Oklahoma vs. West Virginia: Can Sooners Handle ‘Press’ Virgina?
By Chip Rouse
On Saturday, Oklahoma vs. West Virginia will feature the oddity of a team on the doorstep of becoming No. 1 in the country hosting the team that is No. 1 and atop the standings in the Big 12.
The Sooners are at home at Lloyd Noble Center for this matchup. And that could be very important because No. 11 West Virginia (No. 10 in the USA Today Coaches Poll) had the extremely rare opportunity of beating the top two teams in the nation in the back-to-back games in the same week.
The Mountaineers began the week by upsetting No. 1 Kansas, beating the Jayhawks by 11 points, 74-63, at home in Morgantown, W.Va. Now they have a chance at an encore going up against No. 2 Oklahoma. West Virginia’s 15-1 start is the team’s best since the 1981-82 season, and the Mountaineers are perfect through four games in Big 12 play.
The Sooners and Mountaineers split their season series a year ago with Oklahoma winning by 19 at home and West Virginia handling the Sooners by 21 points in Morgantown.
Saturday’s showdown in Norman figures to be high scoring with both teams ranking in the top 10 in the country in that category. The Sooners rank third in the nation with a scoring average of 87.3, while the Mountaineers are only two points back at 85.3. The West Virginia pressure defense is holding opponents to 63.4 points per game and averaging a nation-best 21 forced turnovers a game.
How the Sooners handle the press defense of West Virginia, something they call “Press” Virginia in local terms, will be the biggest factor in determining the outcome of Saturday’s game. Oklahoma has not protected the ball very well in their last two games, and on Wednesday night vs. Oklahoma State, a late turnover by Buddy Hield almost cost OU the game. The Sooners committed 19 turnovers in a two-point road victory at Oklahoma State and 20 at home last weekend in an 86-76 win over Kansas State.
The Sooners are led by the Hield, the nation’s second leading scorer with a 26.6 average. Hield has scored 20 or more points in 13 of OU’s 15 games this season, equally what he did through all games last season. He also has six games of 30 or more points, the only player in the country to do so.
The four-year starter has evolved into the complete package this season. In previous seasons, the 6-4 Hield has had a tendency to settle for jump shots, but this season he is driving to the rim more and usually finishes when he does so. He is a high-percentage shooter, hitting 52 percent of his shots from the field, and that includes shots from three-point range, where he is as deadly as anyone in the college game today.
As a team, Oklahoma ranks second in the country in three-point field-goal percentage, making 46 percent of its three-point attempts. Jordan Woodard, who is hitting 55 percent of his treys and averaging a career-high 15.3 points a game, and Hield rank third and fourth nationally in three-point percentage. Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler also are shooting better than 40 percent behind the three-point line, making it difficult to defend the three-point shot against the Sooners.
Both OU and West Virginia shoot the ball well and rebound well, which should make this a closely contested game. Like the Sooners, the Mountaineers have four players scoring in double figures, led by junior Devon Williams, who averages 14.7 points and nine rebounds per game. Jayseen Paige is averaging 13.4 points coming off the bench, and Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles, Jr. average 12.6 and 11.5, respectively.
The outcome of this contest is going to be decided by whichever team plays the best on the defensive end and complements that by making shots. A telling statistic in this regard is the fact that West Virginia has forced more turnovers (334) than made field goals by their opponents (314).
Oklahoma has the benefit of playing at home, where they are very difficult to beat, but the Sooners cannot afford to turn the ball over as many times as they did against K-State and Oklahoma State and give up as many easy drives to the basket if they are going to win this game.
My pick: Oklahoma 86, West Virginia 81 – Look for Buddy Hield to have another 30-plus-points performance and take over this game when the Sooners need a lift. OU seems to live and die this season on the three-point shot. As long as those shots are dropping, the Sooners should have enough firepower to overcome the West Virginia tenacity, hand the Mountaineers their first conference loss and spoil their attempt to knockoff the top two teams in the country in the same week.