By winning three of four games to end the regular season, including last Saturday’s 89-81 victory over then-No. 11 Kansas State, West Virginia doesn’t feel as though it’s playing to solidify a spot in the NCAA Tournament in this week’s Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
While the eighth-seeded Mountaineers (18-13, 7-11) are considered to be at least somewhat safe in the field, they remain focused on continuing a recent trend of quality play Wednesday night when battling No. 9 seed Texas Tech at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
The two teams split their regular season meetings with the road team winning each time.
Texas Tech (16-15, 5-13) played both of those games and its 29 others with head coach Mark Adams, though he won’t be with the Red Raiders today. Adams was suspended by Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt earlier this week for a racially insensitive remark to one of his players, and assistant Corey Williams will serve as the interim head coach this evening.
“I have a lot of respect for Mark and the job he does coaching,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “They have great players. They also have great size. We are going to have to play well.”
Tonight’s game will be the fourth time WVU and Texas Tech have met in the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
“It comes down to who wants it the most,” said fifth-year guard Kedrian Johnson, describing how special the Big 12 Conference Tournament is. “We have not won a Big 12 Tournament championship. That is also what makes this tournament more important for us.”
The Big 12 is widely considered the top league in all of college basketball this season.
“You go right down the list, and there isn’t anybody you can say that they are not as good as the other guy. Everybody is good,” Huggins said. “Everybody does a great job at preparing their team. [The coaches] are great basketball people, and it is a league filled with great players.”
The Mountaineers and Red Raiders split the two regular-season matchups, with Tech claiming the last meeting in Morgantown, 78-72. WVU had difficulty keeping Fardaws Aimaq off the glass in that February 18 matchup, and in his sixth game this season, Aimaq was the only player to post double-figure rebounds with 12. He keyed the Red Raiders’ 39-28 rebounding advantage in that matchup
“He had opportunities,” Huggins noted. “We do not block out twice at the free throw line. We stood there and let him get the rebound and score. We did a terrible job at getting the ball in bounds. Other than that, I thought we played well. We were ahead at the time. I think we had an eight-point lead with not a whole lot of time left. We did not finish it. That has been the message since then, and we must finish.”
It was one of several Big 12 games the Mountaineers lost a late lead in, though West Virginia got better in that regard down the stretch.
“We blew the game,” fifth-year guard Erik Stevenson said. “I am not taking anything away from them because they played great and had guys step up. We were up eight down the stretch at home, and you are not supposed to lose that. You are going to have to come out here every night and play. It does not matter who you play. Everyone in this league is good.”
Texas Tech’s 78 points against WVU was one of only three times in which the Red Raiders scored 75 or more points in 18 conference games this season. That was in large part thanks to Jalen Tyson, who scored 27 points and made 11-of-15 shots, including all but one of his four three-point attempts.
Senior Emmitt Matthews says the Mountaineers will have to improve defensively to prolong their stay in Kansas City.
“I think the offense will handle itself. It has handled itself the last few games,” Matthews said. “We will not have an issue if we go out and execute our defensive plan and strategies. That is also for the rest of the season.”
Five Red Raiders are averaging double-figures, including freshman Pop Isaacs, who suffered an injury in the first matchup with the Mountaineers this season, but returned to the lineup for the game in Morgantown.
Isaacs is fourth on the team in scoring at 11 points per game. He was recently honored on the Big 12 All-Freshman Team. Isaacs scored 15 points in a reserve role in the game at the WVU Coliseum.
“He is good,” Huggins said. “He has great range. We got a lot of practice the other day because [Kansas State guard Markquis Nowell] is good with the ball and shoots it with great range. I think that was good preparation for us.”
West Virginia is 8-9 all time in the Big 12 Tournament.
The winner of Wednesday’s contest takes on top seed Kansas at 3 p.m. in the quarterfinal round.