NFL Tickets
On Friday evening, it will be the West Virginia Mountaineers and Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks getting together from Brooklyn. The Mountaineers return to the NCAA tournament for the second season in a row following a two-year hiatus. Stephen F. Austin is making its third-straight trip to the Big Dance after only making it once in its history prior to 2014.
The Mountaineers are coming off of an extremely impressive season that saw them finish 26-8 and claim the No. 2 spot in the Big 12 during the regular season. Bob Huggins‘ team then defeated TCU in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals and Oklahoma in the semis before losing to regular season champion Kansas in the finals.
The Lumberjacks are the regular season and tournament champions of the Southland Conference. In fact, they’ve won 20 games in a row on their way to a perfect 18-0 regular season conference record followed by wins over Houston Baptist and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Southland tournament.
What To Watch For
West Virginia has earned the nickname ‘Press Virginia’ as it has become synonymous for its full-court press. Huggins has a gluttony of guards at his disposal, and lengthy bigs, which helps the Mountaineers keep the pressure on for the entire game. They led Division I in turnovers forced this season with 18.1 per game and their style tends to wear teams out in the second half.
The Mountaineers aren’t the most polished group on offense. They only shoot 45 percent from the field and 33 percent from three-point range, but their aggressive style allows them to put up 15-20 more shot attempts than their opponents on a nightly basis.
Although Jaysean Paige leads the team in scoring at 13.9 points per game, Devin Williams is the team’s most important player as he averages 13.9 points and 9.3 rebounds despite being West Virginia’s lone low-post presence.
Right behind West Virginia in most turnovers forced per game is Stephen F. Austin as the Lumberjacks force 17.9. These two teams are nearly a mirror image of each other as they employ a full-court press, in-your-face defense. Thomas Walkup is the Lumberjacks’ best player as he averages 17.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
Prediction
This game figures to feature a lot of turnovers and some gritty defense. The one thing separating the two teams is Williams. Stephen F. Austin doesn’t have a big man with the strength and girth of Williams, which will make it tough for it to defend. Look for Huggins to devise a gameplan to get the ball inside as much as possible as the Mountaineers move on to the Round of 32 in a game that will be closer than experts think.
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