West Virginia is back on the road Tuesday night as the Mountaineers face off against No. 15 TCU in Fort Worth. TCU will be without their leading scorer Mike Miles who hyperextended his knee in TCU’s loss to Mississippi State on Saturday.
West Virginia beat TCU less than two weeks ago at the WVU Coliseum, 74-65. In that game, Miles scored 21 points, as TCU was unable to recover from a first half deficit.
With the Horned Frogs set to be without Miles, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said not much will change as TCU has multiple guys who can score in their lineup.
“I don’t think it changes it very much,” Huggins said of his game plan facing a TCU squad without Miles. “They’ve got multiple guys that make shots and I watched a bunch of their games yesterday and when Miles has a bad day, they have a lot of other people that are very capable of stepping up.”
Miles has missed three games for the Horned Frogs this season. In those three games, TCU is 2-1, with their loss coming at home to Northwestern State early in the year.
In those three games without Miles, Chuck O’Bannon, who is averaging 7.8 points per game on the year, averaged 11.3 points across those three games. Against West Virginia, O’Bannon scored just five points the first time around, while playing 28 minutes.
Two guys who will have to step up for TCU are Damion Baugh, and Emmanuel Miller. Baugh is averaging 12.7 points per game this year, while Miller is averaging 13.5. Against the Mountaineers, both Baugh and Miller finished with 13 points.
“They’ve got at least three or four guys that are really, really good shooters and they’ve got guys that handle the ball well,” Huggins said. “Obviously [Mike’s] a great player. They’re going to miss him but, they’ve got a whole bunch of other guys who I think can step up for them.”
As for the flip side, West Virginia has been seeing a new and improved bench compared to the start of the season.
In West Virginia’s last four games, the guys off the bench are scoring 32 percent of West Virginia’s points. Part of the reason why is Joe Toussaint, averaging 10.3 points per game over the last four games. Toussaint could be a factor again for West Virginia as starting point guard Kedrian Johnson continues to deal with an ankle injury.
“Keddy’s (Johnson) been really banged up, has not been what Keddy was early on,” Huggins said. “They’ve really banged him up and Joe’s (Toussaint) come in and done a terrific job for us.”
West Virginia will also look to continue to find production from Erik Stevenson on Tuesday. Stevenson is coming off a two-game stretch in which he recorded his first-career double-double, and followed that performance up with a career-high 31 points on Saturday.
“Erik’s (Stevenson) kind of found himself,” Huggins said. “He’s become much more of a team player I think his understanding of where and when he can get shots is so much better.”
TCU is currently 5-3 in Big 12 play, 1.5 games out of first place. The Mountaineers are 2-6 in Big 12 play, which ranks eighth in the league. In their last five meetings in Fort Worth, TCU is 4-1 against West Virginia.
Tip-off for Tuesday night’s game between the Horned Frogs and the Mountaineers is set for 9:00 p.m. and will be televised on ESPNU.
Photo by Aaron Parker, Blue Gold Sports
