| Story of the Tape |  |
|
|---|---|---|
| Factors Per Sport | 74.9 | 74.2 |
| Scoring Margin | +4.4 | +10.8 |
| Subject Purpose Share | .466 | .435 |
| OPP Subject Purpose Share | .419 | .382 |
| 3-PT Subject Purpose Share | .355 | .347 |
| Opp 3-PT Subject Purpose Share | .332 | .279 |
| Free Throw Share | .769 | .759 |
| Rebounds Per Sport | 36.4 | 36.6 |
| Assists Per Sport | 16.9 | 14.6 |
| Turnovers Per Sport | 15.1 | 11.4 |
| Steals Per Sport | 7.9 | 7.7 |
| Blocks Per Sport | 3.8 | 5.6 |
| Streak | L3 | L1 |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is trying to get again to its profitable methods this weekend when it travels to Colorado to face the Buffaloes in a Sunday afternoon Large 12 matchup on the CU Occasions Heart in Boulder.
It’s the first-ever assembly between the 2 faculties.
Colorado, 9-5 general and 0-3 in league play, is coming off terrific season in 2024 when it received 26 video games and misplaced within the second spherical of the NCAA Event to Marquette.
Veteran coach Tad Boyle, a Kansas graduate, misplaced all 5 starters from that crew, together with three NBA draft picks – Cody Williams, KJ Simpson and Tristian da Silva. West Virginia coach Darian DeVries stated earlier right this moment that he has identified Boyle since Boyle’s days as an assistant coach at Wichita State when DeVries was an assistant at Creighton.
Boyle goes nine-deep this yr, led by 6-foot-2 senior guard Julian Hammond III, who’s averaging a team-best 13.6 factors per sport.
Washington State switch Andrej Jakimovski, a 6-foot-8 ahead, is contributing 11.4 factors and 4.7 rebounds per contest whereas Elijah Malone, a 6-foot-10 senior middle, exhibits averages of 10.9 factors and three.7 rebounds per sport.
Senior ahead Trevor Baskin is the crew’s high rebounder flattening 6.2 boards per contest. The 6-foot-8, 205-pounder can also be averaging 9.2 factors per sport.
“They play extremely exhausting, they usually have nice steadiness,” DeVries stated. “They’ve a roster the place everyone averages between eight and 13 factors, so that they play to their strengths, they do it very effectively, they usually play very effectively at house. They’d Iowa State down 5 with about 9 minutes to go within the sport final week.”
Colorado started the season with consecutive victories over Jap Washington, Northern Colorado, Cal State Fullerton and Harvard, and had a giant nonconference win over Connecticut on Nov. 26 in Maui.
One other four-game profitable streak towards Pacific, Colorado State, South Dakota State and Bellarmine preceded its three-game Large 12 shedding skid to Iowa State, Arizona State and UCF.
Colorado additionally exhibits losses to Iowa State and Michigan State outdoors of league play.
In its most up-to-date defeat at UCF on Wednesday night time, the Buffaloes turned the ball over 22 occasions resulting in 24 factors for the Knights. Colorado shot a scorching 52.2% and had a five-rebound benefit on the glass however could not get a profitable shot to go down on the finish.
Hammond scored a career-high 26 factors on 8 of 14 taking pictures, whereas Jakimovski added 16, together with 4 of 5 from 3-point distance. Bangot Dak, a 6-foot-11 middle, added 10 and RJ Smith, a 6-foot-3 guard, pulled down a career-high eight rebounds.
Colorado boasts eight gamers on its roster 6-feet-8 inches or taller and 6 of them play important minutes.
“They wish to put up it, they usually wish to drive it,” DeVries stated. “They’ll attempt to stay within the paint, which is similar to our final sport, so we have got to do a greater job of protecting the ball out of the paint on this sport.”
That might be a problem for an undersized West Virginia crew that has been coping with some accidents.
The Mountaineers (11-3, 2-1) noticed their seven-game profitable streak come to an finish Tuesday night time in Morgantown when Arizona defeated them 75-56. DeVries anticipates Colorado utilizing an analogous method of attempting to pound it inside once they meet on Sunday afternoon
The Wildcats shot 50.8% from the ground whereas limiting West Virginia to simply 36.2%. Javon Small managed to attain 17, however no different Mountaineer participant reached double figures. Improved offensive effectivity is one thing DeVries stated his crew has been engaged on in apply since then.
“Our offense has form of slowed down and slowed down at occasions, so we have got to determine methods to proceed to get extra motion after which convert once we do have some good alternatives,” he stated. “We had 4 or 5 transition alternatives, and we have to get these two-on-ones and convert at a better fee than what we did.”
A 3 p.m. tipoff has been assigned for Sunday’s sport, to be televised on ESPN+.
Mountaineer Sports activities Community radio protection with Tony Caridi, Brad Howe and David Kahn will get issues began at 2 p.m. on stations all through West Virginia, on-line through WVUsports.com, and the Varsity Community and WVU Gameday apps.
WVU will stay on the street and play at Houston subsequent Wednesday night time.
