The West Virginia Mountaineers are hosting the Iowa State Cyclones tonight in Big 12 College Basketball action. The game is scheduled for a 9:00 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on ESPN. Currently the betting odds for the game have the Mountaineers favored to pick up the win at home in this one.
West Virginia just lost to Oklahoma on Saturday, Iowa State was able to hang on at home against a TCU team with nothing to lose. Neither one of these teams has a chance to take down Kansas atop the Big 12 standings anymore, but an Iowa State win here would put them each at 9-6. A loss by the Cyclones would give them seven defeats in the conference and bring West Virginia to double digits, both teams should still have no problems making the NCAA Tournament.
In fact, the Big 12 Tournament itself should be wild. The conference is arguably the deepest in the country from one-through-seven. Each of those squads should be qualifying for the tournament and any of them could win the automatic bid by claiming the conference tournament itself.
In this one, a pair of contrasting styles with Iowa State’s offense and West Virginia’s defense will be fun to see. The Cyclones love to run, get up shots in transition and shoot the triple. West Virginia loves to press, cause turnovers for their opponents and rebound the basketball, they will have to slow Iowa State down tonight.
The Cyclones rank third in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency, averaging an impressive 120.8 points per 100 possessions; only Notre Dame and Duke have been better this season. West Virginia sits 11th in defensive efficiency and 30th on the offensive end, the combination has them as a strong Big 12 team. For what it’s worth, Iowa State’s defense ranks 122nd in the country in efficiency rankings, which is not a good number in the Big 12 — and it’s one of the reasons they are sitting with six conference defeats.
Iowa State is only 4-5 in road games this season, all five of those losses came to Top 50 RPI teams. The Mountaineers won in Ames already this year and they have been strong in home games with 11 wins in 11 games. If Iowa State plays well offensively, they have a decent shot at covering the number here.
Free Pick: West Virginia
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