Oklahoma basketball: What fans need to know about OU at West Virginia

Following its fourth home loss out of five Big 12 home games this season, the Oklahoma basketball men head out on the road to West Virginia, another team that has struggled at home.

West Virginia is the only Big 12 team the Sooners have beaten at home this season, and that win was by just a single point, 77-76, on Jan. 14.

Saturday’s game at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia, will be an important one for both teams. The Sooners (12-10, 2-7) and Mountaineers (13-9, 2-7) are currently outside of the NCAA Tournament bubble and desperately need to put together some wins over the final nine game to have a chance of making the tournament.

Both teams had big wins last weekend in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. West Virginia upset 15th-ranked Auburn 80-77, while Oklahoma knocked off No. 2 Alabama 93-69. The Mountaineers fell at TCU 76-72 earlier this week. The Sooners’ struggled the entire game at home against in-state rival Oklahoma State on Wednesday, losing 71-61 and giving the Cowboys the regular-season sweep in the Bedlam hoops series.

Oklahoma leads the overall series with West Virginia with a record of 17-9. The Sooners are 5-3 in road games at West Virginia, including wins in their past three visits. A win this season in Morgantown might be harder to come by.

For one thing, the Sooners barely held off West Virginia in the earlier game in Norman. Despite just one win at home in four Big 12 games, the Mountaineers have been playing very well the past couple of weeks, despite their record. The lone conference win at home was a nine-point win over TCU in mid-January.

What fans need to know about Oklahoma vs. West Virginia

• Tip off at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown is set for 7 p.m. CT. The start of the game will be broadcast on ESPN News. When the NBA game concludes between the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans, the broadcast will be switched over to ESPN2. The announce team will be Chuckie Kempf on play-by-play and King McClure providing analysis.
• Despite how close OU and West Virgina are in wins and losses, there is a wide gap in the NET rankings of the two teams. West Virginia’s NET ranking is 24th, Oklahoma is 58th.
• The big gun offensively for West Virginia is Erik Stevenson, playing for his fourth college team (he previously was at Wichita State, Washington and South Carolina). The 6-foot, 3-inch guard averages 14.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 points a game. He had a career-high 31 points in the win over Auburn last weekend.
• Two other Mountaineers average in double figures in the scoring column: Tre Mitchell (12.3 points and second on the team with 5.6 rebounds) and Joe Toussaint (10.5 points).
• In the game in Norman this season, Mitchell had 16 points and Toussaint 14. In the same game for the Sooners, Grant Sherfield led all scorers with 22. Jalen Hill had 14 and freshman Milos Uzan contributed 11.
• West Virginia is the worst defensive team in the Big 12, allowing opponents an average of right at 70 points a game and a field goal percentage of 44 percent per game. Oklahoma ranks second in the conference in team field goal percentage (47.7).
• West Virginia is 13-3 this season when it leads at halftime and 0-6 when trailing at halftime.
• West Virginia feeds off of defensive pressure and forced turnovers; Oklahoma has been turnover-prone this season, averaging nearly 13 per game.