PREVIEW: West Virginia Aims to get Even with No. 8 Baylor

West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins believes his Mountaineers are heading in the right direction

The West Virginia Mountaineers (13-7, 2-5) remain on the road, heading west to Texas to face the No. 8 Baylor Bears (18-3, 6-1) on Big Monday at 9:00 pm EST and televised on ESPN.

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The Bears took the first meeting in Morgantown 77-68, bouncing back from back-to-back losses. Baylor sophomore guard and the team's leading scorer, LJ Cryer (13.9 ppg), went for a career-high 25-points behind 5-9 shooting from three-point range, while guard Mathew Mayer shot 5-8 from behind the arc for 20 points.

The Mountaineers kept pace with the Bears, holding a one-point lead with eight minutes to play, but consecutive Baylor threes created enough separation to hold on for the nine-point lead. Senior guard Malik Curry scored a team-high 19 points while a mending Taz Sherman produced 18 points and Sean McNeil put up 17.

Baylor is coming off an upset road loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, after consecutive wins over Kansas State and at Oklahoma. Meanwhile, West Virginia is currently on a five-game losing streak, losing by an average of 13.4 points per game while shooting 36.3% from the field, including 25.0% from behind the arc.

"I think we're closer and closer to being a pretty good team," said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins following the loss to Arkansas on Saturday. "We've got some guys that have got to stop thinking 'me first' and 'team second' to be honest with you, or they can't make themself push hard, play harder, compete more, and I think the result is those guys aren't going to be on the floor a whole lot whether it's at the beginning of the game or at the end of the game."

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In West Virginia's latest loss at Arkansas, the Razorbacks jumped out to an early 11-point advantage and proceeded to lead throughout the game, leading by as many as 19 points on the afternoon. However, West Virginia cut the deficit to five with 12:21 remaining in the game but could never get over the hump to take control of the game.

"I'm proud of our guys. We were down a bunch, and we didn't quit, and we fought and fought and fought," said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins.

"We're down 19 against a good basketball team in their place, and we competed," continued Huggins. "We had a chance. We didn't score a couple of possessions I thought we had a chance to score on to get it even closer, but you cut it from 19 to five, and we're out of gas."

Huggins believes this team can still pull together and start stacking some wins despite West Virginia's inconstancy on both ends of the floor.

"I still got all the faith in the world that this team is going to get turned around," he said. "We do play in the hardest league in the country, but we're going to come out of it. I believe that. I believe that with all my heart."

"I'm looking forward to Baylor in Waco," he added. "I think we're coming in the right direction."

West Virginia is 8-13 all-time against Baylor and has dropped five of the last six to the Bears. 

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Christopher Hall
CHRISTOPHER HALL

Member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.