MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Albeit on different scales, No. 11 West Virginia and Northern Kentucky enter Friday’s matchup attempting to get a better grip on handling success.
The Mountaineers (10-1) won their sixth straight game 84-57 over Radford despite an underwhelming second half that Bob Huggins labeled “really lethargic.”
Northern Kentucky (9-3), after defeating NAIA member Brescia 97-73 to extend a five-game winning streak, heard coach John Brannen muttering similar criticism.
“I didn’t think it was our best effort, and I was a little disappointed in how we came out,” Brannen said. “I’m sitting here saying that with a 20-point win, but the bottom line is we have to get better.”
Against West Virginia’s waves of athleticism and pressure defense, the Norse probably need to get a lot better. No opponent has threatened the Mountaineers at home, where they’re 8-0 with an average margin of victory exceeding 41 points.
Still, Huggins sees lapses from his players that won’t be so tolerable once Big 12 play begins next week.
“It’s a progression of things. You try to get competent at something and then you try to add something to it,” he said. “And if you don’t stay competent at the building blocks of what you’re trying to do then everything’s going to crumble. We’re trying to explain to them that we don’t want it to crumble.”
While West Virginia dominated last year’s meeting 107-61 in Morgantown, Northern Kentucky appears better than advertised in Brannen’s second season. After being picked seventh in the 10-team Horizon League, the Norse are 4-1 in road games so far, with the loss coming at Illinois 79-64.
“Schematically, they’ll do as good a job as anybody has done against pressure,” said Huggins, whose squad leads the nation by forcing 26.3 turnovers a game.
Sophomore forward Drew McDonald averages a team-high 17.3 points and 7.8 rebounds for NKU while guard Lavone Holland contributes 15.7 and shoots 43 percent from 3-point range.
Cole Murray, a 6-foot-7 senior who averages 10.7 points, has taken 94 of his 99 shots from 3. The Norse also draw big contributions from freshman Carson Williams (10.8 points, 6.1 rebounds), the reigning Mr. Basketball in Kentucky.
West Virginia’s rotation still goes 13 players deep, though Huggins figures to tighten it up during conference play. Forwards Esa Ahmad (13 points, 5.6 rebounds) and Nathan Adrian (10.6 points, 6.1 rebounds) are inside-out scoring threats, and Jevon Carter (9.7 points, 4.5 assists) ranks fifth nationally in steals.
No. 11 West Virginia (10-1) vs. Northern Kentucky (9-3)
Tipoff: Friday, 4 p.m. at the WVU Coliseum (Root TV)
RPIs: West Virginia 58, Northern Kentucky 135
Quotable: “He’s a Marshall guy which ought to had more fuel to the fire.” — Huggins on NKU’s Brannen, who became a 1,000-point scorer for the Herd in only two seasons
Notable: With tickets reduced to $10, the game is expected to draw close to 13,000 fans, easily the largest home crowd to date.
Prediction: West Virginia 94-64