nick Jarvis/the daily athenaeum

GAMEDAY EDITION

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THE DAILY ATHENAEUM Tuesday January 13, 20152 | gameday edition

kyle monroe/the daily athenaeumHead coach Bob Huggins in a game earlier this season.

doyle maurer/the daily athenaeumJunior forward Jonathan Holton passes the ball in a game against LSU.

doyle maurer/the daily athenaeumFreshman guard Jevon Carter on defense in a game against LSU.

doyle maurer/the daily athenaeumSenior guard Gary Browne dribbles down the court.

doyle maurer/the daily athenaeumSenior guard Juwan Staten passing the ball in a game against LSU.

doyle maurer/the daily athenaeumSophomore forward Devin Williams grabs a loose ball earlier this season.

THE DAILY ATHENAEUMTuesday January 13, 2015 GAMEDAY EDITION | 3

West Virginia welcomes Oklahoma to Morgantown

file photoSophomore forward Devin Williams pulls up for a jumper during the Mountaineers’ home game against Oklahoma last season.

by NicOle curtiNassociate sports editor

@nickelbobickel

Coming off their loss over the weekend to No. 17 Iowa State, the No. 14 West Virginia Mountaineers are taking on the No. 16 Okla-homa Sooners Tuesday night.

Oklahoma had won four straight games before they lost to Kansas State at home on Saturday. The Sooners are 11-4 on the season, 2-1 in the Big 12, while the Mountaineers are 14-2, 2-1 Big 12.

When the two teams first played each other during

WVU’s inaugural Big 12 season, Oklahoma won 67-57 in Morgantown and 70-63 in Norman, Okla. Last season West Virginia finally took a win in over-time 91-86 only to lose again at Oklahoma 72-62.

The Sooners lost se-niors Cameron Clark and Tyler Neal after last sea-son. Clark averaged 16.1 points a game and led the team with 19 points the last time they faced West Vir-ginia. This season junior Buddy Hield is leading Oklahoma, averaging 16.8 points a game, and senior TaShawn Thomas is mak-ing an impact with 11.9 a

game.In their first matchup,

then-junior Juwan Staten dropped 20 points on OU, and 24 the second time the two teams played. Staten was averaging 18.1 points a game last season, and 16.5 a game so far this sea-son, with junior Jonathan Holton and sophomore Devin Williams both con-tributing about 10 points a game.

Last season Williams played well against the Sooners in both match-ups, putting up 28 points in their game at home and 14 in Norman.

Before losing to Kansas

State this past weekend, Oklahoma handed a tough loss to No. 10 Texas in Aus-tin, 70-49. The Sooners forced 12 turnovers from the Longhorns, held them to 30 percent from the field and grabbed 42 rebounds. Cousins, Hield, Spangler and Thomas have all com-bined for 289 defensive re-bounds this season for the Sooners while the Moun-taineers’ top rebound-ers have only gotten 191 defensively.

In their loss to K-State, Oklahoma had 13 turnovers of their own and shot about 40 percent from the field, but it wasn’t enough in the

end to take the win. The score stayed very close for the last eight minutes of the game.

West Virginia was on a seven-game win streak be-fore losing to Iowa State on Saturday night. In their early January game against the Texas Tech Red Raid-ers, the Mountaineers shot 47.6 percent from the field but only managed 32.4 percent against Iowa State.

Oklahoma has a strong rebound game, especially defensively, and WVU has struggled in that de-partment in their last two games, grabbing 22 from

Texas Tech and only 19 from Iowa State.

Both teams are one-loss teams in the confer-ence and want to keep that streak alive. West Virginia is sitting at third in the Big 12 and Oklahoma at fifth–while they can’t move up in the league unless Kan-sas or Iowa State lose a game, another conference win would give them the chance to do so.

Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Coliseum, and the game will be broadcast on ESPNEWS as well.

dasports@mail.wvu.edu

THE DAILY ATHENAEUM Tuesday January 13, 20154 | MUSINGS

The WVU Men's basketball team is ready to get back into the win column at home against the Oklahoma Sooners. This past weekend the men lost a tough game at home against a ranked Iowa State team 74-72 and their record now stands at 14-2 (2-1). The Sooners are coming to Morgantown after a tough over-time loss at home against Kansas State and they have an over-all record of 11-4. Let's get our first home Big 12 win against the Sooners!!!

