Oklahoma Basketball Faces Giant Task in Mountaineer Country
By Chip Rouse
Fresh off their first conference win of the season on Saturday, men’s Oklahoma basketball will face perhaps its most difficult true road test of the year when the Sooners go up against. No. 7-ranked West Virginia on Wednesday night.
The Mountaineers (15-2, 4-1) are off to an exceptionally strong start to the 2016-17 season. West Virginia’s winning formula is beating you down with constant pressure on the ball, and they execute it better than anyone else in the country.
West Virginia leads the Big 12 and ranks fifth nationally in scoring, averaging 89.1 points per game, many of those points scored off of steals and forcing its opponents into costly turnovers. Moreover, Bob Huggins’ Mountaineers are running up big scoring margins against their opponents. Through 17 games overall and five Big 12 contests, their average victory margin has been almost 27 points per game.
This is not a good prognosis for a very young Oklahoma men’s squad that is still struggling somewhat to find its identity on the hardwood. The Sooners, who have 11 freshman and sophomores on their roster, have been doing better in trying to limit turnovers, but they are about to see pressure from the highly bothersome West Virginia defenders the likes of which they have not encountered previously this season.
The Mountaineers rank No. 1 in the nation in steals (12.6 per game), turnover margin (plus 13.3), assists (18.2 per game) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.7). Their on-the-ball pressure produces a nation-best 24 turnovers per game.
West Virginia is led on the offensive end by Esa Ahmad, who averages 12.1 points per game. Four West Virginia players average in double digits in scoring. In addition to Ahmad, Jevon Carter scores at a 11.2 clip, Nathan Adrian 10.5 and Daxter Miles Jr. 10.4.
The Mountaineers are holding opponents to just 63 points per game. This doesn’t bode well for a Sooner squad that is averaging just 75 points on the season and owns a scoring margin of just 1.8 points over its opponents.
Good news for Oklahoma is that senior guard and floor leader Jordan Woodard is back in the lineup and in his groove. He scored a season-high 27 points in his last outing, a nine-point win over Texas Tech over the weekend, in just his second game back after missing four games with an injury and illness.
Woodard leads the Sooners in scoring this season, averaging 16.6 points per game, tying him for third place in the Big 12. Christian James is averaging 10.8 points per game and Rashard Odomes, who exploded for a career-high 24 points against Texas Tech, contributes close to 10 points a game.
West Virginia marks the third Big 12 team in the last six games that OU has faced a team ranked in the top 10 in the country.
The Sooners are 8-4 all-time against the Mountaineers in basketball. OU is undefeated against West Virginia in Norman, but the two teams are all square at two games apiece in games played in Morgantown.
Oklahoma won last season, in come-from-behind fashion at West Virginia, but the Mountaineers knocked off Buddy Hield and the Sooners 69-67 in the semifinal round of the Big 12 postseason tournament.
This is not a good matchup for the Sooners this season in Morgantown. The Mountaineers give everyone fits with their intense ball pressure, especially a young squad that is just growing its wings and hasn’t yet learned how to fly. It pains me to do this, but…West Virginia 88, Oklahoma 76.