Oklahoma basketball: Sooners have seen the real enemy, and it is them

Something has to give as the men’s Oklahoma basketball team gets set to face West Virginia on the road in Morgantown on Wednesday night.

Both programs come into the game mired in multi-game losing skids. Oklahoma’s loss at home to Baylor on Saturday was the Sooners fourth consecutive conference loss, while West Virginia (13-5, 2-4) has lost three in a row.

Oklahoma’s biggest enemy during its current losing streak has been itself. The Sooners throw the ball away or have it stolen more than any other team in the Big 12, and on a national scale they rank 320th out of 350 teams in that category. Scoring inconsistency has also plagued Porter Moser’s crew.

The Sooners (12-7, 2-5) won two of their first three Big 12 games to begin the conference season but have not won since posting a 79-66 victory over then No. 11-ranked Iowa State.

Both of West Virginia’s conference wins — 71-68 over Kansas State and 70-60 over Oklahoma State — have come at home at the WVU Coliseum, the site for Wednesday’s Big 12 matchup.

Oklahoma is 14-9 against West Virginia in the 23 previous games between the two teams, including a 5-4 record in games played at West Virginia. All but two of the 23 games between the Sooners and the Mountaineers have been as members of the Big 12.

The Sooners swept the series with the Mountaineers last season, winning 75-71 at West Virginia and 91-90 in double-overtime in Norman.

Wednesday night’s game will be televised on ESPN2 with Mark Neely and Chris Spatola doing the announcing.

What you need to know about Oklahoma vs. West Virginia

• Oklahoma leads West Virginia in most all offensive categories (scoring average, field goal and three-point percentage, but West Virginia is a better rebounding team than the Sooners this season and the Mountaineer defense is very good at creating turnovers, which is perhaps Oklahoma’s biggest weakness this season. In OU’s last game, against Baylor, the Sooner turned the ball over a season-high 25 times.
• Oklahoma has just two players scoring in double digits, led by Tanner Groves, averaging 12.7 points per game. Although Groves has scored below his average in the past three games. Umoja Gibson also averages a dozen points per contest (12.4). Last season, Gibson averaged 24.0 points in the two games with West Virginia and shot 62 percent from three-point range (13 for 21).
• Oklahoma is tied with Kansas as the Big 12 leader in field-goal percentage (49.3) and is second in free-throw shooting (73.7).
• Senior guards Taz Sherman (18.9) and Sean McNeill (14.0) lead the Mountaineers in scoring.
• West Virginia ranks 25th in the nation in turnover margin (+3.9) and 28th in turnovers forced per game (16.4).

Prediction

The home-court advantage is to West Virginia’s benefit and is a big reason West Virginia is favored. The Sooners have played well historically in Morgantown, but what troubles me the most about this matchup is Oklahoma’s weakness is what West Virginia may be best at. If the Mountaineers are able to exploit that weakness (turnovers and rebounding), the Sooners are going to have a hard time avoiding a fifth straight loss — and with a probable sixth straight defeat staring then straight in the face when they travel to play No. 1-ranked Auburn in a Big 12/SEC Challenge contest on Saturday.

Despite all the hard facts, and maybe a little bit because of them, I think Oklahoma will come to play in this one. I think the Sooners will respond positively to their recent shortcomings. I think the game will be close at the end, but that Oklahoma will prevail by 3.