The No. 10 West Virginia men?s basketball team will face its last test before beginning Big 12 Conference play on Saturday afternoon when Fordham makes its way to the Coliseum.
Now the winners of 10 games in a row, the Mountaineers are confident they?re ready for what?s to come in conference play, but they also know that they can?t overlook any opponents.
?We?re doing well right now and I think everyone is excited to get into the Big 12 season, but we know we still have one to play before that,? WVU freshman Teddy Allen said. ?We know we have to take care of business against them and then we can keep moving forward.?
Fordham comes into the game sitting at 5-6 on the season and the Rams are coming off a win on Thursday against Florida A&M.
They?re led by Will Tavares, who is averaging 16.6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. The team also has Prokop Slanina (12.8 points per game) and Joseph Chartouny (10.8 points per game) who are averaging double figures in the scoring column.
Jevon Carter leads WVU (10-1) in scoring, averaging 18.9 points per game while Daxter Miles averages 14.3.
West Virginia will look to do what it does best and continue to force turnovers by the bunches against a Fordham team that has also been good at winning the turnover battle this season. While the Mountaineers are first in the nation in turnover margin, the Rams come in at No. 19 ? averaging 12.5 turnovers per game while forcing 17.3.
It will be a good chance for WVU to see if the adjustments that it made to its press have continued to work as the Mountaineers try to get Fordham out of its comfort zone and create some easy buckets from their defense.
West Virginia also knows that, if it wants to do what it needs to do on Saturday, that will mean coming out with a little more energy than it had offensively early on in Wednesday?s win over Coppin State.
?We didn?t have very good practices [earlier in the week]. They haven?t been in the gym as much as they were earlier. Bumps and bruises come with it, so then you start to feel a little sorry for yourself,? Huggins said. ?[The pressure on defense] was a little better. You didn?t see the straight-line drives where we would just turn guys loose to the rim, so that has gotten better.?
The Mountaineers had their worst shooting performance of the season, but were able to use that defensive pressure to force a season-high 28 turnovers and overcome those struggles and leave with a comfortable margin of victory. They know those are the kind of things they?ll need to be ready as they use Saturday to keep improving and continue to prepare for conference play.
?Teams are going to make runs no matter who they are, but we just settled down and tried to turn it up on defense,? Miles said. ?We?re getting ready [for Big 12 play]. I?m ready to go whenever, but we?re going to be ready when the time comes.?
Fordham comes into the game with a few connections to this WVU team on its coaching staff. Coach Jeff Neubauer was an assistant at West Virginia under John Beilein before beginning his career as a head coach at Eastern Kentucky while Neubauer?s lead assistant, Rodney Crawford, played for Huggins at Cincinnati.
Now the winners of 10 games in a row, the Mountaineers are confident they?re ready for what?s to come in conference play, but they also know that they can?t overlook any opponents.
?We?re doing well right now and I think everyone is excited to get into the Big 12 season, but we know we still have one to play before that,? WVU freshman Teddy Allen said. ?We know we have to take care of business against them and then we can keep moving forward.?
Fordham comes into the game sitting at 5-6 on the season and the Rams are coming off a win on Thursday against Florida A&M.
They?re led by Will Tavares, who is averaging 16.6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. The team also has Prokop Slanina (12.8 points per game) and Joseph Chartouny (10.8 points per game) who are averaging double figures in the scoring column.
Jevon Carter leads WVU (10-1) in scoring, averaging 18.9 points per game while Daxter Miles averages 14.3.
West Virginia will look to do what it does best and continue to force turnovers by the bunches against a Fordham team that has also been good at winning the turnover battle this season. While the Mountaineers are first in the nation in turnover margin, the Rams come in at No. 19 ? averaging 12.5 turnovers per game while forcing 17.3.
It will be a good chance for WVU to see if the adjustments that it made to its press have continued to work as the Mountaineers try to get Fordham out of its comfort zone and create some easy buckets from their defense.
West Virginia also knows that, if it wants to do what it needs to do on Saturday, that will mean coming out with a little more energy than it had offensively early on in Wednesday?s win over Coppin State.
?We didn?t have very good practices [earlier in the week]. They haven?t been in the gym as much as they were earlier. Bumps and bruises come with it, so then you start to feel a little sorry for yourself,? Huggins said. ?[The pressure on defense] was a little better. You didn?t see the straight-line drives where we would just turn guys loose to the rim, so that has gotten better.?
The Mountaineers had their worst shooting performance of the season, but were able to use that defensive pressure to force a season-high 28 turnovers and overcome those struggles and leave with a comfortable margin of victory. They know those are the kind of things they?ll need to be ready as they use Saturday to keep improving and continue to prepare for conference play.
?Teams are going to make runs no matter who they are, but we just settled down and tried to turn it up on defense,? Miles said. ?We?re getting ready [for Big 12 play]. I?m ready to go whenever, but we?re going to be ready when the time comes.?
Fordham comes into the game with a few connections to this WVU team on its coaching staff. Coach Jeff Neubauer was an assistant at West Virginia under John Beilein before beginning his career as a head coach at Eastern Kentucky while Neubauer?s lead assistant, Rodney Crawford, played for Huggins at Cincinnati.
