Mountaineers Now Postgame Show: WVU Defeats Cincinnati
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Welcome in everybody.
00:10 It is the Mountaineers Now post game show
00:12 presented by Country Roads AirDog Cleaning.
00:14 Take me home to comfort.
00:16 I'm Skylar Callahan and joining me live
00:18 from the WVU Coliseum is Christopher Hall.
00:20 West Virginia gets back in the win column
00:23 after a two game losing streak on the road
00:26 to UCF and Oklahoma State.
00:28 They beat the old Big East rival
00:30 Cincinnati Bearcats tonight 69 to 65.
00:34 And as always a quick look here at the numbers.
00:37 Quince Lozinski had 15 points and five boards.
00:40 Jesse Edwards, the story of the night though
00:43 in his second game back, he goes 11 for 17 from the field,
00:47 records a double double, 25 points, 10 rebounds,
00:51 was just an absolute force for the Mountaineers.
00:54 And really Chris, the one stat
00:55 that really kind of stood out to me
00:57 was the lack of three point attempts.
00:59 This has been a team that's kind of fallen in love
01:01 with the three, whether that's a good thing or not,
01:04 it depends on a nightly basis, but only 11 attempts tonight.
01:07 They were more selective from the field
01:09 and it ended up paying off because they were more efficient.
01:12 I think there were five of 11,
01:14 but they seem to really fall in love
01:15 with getting Jesse Edwards at the ball.
01:17 And that's, I guess a good thing to do
01:19 whenever he's hot like that.
01:21 - Yeah, keep feeding Jesse.
01:22 I don't have to hit threes when Jesse
01:24 is right there at the rim at seven foot.
01:27 Definitely seems like he's back.
01:29 See how sore he is coming into Saturday,
01:31 but look like the old Jesse tonight.
01:33 I think the biggest stat, one of the biggest stats
01:34 that struck out to me was 22 points off turnovers.
01:39 They only forced 13 Cincinnati turnovers,
01:41 got 22 points off them.
01:43 And I mean, that'll kind of negate your rebounding
01:46 when you can take advantage of those extra possessions.
01:48 We talked about getting those extra possessions a lot,
01:50 whether it's offensive rebounds or creating turnovers.
01:53 They didn't create a high amount of turnovers,
01:55 but they made them pay for it.
01:58 I mean, I tell you what, like two field goals off
02:01 from scoring on every single turnover.
02:05 So I think that was one of the biggest stats
02:07 that stuck out to me.
02:08 - Yeah, I mean, Cincinnati,
02:10 about half of their shots came from three.
02:12 They were nine of 32 on the day.
02:16 Very odd shooting day for them.
02:18 Obviously their big men couldn't get going.
02:20 You can credit Jesse Edwards for that.
02:22 And also some of the team defense
02:23 that they just had going on.
02:24 - Jesse had four blocks.
02:26 I mean, he changed a lot of shots in that first half
02:29 and made him scared.
02:29 And that's what a big man will do for you in the middle.
02:32 They'll stop driving the ball.
02:34 They'll be hesitant to even pull up
02:35 from those little range jumpers.
02:38 So a lot of that is just credit to Jesse.
02:41 - Yeah, I mean, he was phenomenal, really.
02:44 Both ends of the floor.
02:46 Cincinnati obviously had 15 more shot attempts
02:49 from the field.
02:50 So that just goes to show right there
02:52 how much better the defense has been.
02:54 And really the last three games.
02:55 I think you go back to the UCF game,
02:59 they allow 72 on the road.
03:00 They allow 70 at Oklahoma State, 65 tonight.
03:04 It's starting to feel like they're kind of figuring things
03:07 out on that end of the floor.
03:09 - Yeah, you know, communication is key defensively.
03:12 And you're seeing a lot more communication happening
03:15 on the back end, especially from the front court.
03:19 And, you know, that's going to help those guards out a lot
03:21 to avoid those screens and stay up on the ball.
03:24 If you can cut down those passing lanes.