SO LET’S DO OUR PART TO MAKE THE WVU COLISEUM THE HARDEST PLACE TO PLAY IN

THE BIG 12

VS

TRADITION CHEERS Visitor Introductions: Read the Newspaper, then rip it up and throw in the air like confetti after the first basket made by WVU Jump! : Jump up and down and get crazy for the opening tip-off and after we make a three point shot or a slam dunk. Chorus of Voices: JUST YELL during Big De-fensive series Shot clock: Alternate countdown methods, first when the opponent has the ball and the shot clock reaches thirteen, countdown be-ginning from 10. For the next countdown be-gin when the shot clock reaches 7, but count-down beginning from 10. Switching the countdown every time can really screw up timing. ON YOU!: When an opposing player gets a foul called on him chant YOU, YOU, YOU,………ON YOU! OPPONENT FOULING OUT: As the player steps, Left, Right, Left, Right, until the player sits down then yell SIT DOWN! (Also do this ANYTIME the Bum of the Game goes to the Bench!) COUNTRY ROADS: After a Mountaineer vic-tory remember to stay in the student section and sing Country Roads!

Others: #2 Dinjiyl Walker JR. G - Canadian National… #1 Frank Booker SO. G - Voted best singer on the team…and biggest jokester….Would like to play batman in a movie #12 Khadeem Lattin FR. F - Grandfather is David Lattin… National Champion at Texas Western in 1966

#31 DJ Bennett SR. F - Voted biggest eater on the team….Senior but has never started… Favorite TV channel is Food Network

Head Coach Lon Kruger- won just one regular season conference championship in 29 seasons…..and only went to the NCAA tourney 15 times….

24 BUDDY HEILD JUNIOR/GUARD @buddyhield

Nickname is Buddy Love or Buddy Buckets...Born in Freeport, Bahamas… Favor-­ite food is a Conch Salad...voted the biggest trash talker on the team...Best job is

cutting grass… is 38% from 3 this season...favorite TV channel is cartoon net-­work...Major is Human Relations...Was quoted saying that Oklahoma will win the

big 12 this summer...GF name is Mallory an Alpha Phi at OU...BOO HIM EVERY TIME HE TOUCHES THE BALL!!!!

Game 18 January 13, 2015 7:00PM

11 ISAIAH COUSINS

Junior Guard

@FRAGG_NATiON

was arrested on a complaint of public

intoxication and inter-ference last sea-

son...voted team’s best dancer...from the same town as WVU All-Time Great Kevin Jones...least favorite food is nuts...major is

also Human Rela-tions...

35 TASHAWN TAYLOR

Senior Forward

@Taethomas35

GF’s name is Surena...Transferred from Houston...Major is Adminstrative lead-

ership...has four younger sis-

ters...favorite NFL team is the Cow-

boys...Favorite rap-per is J.Cole...avg at

UH 16 ppg, now 11.9ppg

10 JORDAN WOODARD

Sophomore Guard @jwood_10

3-26 from three this season...biggest fear is spiders...favorite

food is “mama’s que-­sadillas”...major is

administrative leader-ship...Brother James

plays for Tulsa...Leads the

team in turn-overs..voted best dresser on team.

00 RYAN SPANGLER

Junior Forward @Rspangler15 Biggest fear is

snakes...loves hunt-ing and fish-

ing...favorite food is Chinese...Grew up a

huge OU football fan...Transferred

from Gon-zaga…leads the

team in fouls...GF’s name is Tay-

lor...Showers in the dark before

games...favorite singer is George

Strait

THE DAILY ATHENAEUMTuesday January 13, 2015 rOSTErS| 5

NO NaMe POs HT WT RK 0 Jaysean Paige g 6-2 200 Jr 1 Jonathan holton F 6-7 220 sr 2 Jevon Carter g 6-2 185 Fr 3 Juwan staten g 6-1 190 sr 4 Daxter Miles Jr. g 6-3 185 Fr 5 Devin williaMs F 6-9 255 so 10 Chase Connor g 6-1 190 so 11 nathan aDrian F 6-9 235 so 12 tarik PhilliP g 6-3 185 so

