A Little Know-Howe: Does Jekyll or Hyde Show up in Morgantown for WVU's Contest against Longhorns
By Brad Howe on February 09, 2019 from Sports Blog
Jekyll and Hyde.
It’s the best way to describe this year’s West Virginia basketball team. There’s been some good. There’s been some bad. And there’s 
certainly been some ugly, especially lately on the road.
certainly been some ugly, especially lately on the road.
Take a look at West Virginia’s last three Big 12 conference road games:
at TCU: lost by 31
at Iowa State: lost by 25
at Texas Tech: lost by 31
Throw in a loss to Tennessee on the road by 17 and West Virginia is as non-competitive in away games as they’ve been since ... well, since Bob Huggins has been at West Virginia.
Prior to this season, West Virginia did not have a conference loss on the road by more than 30 points. The Mountaineers now have two in the last three road games. Yet, each of the last two Saturdays, WVU has won home games. 
Two weeks ago it was another win versus Kansas. The fifth in six years in Morgantown. Granted, Kansas has now imploded and doesn’t remotely resemble the program that has won 14 consecutive Big 12 regular season titles, but it’s still a significant and surprising win.
Last Saturday, WVU handled Oklahoma. Can West Virginia do it again today?
Texas visits the Coliseum as a team that may be as unpredictable as WVU. Wins this season over North Carolina, Michigan State, Purdue and Kansas have been countered with bad losses to Radford, Georgia and head coach Shaka Smart’s former school, VCU.
Texas is just 13-10 on the year, but is very much in the NCAA tournament discussion and is ranked just outside of the top 25 in KenPom’s 
latest rankings (KenPom.com).
latest rankings (KenPom.com).
Style of play for both teams has been as confounding as the results of the games. Texas and West Virginia enter tonight’s game as two of the top three teams in the Big 12 in 3-point field goal attempts. Yet, both squads rank in the bottom three in the league in 3-point field goal shooting percentage.
Bob Huggins likes to tell his team to show him what they can do, not what they can’t do. For Texas and WVU this season, it has been about continually showing what you can’t do offensively.
Add into the formula for this game that Texas and West Virginia are ninth and 10th (out of 10 teams) in 3-point field goal defense and the potential is there for an ugly looking game.
The game tonight will feature two teams that can’t guard the three, can’t make threes and yet take a lot of threes.
As I said, confounding.
Jekyll and Hyde. Which version of the Mountaineers shows up today?
Editor's Note: Top photo of Beetle Bolden and middle photo of Wesley Harris are from last year's home win by WVU against Texas. Bottom photo shows an irate Bob Huggins in a game earlier this season Photos by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.
Leave a Comment
Log in or create an account to post a comment.