MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University men's basketball team's race to its 10th career win and first road win of the season has officially begun.
Here are the biggest takeaways from WVU interim head coach Josh Eilert's Zoom press conference Friday morning.
Early game urgency
This season, WVU men's basketball overcame a double-digit deficit in the second half with multiple points and entered the game in the final minutes. It happened just last week on the road against Iowa State and Baylor. WVU didn't win either of those games, but Eilert believes a faster start would have put them in a better position in the second half.
“As a coach, you never want to coach effort,” Eilert said. “Certainly, there [are] times [when] you have to. Although he did not show his full potential in the first half of the game against Kansas State, [are] Also, there are certainly other areas that we haven't strived for in other games [when] I had to drop everything and force the problem to resolve. We have to pay more attention to details. I need more fire. we have to fight more. ”
Relationship with Jesse Edwards
Fifth-year center Jesse Edwards (14.1 points, 8.2 rebounds per game) is WVU's No. 2 scorer and has been for most of the season, but he has scored and rebounded in three of the past six games. total is below the annual average. game. Edwards had just five points (1-of-9 FG, 2-of-9 FT) and five rebounds in the Mountaineers' loss to Kansas State on Tuesday night.
“Jesse needs balance more than anything,” Eilert said. ” I think he was forcing a lot of things. He needs to slow down a little bit in the post to get into his position and find his balance and slow down the game. [If] Looking back at his many shots and shot attempts in the second half. [at Kansas State], he barely looked at the rim and shot the ball on the turn without having the patience needed in the post. ”
Texas Tech Scouting Report
The Red Raiders enter Saturday's game as the No. 5 team in the Big 12, boasting the conference's sixth-highest scoring offense (75.7 points per game) and sixth-worst scoring defense (69.4 points per game). .
“From an offensive standpoint, they're going to try to find the mismatches that they want, they're going to try to figure out who's subpar defensively and they're going to try to take advantage of that matchup,” Eilert said. .
Saturday will mark Texas Tech guard Joe Toussaint's first return to Morgantown since transferring from WVU to Texas Tech in the summer. Toussaint is averaging 12.3 points, 4.25 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game.
“He’s a bulldog who plays defense on the floor,” Eilert said. “I'm sure he'll come in with a shoulder injury.” [to] Return to Morgantown and wreak havoc. ”
