Arizona ended up blowing out Cincinnati on Wednesday night, winning by 26 thanks to a 37-13 run over the final 14 minutes. Before that it was a slugfest, as most of the games have been during Big 12 play and how they all figure to be from here on out.
West Virginia
What to watch for when Arizona men’s basketball hosts West Virginia
Throw in the fact the Wildcats are one of three unbeaten teams left in college basketball, not to mention a unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for the first time in school history, and it can all feel a little stressful being at the top.
Tommy Lloyd acknowledged that after the win over the Bearcats, then tapped into his experience being part of unbeaten teams from his time at Gonzaga.
“I’ve been on a few of these runs before and I think it’s important to know that winning is not a burden,” Lloyd said. “The winning shouldn’t feel heavy.”
Arizona (19-0, 6-0 Big 12) is two wins away from tying the school record for best start in school history. It can get one step closer on Saturday afternoon when it hosts West Virginia (13-6, 4-2).
Here’s what to watch for when the Wildcats and Mountaineers meet at McKale Center:
Further rotation tightening?
Arizona’s starters played 147 of a possible 200 minutes against Cincinnati, most of any game in Big 12 play and only fewer than at UConn (149) and the season opener against Florida (150). Tobe Awaka had his normal 20 minutes, which isn’t going to change with how Lloyd likes to rotate his frontcourt, but Anthony Dell’Orso only played 14 minutes and Dwayne Aristode 11.
Dell’Orso is mired in the worst slump of his UA tenure, if not his career. He’s missed his last 14 shots, his only points in the past three games coming on a pair of free throws against Cincinnati, and in six Big 12 games he’s averaging 4.5 points with 17 of the 27 coming at TCU.
Aristode is clearly the 8th man in the rotation, out there more to spell players at the 2, 3 and 4 than anything else, but Dell’Orso was a starter a year ago and Lloyd specifically had him come off the bench this season so he could provide offensive spark. That’s happened at times, like 20 against UCLA, 13 against Alabama and the TCU performance, but if he’s not scoring he doesn’t bring much else to the table.
“Hang with it,” Lloyd said when asked about Dell’Orso. “What you do is really hard. I love Delly. I love how he’s handling this and I have a real strong belief that we’re going to get the best from Delly when we need it. Not that you don’t want it or need it every night, but he is going to deliver. So I’m going to hang with him. I’m not going to change anything.”
Arizona is 27 of 87 from 3-point range in Big 12 play, a 31 percent accuracy that ranks 12th out of 16 teams. The Wildcats hit seven apiece at Utah and TCU but are 10 of 37 from outside in the last three games.
Brayden Burries has been the UA’s most prolific perimeter shooter, both in attempts (83) and makes (29), but as a 59 percent shooter on 2s he isn’t one to hunt shots from outside. Nobody on Arizona is, not like with Caleb Love last season or others in the past, which has resulted in the UA ranking third-to-last in the country in 3-point attempt rate.
So far, the lack of 3-point shooting hasn’t hurt Arizona. But it might at some point, so Lloyd is keeping a close eye on if something needs to change.
“I’m gonna let it play out,” Lloyd said. “It’s a figure it out as it goes deal, and it’s a game by game deal. I would have to see how a team is going to defend us just to force us to shoot a bunch of threes. When our guys are standing in the gym by themselves, they make threes. So are you not going to guard the whole team? I know isolating that single variable is so easy to do and get fixated on. There’s a lot of components to winning a basketball game.”
Arizona is getting almost 58 percent of its points on 2s, another 20 percent at the line. Against Cincinnati it had 48 points in the paint and went 20 of 28 from the line, and this season has outscored every opponent in the paint and had only six games where the other team took more free throws than it made.
Arizona only had 65 possessions against Cincinnati, per KenPom.com, third-fewest of the season behind the 63 each against UConn and San Diego State. West Virginia’s adjusted tempo for the season is 62.9, eighth-slowest in the country, and the fastest game the Mountaineers have had in Big 12 play was against Kansas when there were 67 possessions apiece.
“They try to get you in a possession game,” Lloyd said.
West Virginia is coached by Ross Hodge, its fourth different head coach in as many seasons. Hodge spent the previous two seasons at North Texas, where he had been promoted from assistant following Grant McCasland’s hiring at Texas Tech.
Hodge’s North Texas teams were even slower than this West Virginia one, but equally strong on defense. His current squad allows 40.3 percent shooting and 62.1 points per game, though in Big 12 play it’s allowing 70.6 per game.
“Ross is one of these guys who’s been around in the game,” Lloyd said. “He knows how to win basketball games, and his teams always have a real identity on the defensive end of the floor, and then offensively they’re a team that usually has a shooter or two that can knock down multiple threes.”
