My Fiver on WVU's loss to BYU in Provo, Spain, on Saturday late into the night....
1. With 3 minutes to go in the first half, Sincere Harris drove in and converted a layup to give WVU a 19-15 lead in what had been a fairly miserable offensive performance from both squads. Rockfight basketball. Then, the final 2 & half minutes of the first half was a complete meltdown on the WVU side. Over the final 2 & a half, WVU would commit two fouls, go 0-4 from the field, and give away a live ball TO. Predictably, BYU took a 25-19 lead into the half, and if you've followed WVU sports like I have, you knew the game was essentially over.
2. The next time WVU would score from the field would be a rare Jon Powell trey with 16:24 left in the game, to cut the lead to 24-35. This ended a 20-2 BYU run over 7 game minutes.
3. Toby Okani has missed more bunnies off the front of the rim than any other WVU player I can recall in a long, long time. For the love of God, try to bank it in - at least give it a chance. For a 6'8" dude with some serious bounce, he is really bad at finishing at or near the rim.
4. Fousseyni Traore - BYU's 6'6" monster in the middle, loves playing WVU. 20 points and 10 rebounds for their "big" who gave up a couple inches to Amani Hansberry, and up to 5 inches to Eduardo Andre. This was Traore's first double-double of the season, first game over 20 in Big 12 play. Obviously Darian DeVries & Co. worked to take away BYU's three-point shooting ability, and decided to see if BYU could and would beat us inside. Well, that worked for around 17 game minutes. Then, BYU and Traore worked us inside, and hit a few from the outside in the 2nd half en route to 52 2nd half points. Traore just big boy'd us.
5. OK, this is it. Tuesday, WVU plays at Utah at 9pm EST to determine whether or not WVU makes it to the Big Dance. We will beat UCF at home Saturday. 19 wins and we are "in", absent some sort of complete meltdown in all of the conference tournaments. 18 wins and we will need to win one, maybe two, at the Big 12 Tournament. So, WVU's NCAA fate runs through Josh Eilert.
1. With 3 minutes to go in the first half, Sincere Harris drove in and converted a layup to give WVU a 19-15 lead in what had been a fairly miserable offensive performance from both squads. Rockfight basketball. Then, the final 2 & half minutes of the first half was a complete meltdown on the WVU side. Over the final 2 & a half, WVU would commit two fouls, go 0-4 from the field, and give away a live ball TO. Predictably, BYU took a 25-19 lead into the half, and if you've followed WVU sports like I have, you knew the game was essentially over.
2. The next time WVU would score from the field would be a rare Jon Powell trey with 16:24 left in the game, to cut the lead to 24-35. This ended a 20-2 BYU run over 7 game minutes.
3. Toby Okani has missed more bunnies off the front of the rim than any other WVU player I can recall in a long, long time. For the love of God, try to bank it in - at least give it a chance. For a 6'8" dude with some serious bounce, he is really bad at finishing at or near the rim.
4. Fousseyni Traore - BYU's 6'6" monster in the middle, loves playing WVU. 20 points and 10 rebounds for their "big" who gave up a couple inches to Amani Hansberry, and up to 5 inches to Eduardo Andre. This was Traore's first double-double of the season, first game over 20 in Big 12 play. Obviously Darian DeVries & Co. worked to take away BYU's three-point shooting ability, and decided to see if BYU could and would beat us inside. Well, that worked for around 17 game minutes. Then, BYU and Traore worked us inside, and hit a few from the outside in the 2nd half en route to 52 2nd half points. Traore just big boy'd us.
5. OK, this is it. Tuesday, WVU plays at Utah at 9pm EST to determine whether or not WVU makes it to the Big Dance. We will beat UCF at home Saturday. 19 wins and we are "in", absent some sort of complete meltdown in all of the conference tournaments. 18 wins and we will need to win one, maybe two, at the Big 12 Tournament. So, WVU's NCAA fate runs through Josh Eilert.
