West Virginia

No. 22 BYU picks up a road victory at West Virginia

Published

11 months ago

February 4, 2024

No. 22 BYU picks up a road victory at West Virginia

The Cougars win their second straight game and improve to 4-4 in the Big 12

BYU forward Fousseyni Traore (45) is defended by West Virginia center Jesse Edwards, right, during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024, in Morgantown, W.Va. (AP Photo/Kathleen Batten)

| Feb. 4, 2024, 4:52 a.m.

| Updated: 4:55 a.m.

Junior Fousseyni Traore scored a season-high 24 points as No. 22 BYU defeated West Virginia 86-73 on Saturday evening in front of 11,753 fans at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, W.Va.

Traore eclipsed the 20-point plateau for the first time this season, going 10 of 15 from the floor and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line. He also tied a season high with nine rebounds, six of those coming on the offensive glass.

“I’m super grateful for my teammates,” Traore said. “They’re the ones that made my life super easy by finding me and making easy passes. It was just fun to play with my boys.”

Richie Saunders scored 17 points off the bench, making a career-best four 3-pointers. Jaxson Robinson and Spencer Johnson finished with 15 and 12, respectively.

“Man, that was a fun game,” Johnson said. “Never been to West Virginia. First time for me and I think a lot of guys. Super fun. West Virginia has been playing really, really well at home. They beat Kansas, Texas and Cincinnati. We knew we had a job coming in here that we had to take care of business. Super fun to come on the road and get a win.”

The Cougars won their second straight game after a loss to Houston last Saturday and improved to 16-5 overall and 4-4 in the Big 12.

Kerr Kriisa led three West Virginia players in double figures by scoring 23 points. The Mountaineers fell to 8-14 and 3-6.

BYU shot 48.5 percent from the floor 36.1 percent from three and 64.3 percent from the free-throw line. Both teams had 35 rebounds including nine on the offensive glass. The Cougars assisted on 19 of their 36 makes with only eight turnovers, four steals and four blocks.

Source link

Click to comment

West Virginia

Examining West Virginia's lost offensive production after the 2024 season

Published

9 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

Examining West Virginia’s lost offensive production after the 2024 season

West Virginia is in the midst of a roster overhaul as new head coach Rich Rodriguez starts to build from the ground up. In the last weeks, the Mountaineers have lost dozens of players either to the transfer portal or to eligibility loss, and we look at how much production from this past season will not be returning.

On offense, about 20 guys who recorded snaps this past season will not be returning to the Mountaineers. Nine are out of eligibility, and nine have entered the transfer portal, while that number could still increase.

On offense as a whole, West Virginia has lost 83.25 percent of the total snaps played. 64.52 percent of the snaps lost are due to running out of eligibility. Out of WVU’s top four snap totals, all four came on the offensive line.

Three of them exhausted their eligibility (Ja’Quay Hubbard, Nick Malone, Brandon Yates), and the fourth (Tomas Rimac) entered the transfer portal.

Number of Snaps Lost

Note: In the table above, under the column ‘Total Percentage Lost’, the 52.42% and 46.58% are the share of the total number of snaps played, not the total numebr of snaps played at each position

At the quarterback position, Garrett Greene does not have any remaining eligibility. Greene accounted for just about 30 percent of WVU’s rushing yards, 84 percent of WVU’s passing yards, as well as 22 percent of their scores on the ground, and 75 percent of their passing touchdowns thrown.

At running back the loss of CJ Donaldson looms large. He accounted for 29 percent of WVU’s rushing total this season and between him and others who tallied up much lesser totals, West Virginia has lost 60.21 percent of their rush yards from this past season.

At the receiver position, it’s even more drastic. West Virginia has lost Hudson Clement, DayDay Farmer, Traylon Ray, Justin Robinson, and Kole Taylor, among others who were some of WVU’s top pass catchers. The Mountaineers have lost 76.23 percent of their receiving yards from last year as well as 80 percent of their receiving touchdowns.

Offensive Production Lost

Overall, there is a significant loss on the offensive side of the ball.

West Virginia lost most of their passing game as well as their receiving game due to guys leaving the program. While it’s easy to point to Greene in the passing game because he was the starting quarterback for the majority of the year, most of the production lost at receiver was due to guys entering the transfer portal. At running back, it was roughly a 50-50 split between what percent was lost to the portal and what was lost to eligibility, as Greene as well as Donaldson, were the main contributing factors there.

———-

• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.

• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe

•Like us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

Source link

West Virginia

2 charged in death investigation, victim identified

Published

17 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

2 charged in death investigation, victim identified

UPDATE 11:50 P.M. 12/24/2024

MASON COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ)-Two people are facing charges in connection with a death investigation in Mason County.

Investigators found the remains of a man Tuesday who had been reported missing. The remains were found along Broad Run Road in Letart.

Authorities arrested Brandon Harbaugh and Jodi Gerlach a short time later.

Harbaugh and Gerlach are charged with concealment of a deceased human body and conspiracy, according to Mason County Prosecuting Attorney Seth Gaskins.

Investigators identified the victim as Michael S. Phalen, 65, of New Haven, West Virginia. Investigators say Phalen was reported missing Dec. 12.

Harbaugh and Gerlach were arraigned Tuesday night in Mason County are in the Western Regional Jail on a $75,000 cash or surety bond.

UPDATE 7 P.M. 12/24/2024

MASON COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -A death investigation is underway after human remains were found in Mason County, according to Mason County Prosecuting Attorney Seth Gaskins.

Investigators found the remains of a missing adult male along Broad Run Road in Letart on Tuesday afternoon.

The Mason County Prosecuting Attorney identified the victim as Michael S. Phalen, 65, of New Haven, West Virginia.

Gaskins said that two individuals have been arrested in connection with the investigation. Both are charged with concealment of a deceased human body and conspiracy, although their identities have not been announced.

Source link

West Virginia

Chad Scott Returning to West Virginia

Published

1 day ago

December 24, 2024

Press Room

Accoring to Mike Casazza of 247 Sports, West Virginia University head coach Rich Rodriguez will retain assistant coach Chad Scott as part of his staff.

Scott spent the last six seasons under former head coach Neal Brown as the running backs coach and served as the offensive coordinator the last two seasons. He was also named the interim head coach for the Frisco Bowl.

The Mountaineer rushing attack ranked ninth among Power Four schools in rushing yards per game at 192.7 this past season and WVU was one of two FBS teams that has three players who have rushed for 630 yards or more.

Scott will be entering his19th season as an assistant coach. He began his career at Troy before taking jobs at Texas Tech (2010-12), Kentucky (2013-15), North Carolina (2016-18), Louisville (2019), and landed in West Virginia with Neal Brown in 2019.