Murray State Basketball: Three keys to upsetting West Virginia

Murray State has won a game in each of their last two NCAA Tournament appearances, but how can they pull off an upset against the Big 12 Runner Ups?

Fast Facts

Record: 24-10

Strength of Schedule: 4

Best Wins: Virginia, Texas Tech (2)

Record Against Tournament Teams: 10-8

The Mountaineers will foul you early and often.

Press Virginia is going to put Murray State in a lot of compromising situations throughout the course of this game. As a result, Murray State will turn over the ball at some points. On the bright side, West Virginia also commits a ton of fouls.

To be specific, they’ve committed 725 fouls, which is the fourth highest in the country. However, the Racers don’t shoot the ball unbelievably well. At 109th in the country, Matt McMahon’s squad is going to have shoot better than 70.6% from the line in order to come out victorious.

The Mountaineers rebound the ball exceptionally well.

If there is one thing besides defense that the Mountaineers do well, it is their ability to rebound the ball. On the other hand, the Racers typically don’t allow their opponents to get rebounds. This season, the Mountaineers have grabbed the third most rebounds in the Big 12, but the Racers have allowed their opponents to grab the sixth fewest defensive rebounds in the country. Something has to give and if the Racers can win this battle, they can find themselves playing in the second round.

West Virginia hasn’t played against a team with this many shooters

If there is one thing that Murray State does at a high level is shoot the basketball and if we know anything about first-round upsets, it’s that the three ball usually plays a factor. This season, Murray State ranks in the top thirty in the country in overall field goal percentage and two-point field goal percentage.

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What makes them even better is that the Racers have five players that have a true shooting percentage over 60%, which puts them in the realm of programs like Arizona and Villanova that have a multitude of players who shoot exceptionally well.