After defeating Cincinnati 69-65 at home Wednesday, the Mountaineers men’s basketball team will host another new Big 12 opponent in No. 22 BYU on Saturday.
West Virginia has undoubtedly played their best at home this season, picking up all of their eight wins in the WVU Coliseum, including wins over former No. 25 Texas and former No. 3 Kansas.
The Cougars are coming off a win vs Texas at home, where they defeated the Longhorns 84-72. They began their season 8-0, before losing to rival Utah on the road and then won four-in-a-row entering conference play.
In Big 12 play, BYU has been streaky, they lost to Cincinnati and No. 18 Baylor before defeating UCF and No. 12 Iowa State. The Cougars would then drop two straight against No. 15 Texas Tech and No. 4 Houston ahead of their matchup with Texas.
However, BYU still holds a very large scoring margin of +18.6, averaging 84.3 points per game and allowing 65.7 ppg on average, compared to West Virginia’s scoring margin of -3.9, scoring 68.3 ppg, allowing 72.2 ppg.
The Cougars’ top scorer on average is 6-foot-7 guard Jaxson Robinson who averages just under 14 ppg. Robinson was previously at Arkansas and Texas A&M, before joining BYU last season.
For WVU, the return of Jesse Edwards to the starting lineup was crucial in their win over the Bearcats on Wednesday.
In 29 minutes, Edwards achieved a double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds to go along with four blocks.
The 6-foot-11 center from the Netherlands could see similar success against BYU as he continues to progress, recovering from a fractured wrist that kept him sidelined from mid-Dec. to late-Jan.
This will be the third all-time meeting against Brigham Young and West Virginia, with the Mountaineers winning the first matchup in 1947 and the Cougars winning the last in 1973.
According to ESPN Analytics’ Matchup Predictor, BYU has a 75.7% chance of coming out victorious Saturday.
Tipoff from Morgantown is set for 6:00 p.m. EST with the game being streamed to ESPN+.
