After a season where it looked like the Mountaineers might be headed to the NIT, they pulled together and finished off the season with two wins and got a first round bye in the Big East Tournament. West Virginia received the 10 seed in the East Region and they will be facing the 7th seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs.
The whole season has come to this and the Mountaineers need every single player focused and ready to go by game time on Thursday. Kevin Jones will have to continue his role of the
leader of the team and Deniz Kilicli will have to step up into the leader role as well, since he will have to lead them next year. Jones has played harder than anyone else in the Big East and he needs to have a huge game if the Mountaineers hope to pull off the upset. Kilicli has had a pretty good season, by being third in scoring with 10.7 points per game and second in rebounding with 5.4 rebounds per game. His main problem is that he gets into foul trouble early and has to be benched. If he can avoid getting fouls look for Kilicli to dominate with his physical play and dangerous hook shot.
Truck Bryant has been inconsistent all season, but recently he has had monster games. Against UCONN in the Big East Tournament he dropped 20 points on them and he will need to have another performance if he wants to support Jones and Kilicli. Another player West Virginia needs to have a big game is Jabarie Hinds. Hinds has struggled in recent games, but he can’t let that get to him since the Mountaineers need him to hit big shots and get assists. If both these players can have huge games, the Mountaineers will definitely head onto the next round.
One factor that could affect the outcome of the game is how well West Virginia's bench plays. Recently they have been struggling and haven’t been contributing a lot to the team as a whole. While they don’t get as much playing time as the starters they still need to be able to extend the lead when winning or close the gap when losing. So far this season it looks like the bench can’t do either. Freshman guards Aaron Brown and Gary Browne both need to come off the bench and be able to take control of the game.
Browne is the better of the two and he needs to knock down shots when called upon. Brown is a forced to be reckoned with on the boards; in his past four games he has grabbed 13 rebounds. Another bench player who has been underrated is junior forward Dominique Rutledge. Even though Rutledge is only averaging 1.9 ppg, he has come up big when the Mountaineers needed him to and at times he leads the bench in scoring.
Two players West Virginia has to pay attention to are freshman guard Kevin Pangos and junior forward Elias Harris. Pangos leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 13.8 ppg and he is very deadly from the free throw line, shooting 84%. The Mountaineers have to be careful not to send him to the line often since he could easily make the game closer than it needs to be. Harris is second in scoring with 13.1 ppg and he is the leading rebounder on the team with 8.7 rpg. Look for him to battle Jones and Kilicli when it comes to crashing the boards. The Mountaineers’ defense needs to limit these guys and make them take shots that are rushed and from places they aren’t comfortable shooting from.
The Mountaineers need to play like they have recently if they want to come away with the win. It should also be noted that this game is being played at the CONSOL Energy Center which is located in Pittsburgh, so this is basically a home game for West Virginia and they will have their fans out in full force to support them. Tipoff for this game is at 7:20 PM on Thursday and will air on TNT.
Prediction: WVU-70 Gonzaga-65
Player of the Game: Kevin Jones 21 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists
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