West Virginia

The Texas basketball team beat West Virginia on Saturday. Here are three things we saw.

Published

11 months ago

February 11, 2024

The Texas basketball team beat West Virginia on Saturday. Here are three things we saw.

Dylan Disu and the Texas basketball team unleashed their offense in Saturday’s 94-58 win over West Virginia at Moody Center. Disu made his first eight shots — including five from behind the 3-point line — while scoring a game-high 27 points. And he had plenty of help as Texas cruised to its biggest winning margin of the season. The Longhorns made a season-high 15 3-pointers and recorded 28 assists, which broke the program’s Big 12 record of 26 assists against Nebraska in 1998.

With the victory, Texas (16-8, 5-6 Big 12) not only eased the pain of a frustrating 3-point loss at West Virginia (8-15, 3-7) last month but also stayed in the middle of the Big 12 race. Houston and Iowa State sit atop the standings with three Big 12 losses apiece, but Texas is among the 10 other teams with six or fewer conference losses.

Here are three things we saw in Texas’ win:

More: Texas basketball’s Chendall Weaver’s top fan? His sister Chennedy Carter, former A&M star

Dylan Disu, guards: Three for all

Disu continues to show his extended shooting range. By making 7 of 10 3-pointers, he raised his shooting percentage to a season-high 56.4% from behind the 3-point line and remains well ahead of the single-season record pace of 42.3% set by AJ Abrams in 2006-07. Only Marcus Carr, Abrams and Jase Febres have more than seven 3-pointers in a game in school history. And Tyrese Hunter made 3 of 4 3-pointers, his most since a win over Baylor on Jan. 20, and Max Abmas connected on 5 of 12 3-point shots to give him a dozen made 3-pointers in two games against West Virginia this season.

They said it: “We weren’t closing out with high hands, so they were getting clean looks. And as much talent as Texas puts on the floor, if you give them clean looks, they’re going to knock them down. It certainly felt like the floodgates were open tonight.” — West Virginia coach Josh Eilert

More: Texas football may be on the verge of becoming the newest NFL assembly line | Bohls

Max Abmas: All-around effort

While Abmas showed off the shooting that pushed him past Oscar Robertson and into 11th place on the all-time NCAA Division I scoring list with 2,987 career points, his all-around game continues to draw praise from teammates and coaches. The 5-foot-11 graduate transfer from Oral Roberts, who has handled the bulk of the point guard duties in recent weeks, dished out a season-high nine assists to go with his 19 points. He also matched a season high with six rebounds and continues to improve on the defensive end.

They said it: “Max, he’s the ultimate teammate, man. There’s not one guy in that locker room is not pulling for Max when he’s on the court or off the court because he’s just such a likable guy.” — Texas coach Rodney Terry

Tyrese Hunter: Back on track

Hunter has been mired in a weeks-long scoring slump that bottomed out with no points and an 0-for-8 shooting night in Monday’s loss to Iowa State. But after making just 11 of his 36 shots over the previous five games, Hunter scored 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting against West Virginia. All three of his 3-pointers came in the final 6:36 as Terry seemed to leave him in the game to bolster his confidence from the outside. Hunter also had seven assists and just one turnover, his best such ratio since a win over UNC-Greensboro on Dec. 29.

They said it: “There’s always confidence, (but) it’s just being shot-ready. It’s just knowing the spots you need to be in and letting it go when my teammates find me.” — Texas guard Tyrese Hunter

Up next: Battle in Bayou City

Texas has a rare week off before traveling to Houston on Saturday for a 1 p.m. rematch with the No. 5 Cougars, who edged Texas in overtime at Moody Center on Jan. 29. Houston (21-3, 8-3) survived a 67-62 road tussle with Cincinnati on Saturday behind 20 points and eight rebounds from J’Wan Roberts. The Cougars are particularly tough at the Fertitta Center, where they have yet to lose this season and have beaten Big 12 foes by an average of 21.4 points.

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West Virginia

Frazier finds the right mix of factors at West Virginia

Published

4 hours ago

December 26, 2024

Press Room

Frazier finds the right mix of factors at West Virginia

Chester Frazier was appreciative of his time spent coaching at his alma mater Illinois. And the success that came with it with two championships in three years and an Elite 8 run in the tournament.

But Frazier wanted an opportunity to further grow in his role in order to prepare him for his next step up the coaching ladder and West Virginia provided that.

“It just needed something that I thought fit me a little bit more. And again, as I continue my journey to be a head coach, I wanted to learn something different,” he said.

It was a chance for Frazier to get back to his East Coast roots considering he’s from Baltimore and as well as work with a head coach in Darian DeVries that he had often watched from afar given how the pair aligned offensively and defensively.

The two had not met each other, but Frazier had done his homework watching Drake games as well as talking to others in the industry.

“He’s a winner, does things the right way. And I heard nothing but glowing remarks from my peers on his coaching style. So it drew me here,” he said.

Combine those two factors and it made the job an attractive position for him when it came open.

“It made a lot of sense when the job came open to make the move,” he said.

On the offensive end, West Virginia will continue to use a lot of ball movement with good sets and actions. Overall, it will be selfless basketball and they want to get out and play in the open court with the ability to slow it down when they need to. On the defensive end, the Mountaineers will be tough and stingy with a physical and connected brand of basketball which they’ve shown to date.

Some of the identity of this current team is still developing but the team is competing at a higher level than when the team first arrived and roles are starting to be established.

“I think connectivity has been the biggest piece. They’re getting along, they love each other and they’re playing hard. And that’s the only thing you can ask as a new group with so many new guys,” he said.

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West Virginia

ESPN Bracketology: West Virginia Rises Again, Officially Off the Bubble in Latest Projection

Published

13 hours ago

December 26, 2024

Press Room

ESPN Bracketology: West Virginia Rises Again, Officially Off the Bubble in Latest Projection

Darian DeVries probably wasn’t all that thrilled with how his team performed in their final game ahead of the Christmas break, but the Mountaineers were still able to take down Mercyhurst by a 67-46 score, finishing non-conference play with a 9-2 record.

The last couple of weeks have been cupcake central for West Virginia, which was much needed after the challenging start to the schedule they had and then, of course, what awaits them when they return to the floor with Big 12 Conference play beginning,

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has continued to move WVU up in his NCAA Tournament projections over the last month. In his Christmas Day projection, he finally has the Mountaineers safely off the bubble and in the field as a No. 9 seed in the South Region.

1. Auburn vs. 16. Southern/American

8. Clemson vs. 9. West Virginia

5. Memphis vs. 12. Furman

4. Texas A&M vs. 13. High Point

6. Ole Miss vs. 11. Drake/Saint Mary’s

3. Oregon vs. 14. UMass Lowell

7. Michigan vs. 10. Utah State

2. Kentucky vs. 15. Montana

West Virginia will have the next few days off before traveling to Lawrence to take on the Kansas Jayhawks in the Big 12 opener on New Year’s Eve.

West Virginia

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

Published

1 day 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.

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