Cincinnati is a much different basketball team than the one that West Virginia beat 63-50 on the road in early February.
That game served as a launching point for the Bearcats as they’ve gone 3-1 after the disappointing performance against the Mountaineers.
Since the game, the Bearcats have beaten UCF on the road and avenged losses earlier in the year to BYU and Utah at home before falling late on the road at Iowa State.
Over the stretch, Cincinnati has averaged 83 points per game after mustering just half a hundred against the Mountaineers in the meeting prior to the start of the stretch.
“They’re playing very well. They kind of found themselves, it felt like, over these last four games,” head coach Darian DeVries said.
A big reason for that has been the play of sophomore guard Jizzle James who was held scoreless against the Mountaineers but has averaged 22.3 points per game over the last four games. That has opened the floor for others on the roster in a number of ways.
“Then it’s now everybody else gets freed up a little bit but he’s coming off and he’s making hard ones. He’s coming off, he’s getting step backs from 15, step backs from three and getting to the rim and just putting a lot of pressure on you to try to stop him and slow him down,” DeVries said.
It will be critical for West Virginia to make the necessary adjustments to limit James on the defensive end and then get good shots on the opposite end of the floor.
The performance of the Bearcats has almost been night and day from when they struggled mightily against the Mountaineers and it happened in short order.
It makes sense considering the Bearcats were so highly regarded coming into the season before they hit a skid and lost eight of their first ten in the Big 12 in a somewhat surprising fashion.
“Their talent is really good … they’re a very good team and we certainly know that and understand that,” DeVries said.
West Virginia on the other hand has gone the opposite direction of late dropping three of their last four so both teams enter this game at 15-10 with hopes of making a move up from the bubble line.
DeVries admitted that against the Bearcats, West Virginia made a lot of tough shots and that isn’t necessarily something that can be counted on in the rematch.
“We have to keep winning games,” DeVries said.
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