Leading scorer Honor Huff is shooting 39.5 percent from 3, while North Dakota transfer Treysen Eaglestaff was 6 of 9 from 3 in Wednesday’s win at ASU.
West Virginia
It Took 10 Years, but WVU Women’s Basketball Finally Has Another West Virginia Native
For the first time since the 2015-16 season, the West Virginia Mountaineers women’s basketball roster will feature a West Virginia native.
Wheeling product Alexis Bordas transfers in after having a tremendous freshman season up the road at Duquesne, where she averaged 15.5 points (ranked fifth in the A-10) and 3.1 rebounds per game while shooting 34.6% from beyond the arc. At season’s end, she was named to the A-10 All-Rookie Team.
Morgantown’s Olivia Seggie was the last West Virginia-born player on the women’s hoops roster.
Of course, WVU was Bordas’ dream school. Pretty much her entire family went to school here and grew up coming to Mountaineer games, so Mark Kellogg probably didn’t have to do much convincing once he made it known that they wanted her.
“Chase Harler’s from Wheeling, so I came to a lot of his games. Jevon Carter, my brother, loved him. We watched a lot more of the men back then, but Kysre Gondrezick, she was someone that I always watched.”
When asked what it’s like to finally be in a Mountaineer uniform and practicing with the group, she responded, “Yeah, it’s great to finally be here and get to meet all my teammates and become such good friends with them already. It’s been super fun, and just seeing the difference from day one to now, and how much we’ve progressed already, it’s super exciting to see.
“All the fan support last night, we had an event, and just seeing all the fans and how it’s June, and everyone’s already so excited and rallies around this team,” she added. “I know it’s extra special being from West Virginia, and I’m sure lots of little girls will look up to me and hope to be playing here one day, so it’s great to be a role model for them, too.”
Nine times last season, Bordas registered 20+ points, and of course, as a true West Virginian would, she had her best performance against the Pitt Panthers, dropping 38 on them in an 84-69 win. She went 11/22 from the field in that one, including a 10/18 day from three-point range.
Bordas is a high-volume shooter from range, as 58.8% of her attempts came from downtown last season. When you shoot 34% from there and can maybe hit the high 30s, no one will care about the shot diet being so reliant on the three-ball.
Under the new rules, Bordas will have four years of eligibility remaining.
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West Virginia
$450,000 announced for Clendenin Streetscape project
CLENDENIN, W.Va . (WSAZ) – Gov. Patrick Morrisey visited Clendenin West Virginia Saturday during Summerfest.
10 years ago a devastating flood swept through the community.
The governor announced $450,000 of funding for a Streetscape project during a commemoration for the June 2016 flood. The funding will go toward Clendenin’s main street – improving sidewalks, landscaping, and other pedestrian amenities.
Funding for the project comes from the Transportation Alternatives Program – a federal initiative to fund smaller scale transportation projects.
Copyright 2026 WSAZ. All rights reserved.
West Virginia
History Made: WVU Has Two First-Team All-Americans in the Same Season
It was a phenomenal year for the West Virginia Mountaineers on the diamond, and even with the season having been over for over a week now, the honors continue to roll in.
On Friday, second baseman/catcher Gavin Kelly and left-handed starting pitcher Maxx Yehl were both named First-Team All-Americans by D1Baseball.com. It is the first time in program history that two Mountaineers have been recognized as First-Team All-Americans in the same season.
Gavin Kelly
Kelly was essentially everyone’s pick to have a breakout season for the Mountaineers in 2026, but I’m not sure anyone expected him to do it the way he did. He hit nearly .400 all year and went on a power surge out of nowhere toward the end of the season, becoming one of the top home run hitters in the country over the last month or so of the year.
Kelly was named a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, the MVP of the Morgantown Regional, and is currently participating in the Team USA Collegiate National Team training camp in Cary, North Carolina. For the year, he hit .382 with 19 home runs and 63 RBI, cementing himself as a top draft prospect in 2027.
Maxx Yehl
Maxx Yehl was one of the best stories in all of college baseball that didn’t get talked about nearly enough. He was forced to sit out the 2025 season as he was recovering from Tommy John surgery, and prior to this season, Yehl worked exclusively out of the bullpen. The plan all along was to eventually stretch him out into a starter, and in his first year in the role, he was one of the best in the entire country.
Steve Sabins and Co. did a good job of playing it safe with him early, letting him only go two and four innings in his first two starts before turning him loose. There were a couple of moments where Mountaineer fans had to take a deep breath after he was removed from two starts, one of which was in the Morgantown Regional against Kentucky. He bounced back strong and two days later, pitched a gem against the Wildcats, helping the team advance to the super regionals for the third straight season.
Yehl finished the season with a 9-3 record, an ERA of 2.13, and 112 strikeouts to just 26 walks. He was also the first WVU hurler to win Big 12 Pitcher of the Year since Alek Manoah, who did it in 2019.
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