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BIG 12 TOURNAMENT EDITION

the daily athenaeumMarch 11, 2015

THE DAILY ATHENAEUM Wednesday March 11, 20152 | big 12 tournament edition

by connor murraysports writer

@dailyathenaeum

The road to a confer-ence tournament cham-pionship, especially in a power-five conference, is almost always filled with plenty of challenges. As the end goal of being called conference champion be-comes more and more tan-gible, the pressure mounts and the wheat is separated from the chaff.

This is true across the nation, but especially this season, it could not be more accurate when de-scribing the Big 12. How deep is this league? Well,

the team that finished fifth in the standings, No. 18 West Virginia, was led by the conference’s Coach of the Year.

Bob Huggins has done quite the job transform-ing this fresh-faced and inexperienced team into a fearless group of up-and-comers, but his big-gest challenge awaits at the Sprint Center in Kan-sas City.

WVU’s path to the con-ference championship be-gins with a hurdle it has yet to clear this season: the fourth-seeded Baylor Bears.

Much like last season with Texas, West Virginia

is faced with its Goliath in the first round, and will be forced to come up with a way to contain rebound-ing machine Rico Gathers and the Bears’ sharp guard play in order to avoid a third loss to Baylor in a lit-tle over a month’s time.

With each game Juwan Staten and Gary Browne miss, and their playing sta-tus for the tournament still up in the air, West Virgin-ia’s young guards get a lit-tle more comfortable han-dling a lion’s share of the responsibility on offense.

Their first major test came at the Phog Allen Fieldhouse, and the Moun-taineers came as close to

passing as they could, but the moment became a bit too large as the sec-onds dwindled and Kansas clinched its 11th-straight regular season conference title.

Should they get past Baylor for the first time, it’s likely the Jayhawks will be awaiting the Mountaineers in the semifinal.

Though it lost the game, West Virginia seemed to gain some invaluable con-fidence against the Jay-hawks in Lawrence, and considering the Moun-taineers beat KU in Mor-gantown in early February, there is no reason to expect this potential matchup to

be another barn burner.With that said, without

at least one of their senior guard tandem, the Moun-taineers might be lost yet again in the clutch situa-tions against a team that has been there time and time again. The calm-ing presence of an emer-gent leader like Staten or Browne would be a critical addition in the formula to get to the final.

While I foresee West Vir-ginia’s side of the bracket as being less of a threat for a dose of March Madness, the same can’t be said for the bottom of the field.

Second-seeded Iowa State awaits the winner of

Texas and Texas Tech, and the winner of that game will take on whoever survives the Bedlam matchup be-tween third-seeded Okla-homa and sixth-seeded Oklahoma State.

No matter who comes out of that chaos, it would be a good matchup if West Virginia was to make it to the final. The Mountain-eers have been close, but have yet to get over the hump against Iowa State this year and have split their two games with Okla-homa and Texas, while sweeping Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.

dasports@mail.wvu.edu

West Virginia’s path to big 12 Tournament title

nick golden/the daily athenaeumWest Virginia freshman guard Jevon Carter battles Baylor’s Taurean Prince and Royce O’Neale for a rebound during a game earlier this season.

THE DAILY ATHENAEUMWednesday March 11, 2015 big 12 tournament edition | 3

Top five players to watch in Big 12 Tournament

By david schlakesports editor

@dschlake_wvu

All of these players made the All-Big 12 First Team, all of them are at the top of the stat sheets, and all of them will likely determine how the Big 12 Tournament plays out.

Buddy Hield, Oklahoma:Not only did the junior

guard out of Freeport, Ba-hamas just win Big 12 Player of the Year, but he can take a healthy portion of the credit for the Sooners’ success this season. He’s averaged a con-ference-best 17.4 points per game on the year, shooting 42.4 percent and 38 percent from beyond the arc. He’s registered at least 20 points in 11 games, including a 31-point day against Kan-

sas State, and put back the winning tip at the buzzer to knock off Kansas in the Soon-ers’ last regular season game. As Oklahoma faces state-rival Oklahoma State in their first matchup on Thursday, Hield will look to repeat a 27-point outing he had against the Cowboys earlier this season.