NO NaMe POs HT WT RK 13 JaMes long g 5-11 190 so 14 gary Browne g 6-1 195 sr 20 BranDon watkins F 6-9 245 so 21 BillyDee williaMs F 6-6 215 Jr 23 tyrone hughes g 6-0 185 Jr 30 riCharD roMeo g 6-0 190 Jr 34 kevin noreen F 6-10 245 sr 45 eliJah MaCon F 6-9 240 Fr

WEST VIRGINIA ®

OKLAHOMA NO NaMe POs HT WT RK 00 ryan sPangler F 6-8 231 Jr 1 Frank Booker g 6-4 211 so 2 DinJiyl walker g 6-1 193 Jr 4 JaMuni MCneaCe C 6-10 196 Fr 10 JorDan wooDarD g 6-0 182 so 11 isaiah Cousins g 6-4 187 Jr 13 JaMes FrasChilla g 5-10 153 sr 14 Bola alaDe g 6-4 184 Fr

NO NaMe POs HT WT RK 21 Dante BuForD F 6-7 208 Fr 22 Daniel harPer g 6-1 184 so 24 BuDDy hielD g 6-4 209 Jr 25 C.J. Cole F 6-7 232 so 31 D.J. Bennett F 6-8 207 sr 35 tashawn thoMas F 6-8 240 sr 41 austin Mankin F 6-7 200 so 45 trey slate g 6-1 195 so

Let’s Go Mountaineers!

Eat at a local WV tradition

Eat-in &

Carry out

• Burritos• Salads• Tacos• Enchiladas• Wings

• Quesadillas• Sides & Dip• Chili• Draft Beerand much

Hours: Mon-Saturday: 10:30am-Midnight / Sundays & Holidays: Noon-Midnight

Downtown Morgantown1125 University Ave 296-4486

Suncrest Morgantown725 Chestnut Ridge Rd 598-3010

Nothing Fancy... Just Good Food!

THE NEW Eleaf iStick

GOMOUNTAINEERS!

THE DAILY ATHENAEUM Tuesday January 13, 20156 | gameday edition

Good start, but still a lot of questions to be answeredby jacob bojesson

editor-in-chief @dailyathenaeum

As usual these days, we had no idea of what to ex-pect from the West Virginia men’s basketball team com-ing into the season. Juwan Staten emerged as a solid point guard last season, earn-ing him Big 12 honors, but for the second year in a row, Hug-gins was left with a team that saw starters transfer to other institutions in Terry Hender-son and Eron Harris.

“One-and-done” didn’t have anything to do with the NBA at WVU, it referred to key players taking their talents elsewhere because some-thing was missing in Mor-gantown. That trend caused Mountaineer fans to won-der where the program was heading and if Bob Huggins still kept control of his locker room.

Even the most optimistic Mountaineer would have dis-missed a projection of a 14-2 start. But looking back at the young season, we still have to ask ourselves: How good is this team?

Being part of the rankings this far into the season usually

means you can be hopeful of a Final Four appearance later in the spring. But with this team, we just can’t tell yet.

The strength of the sched-ule leading up to tonight’s matchup with Oklahoma has been weak. With the excep-tion of the Puerto Rico Tipoff upset against reigning na-tional champions UConn, the Mountaineers have lost their only game against a ranked opponent (Saturday against Iowa State). And as it turned out, UConn doesn’t even seem to be a factor this year.

The road victories that opened Big 12 play were against two of the weaker conference opponents in TCU and Texas Tech.

What this team has that previous teams have lacked is the ability to win games they should win. Unnecessary losses to the Davidson’s and Duquesne’s of the world have turned into victories over VMI and George Mason.

If the Mountaineers can keep that up, there is no doubt we will see the team in the NCAA tournament for the first time in three years.

Getting back to the tour-nament will be a moral vic-tory, but standing at 14-2, we

have to dream big. The Big 12 is arguably the strongest conference in the country this year and if they can com-pete there, they can compete anywhere.

This week holds games against Oklahoma and Texas, two of the strongest teams in the conference. These two games will give an idea of how strong the team really is when competing against the country’s finest.

There is no doubt Bob Huggins has been able to de-velop a clear idea of how he wants to play, and the play-ers know their roles, strengths and limitations. He’s got his locker room back, but a team will only go as far as the talent it holds and in order to stay optimistic about this basket-ball season, the team needs to show consistency against powerhouses as well.

