WVU travels to Texas Tech with long term Baylor collection now in jeopardy | Tuesday News
MORGANTOWN — Perfectly, you all are just going to have to wait for what was heading to be the emphasize of West Virginia’s basketball season, as COVID-19 has stepped in all over again and thrown the routine entirely out of kilter.
The Mountaineers’ back-to-back again showdown from No. 2 Baylor — initially portion of this operate of six consecutive Top rated 25 teams — has been postponed.
The unbeaten Bears, who presently experienced its initial matchup with WVU on Jan. 12 postponed after, had been penciled in to facial area WVU on Feb. 15 in Morgantown and Feb. 18 in Waco. But a COVID-19 outbreak has left the Bears not able to meet Big 12 protocols, forcing both matchups to be postponed.
Now WVU’s attention had not still turned to Baylor, simply because the Mountaineers initially have a Tuesday 9 p.m. assembly with No. 7 Texas Tech in Lubbock and then a Saturday 1 p.m. Coliseum date from No. 12 Oklahoma.
The Texas Tech video game is a rematch of a person of the year’s most remarkable games. WVU gained the 1st meeting when Miles “Deuce” McBride scored with six seconds still left to give the Mountaineers an 88-87 guide in advance of they survived when the Red Raiders’ prime scorer, Mac McClung, skipped a buzzer beater at the other conclude of the court.
With the two Baylor games now in limbo, WVU has 4 contests that will have to be rescheduled, as it continue to has postponed online games versus TCU and Oklahoma Condition that have not however been specified a new date.
The convention did depart a 7 days open up between the conclude of the standard time and the get started of the Significant 12 Match in March to enjoy make-up online games, but it would be almost extremely hard to participate in 4 games in that time. And if you are considering of getting those TCU and Oklahoma Condition game titles and fitting them into the new Baylor openings, that doesn’t do the job for these two groups who currently have video games scheduled.
WVU coach Bob Huggins is just not absolutely sure how it will engage in out.
“All I know is we’ve been explained to that each individual effort and hard work will be designed to play all the league online games,” he mentioned.
If they reside up to that and squeeze 3 online games into the previous open 7 days, WVU could capture a split and perform three residence online games the final 7 days prior to heading into the Huge 12 Tournament, a critical stage taking into consideration the issues journey provides for the Mountaineers.
For instance, WVU will not return household from this journey to Lubbock until about 5 a.m., with lessons and review halls on tap the up coming working day.
It is a struggle Huggins has fought over and above, primarily when having to participate in a 9 p.m. game in the Central Time Zone with an all-evening flight dropping an hour forward of them. But it can be a struggle he hasn’t gained yet.
“We are having it one [game] at a time and attempting to put together as finest we can,” Huggins stated. “That’s the factor about this league, you really don’t get any breaks. We enjoy a sport like we performed versus Kansas, just take a working day, and then have to vacation. You glimpse at other leagues and there are people you participate in exactly where you say, ‘Well, we don’t have to be at the top of our sport when we play a single of those groups at residence.’
“But I am just sitting right here seeing Kansas Point out as opposed to Texas Tech, and K-State gave them a heck of a match. And shoot, they are at the bottom of our league. Then Iowa Point out just loses by 4 at Oklahoma, and Oklahoma is very excellent. You seem at Iowa Point out scores and they have been in most of their video games.”
Meanwhile, WVU has to get care of business in Lubbock against Texas Tech, with the Mountaineers buoyed by the victory Saturday towards Kansas as perfectly as McBride’s the recently-named Major 12 Participant of the 7 days honors just after he scored 31 factors in opposition to the Jayhawks.
Texas Tech is unquestionably adequate to fret about, specifically when carrying a grudge right after that hard reduction in Morgantown.
Huggins said he won’t plan to do something new defensively, even though McClung scored 30 and Tech put 87 on the board. McClung was slowed down by Oklahoma during Tech’s past time out, but Huggins did not see anything at all he’d want to replicate.
“When scorers have a poor evening, it really is commonly a blend of points,” Huggins stated. “Oklahoma experienced anything to do with it, but you don’t shoot nicely just about every sport, no 1 does. It was a mixture of him not capturing properly and them actively playing nicely.”
As for creating staff changes, Huggins thinks that’s by now been accomplished.
“I imagine we are much better now defensively than we ended up in the initial match,” he stated. “I form of like wherever we have been towards Kansas.”
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