MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Of the eight remaining games on West Virginia’s regular-season schedule, the four away from home are against teams ranked in the top 15 and with a NCAA Net Ranking no worse than 12th ahead of Tuesday’s action.
One comes later this month at Iowa State, but not before the Mountaineers welcome the 11th-ranked Cyclones to the WVU Coliseum for an all-important 7 p.m. affair Wednesday that will air on ESPN2.
“Every game is important from here on out, but it definitely does put a lot of emphasis,” WVU point guard Joe Toussaint said. “We’re in a good position right now even with our record not showing it. If we steal this one, we’re just helping ourselves. Tomorrow is really important for us, especially being that they’re at the top of the league.”
The Mountaineers (14-9, 3-7) are coming off one of their more impressive performances this season Saturday in a 93-61 win over Oklahoma.
West Virginia now seeks a fifth win in seven games and consecutive conference victories in regular season play for the first time since January 2022 against the only Big 12 team it’s yet to battle. Considering what awaits over the next week — Saturday’s contest at No. 5 Texas and Monday’s at No. 14 Baylor — protecting home court against the Cyclones (16-6, 7-3) figures to be imperative to enhance the Mountaineers’ postseason resume.
“We have to guard better, but we are guarding better,” West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said. “Their approach has been better. The fact of the matter is if everybody played to their potential, we’re really good. Everybody hasn’t.”
One player who has achieved that and then some of late, however, is fifth-year guard Erik Stevenson.
Now the Mountaineers’ leading scorer by a somewhat wide margin with an average of 14.9 points Stevenson has scored 31 and 34, respectively, in recent victories over Auburn and the Sooners.
Stevenson made 13-of-21 three-pointers in those two games, and in Saturday’s win over OU, he scored 23 first-half points to help stake WVU to a commanding 26-point halftime advantage.
“I’m sure they’re going to put an emphasis on guarding him,” Huggins said of the Cyclones, who rank No. 1 in the Big 12 in scoring defense at 61 points per game. “They’ll probably switch everything and try to take him to the loaded side of the floor where they can get help there faster.”
Although he’s scored only 26 points over the last four games and 44 in the last six, forward Tre Mitchell follows Stevenson with 12 points and is second with an average of 5.6 rebounds.
“Tre carried us for a while,” Huggins said, “and now he’s struggling a little bit.”
Toussaint (10.5) and fellow point guard Kedrian Johnson (10.1) are the Mountaineers’ other double-figure scorers, while forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. nears that mark at 9.1.
“When we really made a run the other day, [Stevenson] got us started, but we have other people who are very capable of scoring,” Huggins said.
Under second-year head coach T.J. Otzelberger, the Cyclones arrive in Morgantown seeking a share of first place in the conference with Texas after the Longhorns lost Monday at Kansas.
Like the Mountaineers, ISU is coming off one of its more impressive outings this season — a 68-53 home win Saturday over the Jayhawks. The Cyclones had lost two straight prior to their 16th win, but have compiled an impressive resume and Wednesday presents an opportunity for an eighth Quad 1 win to this point.
“Offensively, they run good stuff so they don’t put themselves in bad positions in transition,” Huggins said. “They’re a really good transition defensive team so everybody has to play against their set defense, and they have shot blockers. Harder to score it around the goal because of their shot blockers.”
Toussaint, an Iowa transfer with experience facing the Cyclones, notices a trend regarding ISU’s exceptional defensive play.
Kansas And Iowa State Men S Basketball
“Effort. I watched them by myself and watched them with the team. You can tell they don’t take any plays off,” he said. “Literally none. One time, [ISU guard Tamin] Lipsey got the ball taken from him and the whole team just ran back and stopped them from scoring, and they came down and scored. That’s the effort plays they make and the intensity we have to match.”
A trio of guards mark the Cyclones’ three double-figure scorers — Jaren Holmes (13.6), Gabe Kalscheur (13.2) and Caleb Grill (10.7). They’ve also combined for 122 of the team’s 149 triples, with Grill’s 48 and the 45 from Kalscheur responsible for more than 62 percent of the team’s long range production.
Six-foot-10 Osun Osunniyi contributes 9.3 points with a team-best 25 blocked shots. Aljaz Kunc, a 6-8 forward, returned Saturday from an extended absence and has averaged 7.8 points and a team-high 5.4 rebounds over 12 appearances and 11 starts.
“Their stats are good because the guy has done a heck of a job coaching them,” Huggins said of Otzelberger.
The Mountaineers will look to the likes of trio Jimmy Bell Jr., James Okonkwo and Mohamed Wague to outperform the Cyclones’ front court.
Bell contributes 6.1 points and a team-high 5.8 rebounds on average, while Okonkwo’s production and playing time have increased significantly over the last five games, two of which he has 10 boards in. Wague has made 5-of-6 shots in the last four games and has 11 rebounds over the last two.
“I’m not as consistent as I want to be yet,” Wague said, “but with the type of talent in the locker room, every game can be someone else’s game. I keep going day by day and trying to play the best I can.”
For as strong as ISU has been defensively, the Mountaineers feel as though they’re starting to turn a corner in that aspect as well.
While WVU ranks last in the Big 12 surrendering 69.1 points on average, it is within one point of No. 5 Kansas State, which is allowing 68.3 points.
“We’re ready to guard, no matter who it is,” Toussaint said. “We can switch one through four and help our bigs when they’re on the guards. They probably think they’re a nightmare for us because they have all guards, but I feel like with our bigs, we’re a matchup nightmare for them. They have to guard us as well.”