03:27 And we saw how many times did we talk about West Virginia
03:30 just playing an ISO.
03:31 Cincinnati kind of had to do that a lot themselves tonight
03:34 from just from good defense to cutting off the passing lane.
03:37 So it's not just about guarding the ball,
03:39 it's guarding off the ball.
03:40 And they're getting better at it.
03:41 And, you know, these guys are just now playing,
03:44 all playing together for only the second game.
03:46 But they had the whole, the entire lineups together.
03:49 And, you know, most of those guys have played together.
03:52 So you're starting to see that team chemistry.
03:54 And with Jesse, he's just, he's so big and long
03:58 that he's going to create mismatch problems
03:59 for everybody in this conference.
04:01 So good to see his wrist.
04:03 You could see it on Saturday,
04:05 even when he was playing defense away from the ball
04:08 that he was favoring that wrist.
04:10 We talked about it.
04:11 And tonight he didn't see that nearly as much.
04:14 So he's definitely getting his strength back.
04:16 It's not hurting him as much.
04:17 And hopefully he's not sore going into Saturday
04:19 'cause they're probably going to even step out
04:22 a little bit against BYU.
04:25 Man, they make a ton of threes.
04:26 They lead to big 12 and threes made per game at 12.
04:29 That's a pretty wide margin at three too.
04:31 - Yeah, they didn't even take that many tonight.
04:33 West Virginia did, so.
04:35 (laughing)
04:37 But yeah, I mean, this game was 60 to 50
04:39 with six and a half minutes to go.
04:40 And I think you got to credit the players
04:42 and also Josh Shylock because, I mean,
04:45 when you're seven and 13 and you're down 10 points at home
04:48 and it just feels like every time
04:50 you feel like you're in a game
04:52 and something starts to go wrong,
04:53 it's easy to hang your head.
04:54 And I think that tonight was a good example
04:58 of there's a lot of fights still left in this team.
05:00 And even though we've talked about it
05:02 almost every post game,
05:04 the NCAA tournament's well out of reach at this point
05:06 unless they win the conference tournament.
05:08 But at least it shows that they have a chance.
05:12 - You went out, you're looking really good, conference.
05:15 - Yeah.
05:16 - This isn't done by computers.
05:17 Committee's gonna understand.
05:18 We kind of talked about Cincinnati's,
05:22 talking to some other folks earlier
05:23 about Cincinnati's tournament, like this is a bad loss.
05:25 I'm like, it's really not.
05:27 When you look at any loss in Morgantown,
05:30 it's not really considered a bad loss.
05:32 Technically it's quad three,
05:33 but it's not a bad loss in Morgantown,
05:35 especially now that they have their own team.
05:37 So it's different.
05:39 I know they take the whole resume now.
05:40 They really used to consider the last 10 games,
05:42 but if West Virginia would go on a run
05:44 and win these last 10 games or so,
05:47 they go eight of 10, all of a sudden,
05:49 I mean, there's probably some ranked wins in there
05:51 and you have a full roster.
05:53 Good thing to have the human element there, I think,
05:56 if you're West Virginia.
05:57 But I mean, that's a long way to go.
05:59 It's neither here nor there.
05:59 - Yeah, one at a time.
06:01 - A long way to go, but when you see that confidence,
06:05 they stayed the course.
06:08 It was six and a half minutes, down 10.
06:10 And they stacked stops.
06:13 They just stacked stops.
06:14 So they know they can do it.
06:15 It's another confidence builder.
06:17 And talked about that loss to Oklahoma State
06:20 where they were right there.
06:22 They got the good start, or not necessarily a good start,
06:25 but they matched the energy early,
06:28 so they didn't get in that big deficit.
06:29 And they were able to hang in the game late
06:33 where they didn't have to try to make
06:34 a second half comeback.
06:35 So they were in the game the whole time,
06:37 lost control a little bit, and then got it back.
06:41 That's huge going forward.
