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
Final Score Predictions for West Virginia vs. Cincinnati
Every game is extremely important from here on out for West Virginia, but tonight’s matchup with Cincinnati is one they cannot afford to drop. The Bearcats are one of the weaker teams in the league, and with Kansas on deck, it’s one Ross Hodge and Co. have to get.
Do they get the job done? Here are our picks for tonight’s contest.
Schuyler Callihan: West Virginia 64, Cincinnati 59
With or without Brenen Lorient (concussion protocol), I believe West Virginia is the better team, especially at home. Sure, they looked overwhelmed last Friday in Ames against Iowa State, but they won’t be the last team that gets the belt to the backside from the Cyclones.
The one area that has been problematic this season defensively for the Mountaineers has been on the perimeter. We saw Milan Momcilovic knock down eight triples on just eight attempts a handful of days ago. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great shooter and made some highly contested shots, but it’s been a recurring issue for WVU all year.
The good news? Cincinnati isn’t built to beat you shooting from range. Coming into this game, they ranked 263rd nationally in three-point shooting, hitting just 31.6% of their shots. Couple that with the fact that Cincinnati is somehow a worse free-throw shooting team than West Virginia by a full five percentage points, and you get a fairly confident pick from me in the Old Gold and Blue.
Christopher Hall: West Virginia 67, Cincinnati 66
West Virginia has remained perfect inside Hope Coliseum, and the unblemished home record will likely be intact when the Mountaineers host Kansas on Saturday.
West Virginia has struggled and is enduring a five-game losing streak against Power Four opponents after falling to Iowa State to open the Big 12 Conference. Although the Mountaineers did notch a win against Pitt at home, for the lone win against P4 competition.
Cincinnati is in a similar situation, although the Bearcats’ start to the season can be summed up in a 64-56 loss to Eastern Michigan. The absence of senior guard Jizzle James for the first ten games for personal reasons, coupled with Brazilian perimeter shooter Lucas Atauri and returning forward Jalen Haynes absent from the line up have caused early issues.
The Bearcats proved they could compete with one of the best teams in the country after a seven-point loss to Houston on Saturday.
West Virginia will need to tighten up its perimeter defense against James and Day Day Thomas – both are shooting over 40% from three, while WVU senior guard Honor Huff will have to work a little harder to find his spot from deep against one of the best three-point defenses in the league.
The game will be a defensive battle, which favors the Mountaineers at home. WVU may be without senior starting forward Brenen Lorient, but the comfy confines of the Coliseum and the crowd will lift the Mountaineers down the stretch for the 67-66 win.
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West Virginia
Football: W.Va. coaches look to learn from Cignetti's title run
The former Morgantown High and WVU quarterback led long-woebegone Indiana to the College Football Playoff national championship on Monday night.
Cignetti’s was one of the most impressive building jobs in the history of American sports. The Hoosiers went 3-9 two seasons ago. And until this past November, when they were passed by Northwestern, they were the losingest team in major college history.
Then Cignetti, only a decade removed from leading Indiana (Pennsylvania) to a playoff victory over Charleston at UC Stadium at Laidley Field, arrived on the scene at a bigger but historically worse Indiana.
And he told those unfamiliar with his work in his introductory news conference, “It’s pretty simple: I win. Google me.”
Cignetti did, and so did Indiana – big. And improbably.
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
West Virginia Public Service Commission recommends ‘further investigation’ of Parkersburg trash service
(Photo illustration – MetroCreativeConnection)
PARKERSBURG — The staff of the West Virginia Public Service Commission recommended “further investigation” of Parkersburg’s plan to contract out its sanitation service, but the city attorney says that won’t delay implementation of an agreement with Waste Management.
“The city has clear legal authority to enter into contracts to provide essential services such as solid waste disposal,” City Attorney Blaine Myers said Thursday.
In a memo posted Wednesday to the PSC’s website, staff attorneys say services related to the collection and disposal of garbage are under the agency’s jurisdiction and state code “requires the Commission’s consent and approval prior to entering into contracts.” They note vehicles owned and operated by a municipality are exempt from regulation but that only applies if the municipality’s vehicles are used to provide the service.
Parkersburg City Council approved an ordinance authorizing a five-year contract with Waste Management to provide trash collection services on a pair of 6-3 votes this month. Property owner Carole Hanlon in December asked the PSC and other state agencies to review the city’s actions and hold public hearings on the matter.
“Staff recommends further investigation to determine compliance with applicable statutes and Commission regulations,” the memo says.
It mentions Hanlon’s request for a hearing but does not mention whether one will be held or a timeline for the investigation.
Myers said Thursday the city is doing something many other municipalities in West Virginia have done.
“The implementation of the contract with Waste Management will not be impaired or delayed by any review by the Public Service Commission,” he said.
The memo also says any intrastate carrier contracting with the city must submit its contract to the commission for approval. Interstate carriers need to register as “a Harper carrier,” which is a federal designation, as the PSC does not regulate interstate commerce.
Council has held two special meetings this month regarding proposals to contract out both solid waste and recycling services. Most speakers at the Jan. 6 public hearing opposed the Waste Management contract. Council approved the first reading of that ordinance in a second meeting that night but tabled a proposed contract for subscription-based recycling service with Rumpke.
On Tuesday, council held a special meeting focused on recycling, during which council President Andrew Borkowski announced a proposal to reduce the monthly charge for those who wanted to participate in curbside recycling from $15.35 to $3.50, while adding a $1.50 recycling surcharge to all residents’ sanitation fees. Many speakers argued the cost should be borne by all residents as recycling is a beneficial public service.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Parkersburg resident Trish Pritchard asked about the status of Hanlon’s petition to the PSC. At that point, before the release of the memo, Myers said he was not aware of any action the agency had taken beyond assigning a case number.
The PSC site lists more than 50 letters or messages submitted in relation to the case, with only one saying it was in favor of the new service. Among those submitting messages online was Councilman Chris Rexroad, who voted against the Waste Management contract ordinance.
“An overwhelming majority of the residents of Parkersburg do not support the privatization of the city sanitation services,” his message said.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com
***
Filings in the Public Service Commission case regarding Parkersburg sanitation can be viewed online at https://tinyurl.com/harpe885. The case number is 25-0999-MC-P.
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