North Texas @ West Virginia preview
WVU Coliseum
For five games, No. 11 West Virginia has journeyed to Sioux Falls, Indianapolis and Washington D.C. to get its season underway.
After getting four wins on their trek, the Mountaineers finally play their home opener Friday afternoon when they host North Texas.
The Mountaineers (4-1) were originally going to play Robert Morris on Wednesday, but that game became another cancellation in college basketball due to COVID-19 protocols. West Virginia quickly found a replacement in North Texas, which it has never faced.
West Virginia is taking the floor after getting wins over South Dakota State, VCU and Western Kentucky in Sioux Falls and a win at former Big East rival Georgetown on Sunday. The Mountaineers posted an 80-71 win vs. the Hoyas in the Big East-Big 12 Battle after taking an 87-82 loss to top-ranked Gonzaga on Dec. 2 in Indianapolis.
Miles McBride was the star Sunday when he flirted with a triple-double by getting 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in a game the Mountaineers trailed by six with 13 1/2 minutes remaining.
McBride is West Virginia's second-leading scorer at 15.2 points just behind Derek Culver's 15.4 points. Culver battled foul trouble Sunday but managed to score 14 points in 18 minutes.
McBride's performance came on a day in which coach Bob Huggins, who normally prefers man-to-man, used a zone defense and it resulted in forcing 15 turnovers.
"We wanted to change the tempo a little bit," Huggins said. "They were coming off those ball screens pretty hard at us, and that kind of stopped a couple of those ball screen things. It's a work in progress, to say the least."
The zone defense also occurred on a day in which West Virginia scored at least 75 points for the fourth time.
North Texas (1-2) won the Conference USA title last season and are projected to place second in the league's preseason poll.
The Mean Green are playing their third straight game against a Power Five school after taking losses at Arkansas and Mississippi State. North Texas took a 15-point loss to Arkansas on Nov. 28 and then shot 35.7 percent in a 69-63 setback at Mississippi State last Friday.
Freshman Rubin Jones scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half while leading scorer Zachary Simmons posted a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Despite Simmons' double-double, the Mean Green faltered in the paint. They were outscored by a whopping 44-22 margin in the paint.
"Offensive rebounds and put-back in key moments really hurt us," North Texas coach Grant McCasland said. "They got the ball in the paint late in the game and it was the difference.
While North Texas has never faced West Virginia, McCasland has some experience coaching against Huggins. He was an assistant for Baylor from 2011-16 and faced the Mountaineers nine times after they entered the conference in the 2012-13 season.
North Texas men's basketball is 5-96 all-time against ranked teams, and its last win against a ranked team was in 1971 over Louisville.
--Field Level Media