06:43 - Yeah, they just need to figure out
06:44 how to carry that with them when they get on the bus,
06:48 head to the airport, and go,
06:50 whether it's to Orlando or Stillwater,
06:52 wherever the heck they're going,
06:53 because this team has just not found a way
06:56 to win on the road.
06:57 They haven't done it yet this year.
06:58 They have not won a single game outside of Morgantown.
07:01 And they're going to have to.
07:02 Obviously, if they want to have that miraculous run
07:05 towards the end of the season,
07:06 they're going to have to do that.
07:08 Lastly, I do want to talk about Kirk Crease,
07:11 10.7 assist, and also actually Raekwon battle,
07:15 because I think he doesn't get enough love here.
07:17 He was only two of six.
07:19 I mean, six shot attempts for Raekwon,
07:21 I mean, he can rack those six shots up
07:24 in four minutes in any night.
07:26 But he was really selective tonight.
07:28 And I think he just kind of had a good feel for the game.
07:31 He realized, hey, this is not a game
07:33 where I'm going to be able to go out and get 30 points.
07:35 I'm going to get my teammates involved
07:36 and do whatever I need to do to keep my team in it.
07:38 And he did that.
07:39 I mean, he had a really good on-ball defender on him
07:42 all night, too.
07:43 Yeah, plus five assistant turnover as well.
07:46 So Quin Solzinski should probably get a little bit
07:49 of love as well.
07:50 I think he had 15 points, if I'm not mistaken.
07:53 So you have to win these games, especially in the Big 12,
07:59 you need contributors from everybody.
08:01 And it seems like you're kind of getting it.
08:03 You had all those starts coming in the season,
08:05 and now they're all contributing.
08:07 And I think another setting he's pointed out
08:08 every starter was positive in the plus/minus.
08:12 We'd have to go back and look, but I think that'd be--
08:14 it's definitely the first time in Big 12 play.
08:19 Probably have to go back and read the seasons,
08:21 probably see that stat.
08:22 And I doubt you would, because obviously, they're
08:25 still trying to find their way with seven scholarship players.
08:29 Yeah, so West Virginia, again, finally gets back
08:32 in the win column.
08:33 And for Cincinnati, I mean, they're playing good basketball.
08:37 You can tell they're competitive.
08:39 I think a little bit further along than many people probably
08:42 expected them in their first year.
08:43 But they haven't won on the road in the Big 12
08:46 against a old Big 12 member, or original Big 12 member,
08:49 I believe.
08:50 So they've got to figure that out too.
08:52 But hey, West Virginia's been in the league
08:54 for how many years now?
08:55 They're having a lot of struggles.
08:57 At BYU, there's no picnic.
08:58 That was a huge win.
09:00 I think they won by 11 as well.
09:02 So that was a big win.
09:04 Yeah, it definitely was.
09:05 And BYU will be visiting Morgantown this Saturday.
09:09 That one will tip off at 6 o'clock on ESPN.
09:12 Plus, we'll have all the game day coverage leading up
09:15 to the game.
09:15 And then also, our Mountaineers now postgame show
09:18 to wrap things up, potentially talking about another top 25
09:22 win for the Mountaineers.
09:23 They're 2-0 in WVU Coliseum against top 25 opponents
09:27 here in the last two weeks.
09:29 See if they make it a third in as many weeks.
09:31 Can they handle success?
09:32 It's always a theme at West Virginia.
09:35 Can they handle the success tonight,
09:36 carry it into Saturday?
09:38 Got a few days to rest and get back at it
09:40 against the Cougars on Saturday.
09:42 So West Virginia winning 69 to 65 against Cincinnati tonight.
09:47 And we'll be back on Saturday to wrap up things
09:50 with West Virginia and BYU.
09:51 Make sure you hit the Subscribe button on YouTube
09:53 at Mountaineers Now.
09:54 Give us a like and a follow on X at the same handle.
09:58 For Christopher Hall, I'm Skylar Callan.
10:00 You've been watching the Mountaineers Now
10:01 postgame show, presented by Country Roads, AirDuck Clean.
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