Perry Ellis, Kansas:Ellis suffered an injury

during Kansas’ overtime thriller against West Virginia last Tuesday and missed the Jayhawks’ final game of the season against Oklahoma, but if he’s healthy come Thursday, be ready for him to pick up where he left off. The junior forward out of Wichita, Kan., has been one of the most important pieces for the Jayhawks all year, as his consistent play helped

them seal their 11th-straight conference title. Averaging 14.2 points and seven re-bounds per game, Ellis has posted at least 20 points in four games this season, in-cluding a 28-point perfor-mance against Texas three days before his injury. As the Jayhawks lost to Oklahoma and almost had to swallow a season-sweep against West Virginia without him, it’s clear the Jayhawks need him healthy.

Rico Gathers, Baylor:Finishing best in the con-

ference in rebounding aver-aging 11.7 per game, there is no mistaking Gathers is an animal in the paint. He’s had numerous outings in which he’s grabbed more than 15 boards, but none stand out more than the 18

he recorded against TCU or the 28 and 25 points he re-coded against Huston-Tillot-son. Gathers has a likeable matchup to begin the tour-nament against West Vir-ginia. The Bears managed to complete the sweep against the Mountaineers, largely in part to Gathers’ gargantuan physicality down low. In both games against West Virginia, the 6-foot-8, 280-pound ju-nior forward put up double-double numbers, collectively registering 26 rebounds and 34 points.

Georges Niang, Iowa State:

For a significant portion of the season, Niang was thought to have had a shot at Big 12 Player of the Year hon-ors, averaging 15.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. Niang

has consistently been the en-gine under the Cyclones’ hood that has kept them in games throughout the sea-son. With seven games in which he’s posted at least 20 points, including a 30-point performance against Oak-land and a 28-point perfor-mance against Alabama, no one will be looking past the 6-foot-8, 230-pound ju-nior forward. However, in the event that Texas Tech tops Texas on Wednesday and matches up with the Cy-clones on Thursday, Niang will try to avoid repeating a season-low 7-point perfor-mance against the Red Raid-ers from a month ago.

Juwan Staten, West Virginia:

After the departure of West Virginia’s second and third-

leading scorers, Eron Harris and Terry Henderson, Juwan Staten made the decision to return to Morgantown and play his senior season. Many thought the Mountaineers would struggle without Hen-derson and Harris, but Staten took more of a leadership role. He led the team in scor-ing for the second year in a row and finished fifth in the conference, averaging 14.5 points per game, and has claimed several highlight moments, including a game-winning basket against Kan-sas in overtime. Staten has missed the Mountaineers’ last three games, so assum-ing he’s good to go for the tournament, expect him to be hungry.

dschlake@mail.wvu.edu

tulsaworld.comOklahoma guard Buddy Hield flashes threes during a game earlier this season.

foxsports.comKansas forward Perry Ellis takes a jumper during a game earlier this season.

nbcsports.comBaylor forward Rico Gathers celebrates during a game earlier this season.

espn.go.comIowa State forward Georges Niang shoots a free throw during a game this season.

nick golden/the daily athenaeumWest Virginia guard Juwan Staten stares down the defense earlier this season.

THE DAILY ATHENAEUM Wednesday March 11, 20154 | big 12 tournament edition

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SCENES OF THE SEASON

DOYLE MAURER/THE DAILY ATHENAEUMFreshman Jevon Carter is carried off the court after making game-winning free throws against TCU in overtime.

AskAR sALIkHOv/THE DAILY ATHENAEUMFans storm the court at the WVU Coliseum after West Virginia beat Kansas, 62-61.

fOxNEws.cOMWest Virginia players celebrate after upsetting UConn to win the Puerto Rico Tip-off Tournament Nov. 23.

ANDREw spELLMAN/THE DAILY ATHENAEUMJuwan Staten drives to the basket during the Mountaineers’ 86-65 win against Oklahoma.

wvUpROs.cOMFive-year old Nick Wince becomes a Mountaineer for a day as part of Make-A-Wish.

NIck gOLDEN/THE DAILY ATHENAEUMSeniors Juwan Staten and Gary Browne are honored during Senior Day before the Mountaineers’ game against Oklahoma State.

THE DAILY ATHENAEUMWednesday March 11, 2015 pagetitle | 5

2015 CHAMPIONSHIPFIRST ROUND

Wednesday, March 11QUARTERFINALS

Thursday, March 12SEMIFINALSFriday, March 13

CHAMPIONSHIPSaturday, March 14

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8 Kansas State

9 TCU

7 Texas

10 Texas Tech

4 Baylor

5 West Virginia

1 Kansas

3 Oklahoma

6 Oklahoma State

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THE DAILY ATHENAEUM Wednesday March 11, 20156 | BIG 12 TOURNAMENT EDITION

andrew spellman/the daily athenaeumSenior guard Juwan Staten drives into Oklahoma defenders in a game earlier this season.

