WVU focused on bouncing back against TCU
No. 7 West Virginia (12-2, 1-1) will look to rebound after an overtime loss on the road to Texas Tech by welcoming TCU to the Coliseum Saturday afternoon.
The Horned Frogs (12-2, 1-1) are coming off a 60-57 win over Oklahoma Tuesday and are led by a familiar face in former Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon. West Virginia squared off regularly with Dixon’s Panther teams in the Big East and there is familiarity there between the two.
“They do a great job defensively. He’s spreaded things a little more offensive but they do a great job of limiting your transition,” head coach Bob Huggins said.
TCU is led in scoring by sophomore guard Alex Robinson and junior forward Vladimir Brodziansky with 11.2 points apiece per game, while the Horned Frogs have a balanced roster with six others averaging at least 6 points per game.
Robinson is coming off an 18-point game over the Sooners Tuesday night.
For West Virginia, the Mountaineers will look to rebound after losing a two-point lead on the final possession of the game to fall to Texas Tech Tuesday night.
The loss was the first for Huggins and his team in Big 12 Conference play and is a testament to the overall depth of the league.
Adding to the difficulty despite some key player losses in the off-season is the familiarity between all of the teams in the league and the round-robin schedule where all teams play home and home.
“I don’t think there has been much of a drop off (in the Big 12),” he said.
The game will be the first of a difficult stretch that will see the Mountaineers host potentially the No. 1 team in the nation Baylor Tuesday night before heading to Texas Saturday. But when it comes to West Virginia the focus is squarely on the Horned Frogs.
“We need to concentrate on TCU and worry about the rest when they come,” Huggins said.
The Mountaineers are coming off a game where they forced a season low 12 turnovers against Texas Tech, but overall Huggins believes that the pressure has been highly effective this year.
“It wasn’t the other day but statistically it’s been better (than last year),” he said.
Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.