West Virginia vs. Oklahoma State: College basketball game preview, TV schedule
The No. 7 ranked West Virginia Mountaineers will go on the road to Stillwater to face the Cowboys of Oklahoma State. Who will start out league play on the right note?
TV schedule: Friday, Dec. 29, 7:00 p.m. ET. ESPNU
Arena: Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Oklahoma
The Big 12 conference had six teams make the NCAA tournament last season, and, so far, all 10 are right in line to get bids. The teams combined for just 16 losses total with maybe a couple considered resume damaging.
West Virginia 12-1 (0-0) has no damage on the resume, having won 12 straight games after suffering a 23 point loss to a ranked Texas A&M team. All the more impressive is that it was all done without arguably the second best player on the team, forward Esa Ahmad.
That left senior leader and point guard Jevon Carter to carry the team, which he’s done admirably. He averages 16.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg, and 6.1 apg, and has put himself on the shortlist for Conference Player of the Year. Fellow senior Daxter Miles is second on the team with 14.5 ppg, while sophomore forward Lamont West has filled in for Ahmad, averaging 12.5 ppg while leading the team in rebounding at 5.7 rpg.
Oklahoma State 10-2 (0-0) also lost a key player in Jeffery Carroll for the first few games of the year with the school investigating him for any possible misconduct related to the FBI Corruption Investigation. Since coming back, he’s led the Cowboys in scoring at 15.0 ppg.
Outside of Carroll, the offense is balanced between the rest of the roster with seven other players averaging at least 7.6 ppg. Kendall Smith (11.1 ppg) and Tavarius Shine (10.8 ppg) are the other Cowboys in double figures.
Last season, these two team split with each other, with the victor winning on the road both times. Carroll led the Cowboys with 20 points in the 82-75 win in Morgantown, while the Mountaineers got revenge in Stillwater, 92-75 on Miles’s 22 points.
While Oklahoma State had a solid non-conference, including a neutral site win over Florida State, their overall resume is not good enough to withstand a ton of losses in a league where truly, there’s no night off. So with this game being at home, the Cowboys need to hold their own.
Ahmad will be coming back soon for WVU, and he’ll be needed for league play. And this game will prove it. I’m going with Oklahoma State in an upset, thanks to a big game by Carroll.
Prediction: West Virginia 72 – Oklahoma State 80