Nine of the last 15 games are against currently ranked opponents. If the Mountain-eers can keep winning games the way they have in the early goings of the season, there is a lot of madness to look for-ward to come March. But like I said – we just don’t know yet.

carl.bojesson@mail.wvu.edukyle monroe/the daily athenaeum

Tarik Phillip plays tight defense during a game earlier this season.

big 12 conference making a case for best in college basketballdavid schlake

sports editor @dschlake_wvu

After about two months of college basketball, each conference within the Power Five is starting to claim its own identity in the league. Each conference has its commercial powerhouse team, as well as its doormat used by every other team for easy wins. What separates the Big 12 from the other four is its depth.

Going into the confer-ence’s headliner matchup on Saturday between No. 17 Iowa State and No. 14 West Virginia, six of the confer-ence’s 10 teams were in the AP Top 25.

Prior to the release of the updated rankings yester-day, Texas was No. 10, Kan-sas was No. 12, West Virginia was No. 14, Oklahoma was No. 16, Iowa State was No. 17 and Baylor was No. 21.

Of the conference’s un-ranked teams, there has still been a great deal of success. Even though TCU is 0-3 con-ference play after its loss to then-No. 21 Baylor, the Horned Frogs made an ap-pearance in the Top 25 after a season in which they went 0-18 in the Big 12 last year. Granted they didn’t play anyone that would be mak-ing a run for the title at any point in the next 20 years, but wins are wins and a 13-0 start is a good one no matter

who’s sharing the floor. While teams like Texas

Tech and Kansas State have struggled at times thus far, they’ve also shown they can compete when they show up ready to play. Regardless of the struggles each squad has endured, the 10-6 Red Raid-ers and the 9-7 Wildcats look pretty tough for two teams at the bottom of a heavyweight conference.

Oklahoma State will likely also find a spot in the Top 25 after its 69-68 victory over then-No. 10 Texas, a game in which the Cowboys let the rest of the conference know they also belong in the mix.

Kansas and Iowa State ap-pear to be the front runners right now, as neither squad

has suffered a loss in confer-ence play despite a handful of nail-biters.

While both of these teams look like they could take the conference title in Kansas City in March, don’t look past the middle of the con-ference. While they haven’t been touched in the confer-ence at this point, it has been clear that other teams are go-ing to give them a fight, such as when Baylor took the Jay-hawks all the way down the wire last week. But, that’s where the Big 12 differs from everyone else. There is no untouchable team, and there are no easy wins. Every team is a contender.

dasports@mail.wvu.edu

kyle monroe/the daily athenaeumFans await tip-off at the 2014 Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament.

THE DAILY ATHENAEUMTuesday January 13, 2015 gameday edition | 7

West Virginia defensive pressure earning respectryan petroVich

sports writer @dailyathenaeum

West Virginia struggled to make shots in its last outing against Iowa State. The poor shooting led to a loss as the Mountaineers fell to the Cyclones 74-72.

Despite the loss, West Virginia’s defensive play gave Iowa State problems. All season long, head coach Bob Huggins has had his team pressuring oppo-nents in a full-court press.

On the season, West Vir-ginia is forcing its oppo-nents to turn the ball over, on average, 22.3 times a game.

Iowa State only turned the ball over 18 times against West Virginia. That’s a substantially low number – something un-common when playing against the Mountaineers.

“I think we’re only the fourth team to have un-der 20 against this team (WVU),” said Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg. “That pressure is some-thing that you can’t sim-ulate. We had six or seven

guys practicing against it at one time and it still wasn’t even near what they do out there.”

While it was a low amount of turnovers, the pressure West Virginia caused allowed the Moun-taineers to stay in the game until the very end.

If not for superb play from Abdel Nadar down the stretch, the Cyclones might not have left Mor-gantown with a win.

West Virginia only shot 22-68 (32.4 percent) from the field and shot 29 total three-pointers, connecting on only seven.

“We didn’t pass the ball,” said Huggins following the game. “We had guys open and we didn’t pass the ball. We struggled to make shots at times.”

Staten led the Moun-taineers in scoring with 23 points, while Devin Wil-liams chipped in with 14 points.

