West Virginia is set to close the regular season at 5 p.m. against UCF.
It’s an opportunity for the Mountaineers to essentially put a stamp on their resume for the NCAA Tournament bid as well as with some help be rewarded with a bye in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, too.
At 18-12, 9-10 in the Big 12, West Virginia is already cemented on the right side of the bubble, but every win helps at this stage of the season and the Knights present another opportunity to further bolster their credentials when it comes to avoiding any uncertainty come Selection Sunday.
UCF comes to town at 16-14, 7-12 in the league but have won three of their last four games beating Utah, Kansas State and Oklahoma State at home.
In each of their past four games, the Knights have scored at least 75 points, which puts pressure on the Mountaineers to try to contain that aspect of their game according to head coach Darian DeVries.
“They can really score. You look at them throughout the whole season, but even specifically more this back half of the season, they’re putting up huge numbers offensively,” DeVries said. “Having won three of their last four, they’re playing really well down the stretch. They’re hard to keep off that scoreboard.”
This will be the first meeting between the two, which makes things more difficult when it comes to preparation with the Mountaineers coming off a double road trip at BYU and Utah. That was made even more challenging as West Virginia wasn’t able to use the travel day as an off day, giving them just one full day of preparation.
It’s not often that you see a team for the first time in the last game of the regular season but that is where West Virginia finds itself in a game that the Mountaineers would obviously like to win.
“So that’s made it even more unique. It’s going to be a little different if you just played them three weeks ago and you just refresh, here’s the scouting report and things,” DeVries said.
The coaching staff was able to complete some of that video work before they left Utah so they would be on the shorter side of the preparation to give them an idea of the players on the Knights roster, as well as what they want to do on both ends of the floor.
UCF has four players averaging in double figures led by guards Keyshawn Hall at 18.9 points per game and Darius Johnson at 16.1 points per game. Others such as guard Jordan Ivy-Curry at 12.9 points and center Moustapha Thiam at 10.2 also are key contributors.
And while the Knights have shown the ability to score the ball, they also have had issues with teams doing the same to them, meaning that the Mountaineers will need to be aggressive.
“So, we got to make sure we do our job defensively so that it doesn't get away from us at that end and then also convert as many of those opportunities as we can offensively to make sure that we're continuing to keep pace,” DeVries said.
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