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TCU presents challenges for West Virginia basketball

The West Virginia Mountaineers basketball team will be challenged by TCU.
The West Virginia Mountaineers basketball team will be challenged by TCU.

There are two undefeated teams in Big 12 Conference play. One doesn’t come as a surprise in No. 2 Baylor but the other might catch you off guard as they’ve gone somewhat under the radar.

TCU currently sits at 3-0 in the league and 12-3 overall after getting past Iowa State and Oklahoma State at home as well as beating Kansas State on the road. The three losses for the Horned Frogs have come by a combined 12 points to Xavier, Clemson and Southern California.

“When they have lost, they haven’t lost very bad,” head coach Bob Huggins said.

Now some of that is due to scheduling as TCU has played only one true road game to date the 59-57 win over Kansas State, but the Horned Frogs have taken care of business for the most part.

As for the rest of their schedule, all but two games in Las Vegas for the MGM Resorts Main Event have been played in Fort Worth. That means something is going to give with TCU set to travel to Morgantown to take on the No. 12 rated West Virginia basketball team that already has four road wins to its resume.

Guard Desmond Bane leads the way for the Horned Frogs at 17.1 points per game while hitting 44-percent of his three-point attempts. He also is a strong rebounder at 6.9 per contest in his nearly 36-minutes per contest as one of the truly elite players in the conference.

Two other Horned Frogs average in double figures with guard RJ Nembhard at 13.1 points per game and center Kevin Samuel at 10.8. The rotation consists of primarily nine players seeing over 12 minutes.

As a team TCU shoots 36-percent from three, good for 47th nationally but in terms of attempts the 400 shot are the 17th most in college basketball this season. So this team lives and dies by the three-ball.

“They’re making shots. They spread you, do a great job of spreading you because he puts guys on the floor that do a great job making shots,” Huggins said.

That could present challenges for a West Virginia team that wants to play two bigs at once although one of them is going to be assigned to the center Samuel, who has yet to attempt a three all season. The other, likely Derek Culver, will be assigned to playing on the perimeter.

“Everybody is talking about how good of feet he has for a guy that’s 6-foot-10,” Huggins said.

Comparing the two, West Virginia sits at No. 10 in the NET ratings and TCU is at No. 50. Meaning that at least on the resume front, the Mountaineers get the edge at this stage of the year.

Tip-off is set for 9 p.m.

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