WACO, Texas — If the WVU men’s basketball coaches ever wanted to cook up an “us versus the world” scenario to present, well, it has been handed to them on a platter.
The coaches can claim the Big 12’s officials are against the team. In the Mountaineers’ last game, Kansas was awarded 35 free throw attempts to WVU’s two. The coaches can point to the media after USA Today labeled the unit “West Virginia chokers” on the front of the newspaper’s sports section on Monday. And certainly, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the green and gold-clad Baylor fans will be firmly against the 19-8 Mountaineers at the 10,347-seat Ferrell Center.
However the team is motivated, though, WVU needs to steel itself for a serious challenge at hand: a streaking 17-10 BU team gunning for an NCAA tournament berth.
While WVU has won three of its last five, yet fallen in seven of its last 11 games, Baylor has won five straight after a 2-7 start in Big 12 play. Included in those recently vanquished by BU were Iowa State, Oklahoma State (away), Kansas, Texas (away) and Texas Tech.
“Five-game winning streak,” said Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins. “They’re playing really well.”
West Virginia, meanwhile, hasn’t played poorly — until games’ end. Thus, the aspersions. In five of the Mountaineers’ losses, double-digit leads have been squandered.
Many forget, but WVU held a 13-point lead in the first half against Texas A&M before getting blown out 88-65 in the season opener in Germany.
The Mountaineers fell to Texas Tech in Lubbock after leading by 11 at 12:58 of the second half. They lost to Kansas in Morgantown after winning by 16 and to the Jayhawks Saturday after holding a 12-point edge at 10:18 of the second. There was the 17-point, first-half lead versus Kentucky in Morgantown before being outscored 50-28 in the second half.
If one wanted to stretch the point, WVU also held an 8-point lead over Oklahoma State with 13:51 in the second before falling. So the only Mountaineer losses with no significant leads held were at TCU and Iowa State.
On Tuesday, though, West Virginia has to establish a lead before addressing how to defend it. Baylor coach Scott Drew made some in-season personnel moves that have paid off handsomely. Guard King McClure was benched in place of combo guard Jake Lindsey after an 81-60 loss to Florida. BU lost the next game at Oklahoma, but then reeled off the five straight. Lindsey has taken some of the ball-handling pressure off 5-foot-11 Manu Lecomte, who leads the team in scoring at 16.8 points and has 92 assists.
“We made a couple lineup changes during the year,” Drew said. “In the second half, we’ve started different lineups. The big thing is we’ve been able to have everybody healthy for about a month. So now you can work on rotation and chemistry. We’re getting better in practice.
“But Jake does such a great job of moving the ball to the open guy and making sure the guys that are hot get extra touches. It does alleviate some pressure from Manu and allows him to avoid the stress of always having the ball in his hands.”
No one has been hotter for BU of late than 6-8 senior Terry Maston. He had 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting, including the go-ahead basket, in the win over Tech. (The Red Raiders did, however, play the second half without injured standout Keenan Evans.) Maston also had 26 in the previous game at Texas. He’s been recovering from a hand injury.
Baylor also has 7-foot senior Jo Lual-Acuil who is averaging 14.5 points and 9.2 rebounds with 45 blocked shots to his credit. That sets up a nice matchup with WVU’s Sagaba Konate, who averages 10.4 points and 7.9 rebounds and has 82 blocked shots.
Huggins also pointed to 6-5 BU redshirt freshman Mark Vital, who had 11 rebounds against Kansas.
“They’re good,” said the Mountaineer coach. “They’ve got Maston back healthy. Vital has been really good for them to add to what was before. They’ve played terrific in the last four or five games.”
Jevon Carter continues to lead WVU in scoring at 16.9 points a game, followed by Daxter Miles (12.2 points per game), Lamont West (10.6 points per game) and Konate.
“Press Virginia” is forcing an average of 17.4 turnovers, while turning the ball over an average of 11.7 times. Baylor is turning the ball over an average of 13.3 times a game and forcing 11.1.
Rebounding is another stat that could be a key Tuesday. While West Virginia is plus-3.8, averaging 38.4 to opponents’ 34.6, Baylor is plus-7.2, averaging a 39.1-31.9 edge.
West Virginia did, by the way, stick in the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday. After losing to Kansas, the possibility existed the Mountaineers could drop out for the first time in 50 weeks, dating back to 2015. It was also ranked No. 21 in the USA Today coaches poll.
Tuesday’s game will be televised on ESPN2.