Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Wildcard Edition
West Virginia will be looking to pick up its first Big 12 win of the season when it travels to Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon. The Mountaineers have lost four consecutive games following their 83-78 setback against Baylor on Wednesday night. Oklahoma came up just short of taking down No. 2 Kansas on Tuesday, losing in a 79-75 final.
West Virginia took care of business against a primarily weak non-conference schedule, winning 10 of its first 12 games. The Mountaineers’ two losses during that stretch came against Purdue and Xavier, but they were able to notch wins against Pitt and Florida as well. They closed the non-conference portion of their schedule with wins against Navy, UAB, Buffalo and Stony Brook, but they have not been able to maintain that success in conference play. West Virginia has dropped all four of its Big 12 games, with three of those losses coming by single digits. The Mountaineers lost to Kansas State in overtime in their opener and fell to Baylor by five points on Wednesday as 1.5-point favorites.
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— WVU Sports (@WVUSports) January 13, 2023
They have been a strong offensive team this season, ranked No. 31 in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency ratings. West Virginia has decent shooting numbers, but its strength has been on the offensive glass. The Mountaineers will be at a slight height disadvantage against Oklahoma, which is No. 45 in adjusted efficiency. Senior guard Erik Stevenson leads West Virginia with 13.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Senior forward Tre Mitchell (13.4), senior forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. (10.4) and senior guard Joe Toussaint (10.3) are all in double figures as well. West Virginia has an experienced roster, ranked No. 83 of 363 Division I teams in that category.