West Virginia men’s basketball begins Big 12 play Saturday, and things are only intensifying. After a 5-8 finish to non-conference play, the Mountaineers hit the road to face No. 3 Houston to open Big 12 play.
“Early game on Saturday in Houston and we won’t have a shootaround on Saturday morning and so we’ll go down to travel down to Houston [Friday] early afternoon and practice there on their court and get ready to go compete against a very good Houston team and a very physical team that is going to present a lot of challenges. But we’re looking forward to taking on that challenge,” WVU interim head coach Josh Eilert said on Thursday.
The Cougars have made their name this season by being a defensive team scoring an average of 75.9 points a game, while holding opponents to an average of just 49.4 points a game.
West Virginia, on the other hand, has averaged 68.3 points a game, allowing opponents to score an average of 69.5 points a game.
“The Texas A&M game for sure was one of the most physical games I’ve seen all year on film,” Eilert said of Houston’s performance, a game Houston won, 70-66
Houston has averaged 11.2 steals and 5.4 blocks a game, while also out-rebounding opponents by an average of nine per game and rank fifth in the country with 16 offensive rebounds per game this season.
Still without Jesse Edwards as he recovers from injury, the Mountaineers could struggle mightily in the rebounding department against the Cougars.
“It’s a huge concern, I mean certainly it’s a concern no matter who we play. I’ve brought that up before we even played a game, defensive rebounding is going to be an issue,” Eilert said.
While they may be outmatched, West Virginia will look to certain players to step up big and create momentum, such as Pat Suemnick.
Suemnick is coming off a career game against Ohio State, finishing with nine points and five rebounds last Saturday.
“He’s one of the biggest, strongest guys on the floor,” Eilert said of Suemnick. “He’s going to be critical to our success coming up in the game against Houston because of how physical they play. And from our standpoint, he’s got to bring that same physicality to them, so we can match head-on.”
Offensively, West Virginia will look to facilitate their scoring attack through back-to-back Big 12 Player of the Week RaeQuan Battle, who has averaged 27.3 points and 6.3 rebounds in three games. A familiar name will be going against Battle in L.J. Cryer who scored 26 points in his last game against WVU on Feb. 13, 2023, as a member of Baylor.
Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. from the Fertitta Center in Houston, and the game will be televised on ESPN+.