Big 12 Tournament should be priority for WVUBy jacoB Bojesson

editor-in-chief @dailyathenaeum

Considering how things looked coming into this year’s men’s basketball season, we’re lucky to still be a part of it at this point. WVU has been off the radar for the past few years, missing two-straight NCAA Tournaments, so we should have no shame in taking a loser-mentality right now. Going into the Big 12 Tournament, know-ing West Virginia will be part of the big bracket Sun-day night, is above any-

one’s expectations. While the Mountain-

eers will likely sit their starting guards if there is even the slightest risk for their health, the tourna-ment can still give them a huge advantage going into March Madness.

Bracketologists, the definition of a sports nerd, currently predict WVU to hold a No. 5 seed going into the NCAA Tourna-ment. This is under the as-sumption WVU will lose to Baylor in the quarterfinals this Thursday, so dropping in the rankings is unlikely at this point.

What a No. 5 seed essen-tially means is a matchup with a No. 12 seed, which at least on paper should result in a win. As of Mon-day, WVU has an ex-tremely preliminary pre-diction to play either Iowa or BYU in this game. Far from sleepers, but on a level the Mountaineers should feel confident go-ing up against.

Where it starts getting tricky is the round of 32. Here WVU would pos-sibly face a No. 4 seed, which means a ranked regular season team on the bottom half of the Top

25 such as Louisville and Utah.

Should the Mountain-eers on the other hand make a run in Kansas City, Mo., and beat Bay-lor (climb to No. 4), and maybe Kansas (possibly climb to No. 3), the out-come going into the NCAA Tournament would be slightly or even consider-ably different, meaning an easier route to the Sweet 16. At that point, you’re original seeding means less and less as teams pull upsets on one another along the way.

Playing at No. 4 or No. 5

might not sound like that big of a difference, and for most teams it probably isn’t, but with the excep-tion of Kansas, West Vir-ginia has had a hard time with teams higher than it-self in the rankings.

Further, history has shown a clear correlation between you’re seeding and how far you go in the tournament, even when it comes to the difference of starting as a No. 4 or No. 5.

And that’s why West Vir-ginia should really make this Big 12 Tournament a priority. When things work, the Mountaineers

play at a high level where they can compete with some of the best in the na-tion. When things don’t work, they can get blown out by any of 40 or so teams in the nation. There is depth, but you never know what you’re going to get from this West Virginia team since the core talent is probably well below its season record. It’s been teamwork all season long.

Striving to gain any ad-vantage they still can, is es-sential to make any sort of push later on this month.

carl.bojesson@mail.wvu.edu

THE DAILY ATHENAEUMWednesday March 11, 2015 BIG 12 TOURNAMENT EDITION | 7

No. 18 West Virginia faces No. 16 Baylor in round oneBy ryaN petroVich

sports writer @dailyathenaeum

With the regular sea-son in the books, No. 18 West Virginia will en-ter the Big 12 Conference tournament in an effort to make one last push for a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Standing in the Moun-taineers way, however, is No. 16 Baylor. Baylor earned a four seed in the Big 12 Tournament, while West Virginia achieved a five seed.

This isn’t a favorable matchup for West Vir-

ginia. The Bears com-pleted a season sweep of the Mountaineers, follow-ing a 78-66 win just a few weeks ago.

“I was kind of excited (to play Baylor),” said Jevon Carter. “We lost to them two times and haven’t beaten them yet. Hav-ing them first in the Big 12 (Tournament), that’s a good opportunity for us.”

Baylor boasts a lot of tal-ent and head coach Scott Drew has done a marvel-ous job with his team this season. Baylor finished fourth in the Big 12 stand-ings, displaying identi-cal finishing records with

West Virginia (23-8 over-all and 11-7 in the Big 12).

But, it’s not just the fact that West Virginia lost twice to Baylor during the regular season that makes this a less than ideal matchup, there’s a reason the Mountaineers lost to this team and why it could spell an early exit for WVU.

Both times West Vir-ginia met Baylor, the Bears did a good job handling the Mountaineers’ pres-sure. Applying pressure has been the key compo-nent for West Virginia all season, but when it’s inef-fective it doesn’t fair well for the Mountaineers.

Baylor possesses quick and lengthy forwards who are able to aid their guards in breaking West Virginia’s full court press.

