A year later, WVU and Baylor in different roles as match up nears
What a difference a year can make.
Almost a year to the day, West Virginia is in a much different spot with Baylor set to come to town.
In that game which was played Tuesday Jan. 10 last season, it was the home-standing Mountaineers that were playing the role of the hunter as the Bears entered Morgantown with a perfect record and the school’s first ever No. 1 national ranking.
West Virginia forced 29 Baylor turnovers to erase the euphoria that came with being perched atop the rankings beating the Bears 89-68 and ending their reign at number one at a single day.
Now it’s the Mountaineers who have found themselves perched high in the national polls, ranked No. 2 for the first time in 58-years and riding a 14-game win streak to get there. It’s the longest such win streak since the 1988-89 club pushed their total to 22-games.
Baylor isn’t perched inside the top ten like West Virginia was last year in this meeting, but the Bears certainly aren’t too shabby either with an 11-4 record, 1-2 in the rugged Big 12 Conference.
So in a different role, head coach Bob Huggins gave his team a message.
“I told our guys yesterday the dog with the bone is always in danger. So we got the bone for a while now, so we better hang onto it,” he said.
Huggins didn’t hide the fact that it’s different being rated higher in large part because you in theory will get the best shot from every team you play. But his team also is equipped with a pair of senior guards that have seen it all at this point and that gives the rest of the roster confidence.
“It seems like when JC and Dax responds, everybody else responds,” he said.
That confidence was on display when West Virginia saw an eight-point second half lead erased against Oklahoma. Even without the services of senior leader Jevon Carter, who was on the bench with four fouls, the team didn’t panic. Instead, the Mountaineers were able to extend the lead and ultimately down the Sooners.
Baylor will present a challenge with their overall length as the front line features three players over 6-foot-9, led by senior center Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. in the middle averaging 16.1 points and 9.6 rebounds. A year ago, Huggins made reference to the length the Bears had and the fact that they could practically touch hands across the floor showing the ability to cover ground.
This year’s edition is even longer.
“Probably longer. They had a couple big strong guys in there last year, these guys are really long,” he said.
That presents issues when the Bears use their 1-1-3 zone defense as Baylor head coach Scott Drew has targeted players that fit his scheme and what he wants to do on the floor. Because of their size, Baylor has the ability to somewhat effectively guard, or at least challenge, two people with one player until the other can get there.
“If you want to catch it on the wing and throw it to the corner, they make it really difficult to throw it to the corner,” Huggins said.
Guard play is also a strength for the Bears with senior Manu Lecomte leading the team in scoring at 16.8 points per game and junior King McClure also in double figures at 10.3. Overall, it doesn’t look too much different from what you have come to expect from Baylor under Drew.
This represents the final game before the return of junior Esa Ahmad from suspension and Huggins said the expectation is that he will be able to get the ground running against Texas Tech Saturday.
As for the other question mark on the roster, at this point freshman Brandon Knapper is healthy enough to play but the holdup for now is his overall understanding of what he needs to do on the floor.
“If he doesn’t know where it’s supposed to be entered or what he’s supposed to do you can’t play that guy,” Huggins said. “It’s that more than anything.”
Tipoff for the Baylor game is set for 7 p.m. inside the Coliseum.
