No, WVU and Virginia Tech will not be facing off in football this weekend. Instead both these teams will battle it out on the hardwood. The Mountaineers are coming off a win against long-time rival Marshall, and they’ll see if they can beat another rival Saturday. While not playing football against each other might upset some fans, if all goes well Saturday then it could mean these two teams faceoff in football in the near future.
Heading into this season, West Virginia is without its leader Kevin Jones, who left and is now in the NBA. Without Jones the Mountaineers struggled early in the season, but they
seem to have turned it around. After losing two close games to Davidson and Oklahoma, they bounced back huge against VMI. The biggest contributors that the Mountaineers have are sophomore guard Juwan Staten and junior transfer Aaric Murray.
This season Staten is averaging 11 points per game (PPG), 3.2 rebound per game (RPG) and 2 assists per game (APG). Staten had problems knocking down shots early on in the season, but he has stepped up his game and now leads the team in scoring. One area of shooting that he has struggled with this season so far is hitting three pointers. While he hasn’t taken many shots from beyond the arc, he has to start taking them if given the opportunity.
One player who has been outstanding in every game so is Murray. This season he is averaging 9.7 PPG, 7.5 RPG and 0.3 APG. Based on these stats, Murray has to pass the ball off more to his teammates. If he can dump it off he might be able to pull defenders off of him and allow himself to get better shots. While making assists isn’t his strong point, he has been a very effective shot taker this season, shooting for well over 40% in each. Heading into this season Murray also had many off-court issues, which he seems to have straightened out. This will only benefit the Mountaineers in the long run.
One area on offense that the Mountaineers have problems with is three point shooting. However, this might be a game where they can turn it around. So far this season the Hokies have allowed opponents to hit 40% of the shots they have taken from three point land. This could bode well for sophomore forward Keaton Miles and freshman guard Terry Henderson. Henderson is currently shooting just over 37%, while Miles has hit just 33% of his three point shots. Both of them are currently West Virginia’s top three-point shooters, and this will be a game where they can both show more of what they can do from long range.
While the Mountaineers have room to improve with three pointers, they are excelling this year in their free throw shooting. Last year, the entire team was awful making freebies and they lost many games by missed free throws. This was probably the most practiced aspect of the game during the off-season. In the past few games, they have only missed a handful of free throws, whereas last year they were regularly missing double-digit free throw attempts. By continuing to improve on this area, the Mountaineers should have an easier time keeping the game close.
Another area that West Virginia has improved upon is their defense. Against Marshall, they did have some problems in the beginning of the game, but once they settled down and got comfortable Marshall had a tough time knocking down shots. The Mountaineers caused the Thundering Herd to turn the ball over sixteen times and nine of those times the Mountaineers stole the ball. West Virginia also did a very good job of pressuring the ball as soon as it crossed half-court. When they did this there was little Marshall could do and most of the time they ended up throwing the ball out of bounds or getting it stolen. When the Mountaineers go on defense this weekend, they will have to perform like they did against Marshall to constrain Virginia Tech. Right now the Hokies are sitting at 7-0. While they only have one quality win against Oklahoma State, the Mountaineers need to come ready to play, especially on defense.
One player the Mountaineer defense has to limit as much as possible is senior guard Erick Green. Green this season has been a dominate force for the Hokies; he is putting up about 25 PPG, 4 RPG and 4.4 APG. West Virginia has to put a ton of pressure on him to force turnovers and bad shots. So far this season Green has a total of 12 turnovers and if the Mountaineers can somehow exploit this weakness then they should be able to pull off a win against the Hokies.
This will definitely be a game to see since in many ways these two teams are evenly matched. However, Virginia Tech has a ton of players who can put up big numbers against the Mountaineers. If the Mountaineers can play defense like they did against Marshall then they should be able to win this matchup.
And, if the Mountaineers get the win here, then it looks likely they can turn their season around. This will only benefit them as they get closer to Big 12 play. In this game expect a ton of shooting as well as good defense from both teams, and maybe even shoving matches. If all goes well in this game then maybe it won’t be long before Virginia Tech’s football team pays a visit to Morgantown. Tipoff will be at 4 PM and can be seen on ESPN 2.
Prediction: WVU-73 Virginia Tech-69
Player of the Game: Aaric Murray 13 points 7 rebounds 3 assists
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