It’s also a challenge in-side the lane for West Vir-ginia to compete with the likes of Rico Gathers and Royce O’Neale. While the stats show West Virginia isn’t that far off in terms of rebounding, make no mis-take that Baylor is aggres-sive under the basket and has proven to be a chal-lenge for West Virginia’s forwards.

Leading Baylor on the season is Taurean Prince, who is averaging

14 points per game. Gath-ers sits behind him av-eraging 11.6 points per contest.

Over the two games versus the Mountaineers, Gathers scored a com-bined 34 points and reeled in 26 rebounds. He had a double-double in both outings.

It will once again be up to forwards Devin Wil-liams and Jonathan Holton to make their presence in-side the lane felt. Should both flounder close to the basket, Baylor will profit.

In the team’s first meet-ing, West Virginia was at full force, meaning point

guard Juwan Staten and guard Gary Browne were on the floor. In the sec-ond meeting, however, Staten missed the entire game due to his knee in-jury and Browne left the game with an ankle injury just three minutes into the game.

With or without Staten and Browne, both games were blowout losses. De-spite the losses, Carter re-mains confident in his team.

“I got a good feeling, I think we’re going to go far,” he said.

dasports@mail.wvu.edu

WVU finishes season on somewhat of a high noteBy Nicole cUrtiN

associate sports editor @nicolec_wVu

The regular season for the West Virginia men’s basketball team came to a close over the weekend in a win over Oklahoma State. After a 17-16 finish with a 9-9 conference re-cord last year, the Moun-taineers missed the NCAA Tournament for the sec-ond straight season and looking to the 2014-15 sea-son there was a very un-certain feel.

After last season, WVU lost three players: Eron Harris, Terry Henderson and Remi Dibo. Harris and Henderson were right under guard Juwan Staten in scoring, averaging 17.2 and 11.7 points per game respectively.

With these two lead-ers leaving, eyes were locked on Staten to see how his leadership might turn things around this year.

The Mountaineers went on an eight-game win streak to start the sea-son before losing to LSU in early December. After

winning the Puerto Rico Tip-Off over Thanksgiv-ing break, West Virginia hit the AP Top 25 in the No. 21 spot and reached as high as No. 16 this season.

One of the only teams to use a full court press defense in every game, WVU led the nation in to-tal steals, steals per game and is second nationally in turnover margin. Aver-aging 11.1 steals per game, the Mountaineers grabbed 343 as of the end of the reg-ular season. The turnovers that a press defense creates establish constant oppor-tunities for easy buckets and West Virginia finished with a turnover margin of 6.9 per game. For the 618 turnovers it forced upon its opponents, WVU only gave up 404.

While utilizing such a strong defense may have made scoring somewhat easier, the schedule WVU faced was in no way easy.

Before conference play got underway in January, the Mountaineers were rolling with their early season games. By Jan. 3, the first Big 12 game of the

season, WVU was ranked No. 17 and had a record of 12-1.

Adversity was not some-thing the Mountaineers were able to stay away from with injuries to Staten, Browne and sophomore Devin Williams. Staten averaged 14.5 points per game but missed the last three games. Aside from his scoring, he racked up 125 assists on the season, so having him out at all was some-thing that West Virginia dreaded.

Having him and Browne out for the final two games of the season showed the true colors of freshman Jevon Carter and other un-derclassmen who had an opportunity to step up to the plate. In their overtime loss to No. 8 Kansas last week and defeating Okla-homa State over the week-end, Mountaineer fans got to see firsthand how the team operates without Staten and may have had their faith restored.

West Virginia was never able to defeat Bay-lor or Iowa State in regu-lar season play, but it has

an opportunity for some redemption in the con-ference tournament this week.

The Mountaineers fin-ished with a season re-cord of 23-8 and a Big 12 record of 11-7, fourth in the league. They are hold-ing on to second place in the conference for scor-ing offense, first in turn-over margin and several other top positions in sea-son averages.

Head coach Bob Hug-gins was awarded Big 12 Coach of the Year; Staten was named to All-Big 12 First Team; Wil-liams earned an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention and Carter was named to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team.

After two years of not entering the NCAA Tour-nament, West Virginia is projected to enter as a five-seed this year. It’s safe to say while there were doubts about how this season would pan out in late October, it was a comeback year for the Mountaineers.

ncurtin@mail.wvu.edu

nick golden/the daily athenaeumDevin Williams puts in a layup in Saturday’s game against Oklahoma State.

THE DAILY ATHENAEUM Wednesday March 11, 20158 | AD