCAA tournament bid

Our message to them is, ‘it’s February and we’re playing for something. Theres a lot of teams that aren’t right now. They just go their conference tournament left to try and get there, but that’s not the case for us.’ But we have to do our part. We have to go win games and they understand, and we understand that as a staff and none of it really matters right now. The thing that does matter is you got to find ways to continue to get wins and that’s our primary focus and that’s the game by game mentality.

Baylor Preview

Biggest Challenge Baylor presents

Finding senior guard Javon Small more shots

Team morale

Playing for an NCAA tournament bid

MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI