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GAME INFORMATION | ||
|---|---|---|
 | vs |  |
West Virginia Mountaineers (12-12, 5-6) | Texas Tech Red Raiders (9-13, 2-9) | |
February 16, 2013 @ 3:00 pm | ||
WVU Coliseum | Morgantown, WV | ||
TV: Big 12 Network | Radio: Affiliates | GameCast: FoxSports | ||
Probable Starters | ||
Juwan Staten (6-1/190) | PG | Josh Gray (6-1/175) |
Gary Brown (6-1/190) | SG | Dusty Hannahs (6-4/210) |
Eron Harris (6-2/190) | TG | Jamal Williams, Jr. (6-4/190) |
Dominique Rutledge (6-8/245) | PF | Jordan Tolbert (6-7/225) |
Deniz Kilicli (6-9/260) | C | Dejan Kravic (6-11/240) |
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
When these two teams played two weeks ago it wasn't pretty as the game got out of hand relatively late. Two weeks ago, WVU had a losing record overall andn Texas Tech was .500. West Virginia is still a middling team in terms of overall offense and defense. Not really great, but not awful either. Still better than Texas Tech. Earlier this week, WVU was blown out at Baylor, but prior to that, they won three straight starting with Texas Tech, Texas and TCU. Not exactly a murder's row of opponents, but it was still enough to get them above .500 before losing to Baylor.
A couple of weeks ago, I think that WVU had a couple of people averaging in double figures, but now WVU has players in the 8 to 9 point per game range. I don't think that I had looked at things this closely before, but WVU has a ton of young guards. In the sophomore to freshman range. The size that they play on their roster is older, so WVU is going to have to most likely rebuild that frontcourt next year. I suppose at that time, WVU will have some players that will hopefully make a jump in terms of leading the team.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
I think the plan is to do what Texas Tech did before, which is to really slow things and keep WVU at arms length as much as possible. Texas Tech played a very close game two weeks ago and things just got silly and out of hand very late. West Virginia forced turnovers and Texas Tech could never really settle down to get a good shot. I think that was the troubling thing about the play, which was that there wasn't a player on the floor that could just make things stop and get something set up and get a good shot or even get to the line.
Maybe that's this team's issues in a nutshell, which is that there are times that this team just needs to take a breath. Just take a breath and slow down. This team can't seem to do that. I would have thought that this could be Gray or even Robinson at some point during the year, but that just hasn't happened. Amazingly, this is what makes Jason Kidd one of the best at this. Organizing sets, setting up the best player, getting the best shot. It's amazing and it is a talent. It's tough to see the forest through the trees during a game, but Kidd can do that and that's the next step for someone on this team. To take a step back (not asking that they do what Kidd does) and get the offense a good shot.
GAME DAY LINKS
Texas Tech set for first ever game at West Virginia | Red Raiders