The shooting woes were evident, but only losing to one of the top teams in the Big 12 by two points was in large part to the Mountain-eers’ defense.

West Virginia will face Oklahoma in its next game. The Sooners are shooting 44 percent from the field, and shot 40 percent in their loss to Kansas State last game.

No doubt, if West Vir-ginia is able to shoot well and play its normal style of defense, they can compete and most likely beat just about any team in the con-ference. But, like we saw against the Cyclones, the Mountaineers can struggle with shooting.

There’s no reason to panic. The Big 12 Confer-ence is filled with excellent teams and West Virginia is going to lose more than one conference game be-fore it’s all said and done.

The Mountaineer de-fense is stout and it can keep them in every contest even if they can’t hit the backside of a barn.

Even though West Vir-ginia fell short against Iowa State, the game could’ve been a lot worse, but dur-ing the final seconds, the defensive effort forced a turnover and almost al-lowed the Mountaineers to

earn a win. Poor shooting hurts, but

that goes for any team. If a team, however, can shoot poorly and still compete with top-level opponents because of its defense,

there’s no reason to worry if West Virginia is having an off night in terms of shooting.

West Virginia will con-tinue to press and it will continue to play a big part

in the team’s success. The team will need to get

back on track against the Sooners and look for the defense to play a big role.

dasports@mail.wvu.edu

Mountaineers suffer first Big 12 loss to cyclonesconnor MUrray

sports writer@dailyathenaeum

Spurred on by hot shoot-ing and a hefty contribution from an unlikely source, No. 17 Iowa State handed No. 14 West Virginia its first conference loss of the sea-son, topping the Mountain-eers 74-72 at the WVU Coli-seum Saturday.

The Mountaineers had their typical raucous de-fensive effort, forcing 18 Iowa State turnovers. De-spite bending under the pressure, which Cyclone coach Fred Hoiberg said his

team spent plenty of time preparing for, Iowa State’s dead-eye shooting kept it from breaking.

The Cyclones shot 50-percent from the field for the game, and came away victorious despite three of their top scoring options being in foul trou-ble for the majority of the second half.

“I couldn’t be more proud fought through ad-versity out there and com-peted. Georges (Niang) picks up his fourth (foul) with a little over ten min-utes to go and Monte (Mor-ris) does the same. Those are the two guys, really,

that we rely on to beat that press,” Hoiberg said.

With Niang, Morris and Dustin Hogue all sitting on four fouls, Iowa State needed someone to pick up the slack. Enter junior forward Abdel Nader.

Leading up to Saturday, he had averaged just five points per game, but when his team was in need of a boost, Nader lit up West Virginia for 19 points and seven rebounds.

“Abdel, obviously, was unbelievable out there to-night. Not only hitting shots and getting to the free throw line and getting to the basket, I thought

his poise against the press kind of as a third guy out there besides Georges and Monte was very good,” Hoi-berg said.

“We needed every one of those points. He hit some big free throws down the stretch.”

While Iowa State was able to do enough to be successful against the press, Hoiberg said it was like nothing his team has seen this year.

“I think we’re only the fourth team to have un-der 20 (turnovers) against this team. That pressure is something that you just…you can’t simulate it,” he

said.“We had six guys out

there in practice, seven guys at one time, and it still wasn’t even near what they do out there.”

For West Virginia, the focus now turns to not let-ting this one loss turn into two against Oklahoma to-night, which can be a killer during the grind of confer-ence play. The Mountain-eers learned that early on in the Big 12 schedule last season.

“We lost a hard game to Oklahoma State here last year. We need to win Tues-day. Last year we lost to Texas after that. We just

can’t squander oppor-tunities,” said coach Bob Huggins.

The Mountaineers over-all record dropped to 14-2 with the loss, and their con-ference mark stands at 2-1.

“Where do we go from here? We have another big game Tuesday. We want to come out and impose our will on Oklahoma,” said guard Juwan Staten.

“We don’t want to let this game have a carry-over ef-fect. It happened to us last year, so we really want to fight against that and come out ready to play Tuesday.”

dasports@mail.wvu.edu

kyle monroe/the daily athenaeumElijah Macon and Nathan Adrian double-team gaurding a player from Montmouth earlier this season.

THE DAILY ATHENAEUM Tuesday January 13, 20158 | AD