It was a glorious time for the Baylor Bears. After starting the season with 15 straight wins, the program reached No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time ever. Making their debut as the top ranked team in the country last month, Baylor was demolished by the West Virginia Mountaineers in a game that wasn’t as close as the 21-point margin. Maybe the players were nervous over their lofty ranking, or maybe the Mountaineers are simply the better team. Baylor has an opportunity to avenge that earlier thumping while getting a leg up on second place in the Big 12.
This war on the floor will go down Monday, February 27, 2017, at 7 p.m. ET at the Ferrell Center. The game will be televised live on ESPNU. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Monday schedule.
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There will be a short turnaround for both teams, who also play on Saturday before their Monday night meeting. The Mountaineers play both on the road in the great state of Texas with the Baylor tilt on the heels of a contest against TCU. Three of West Virginia’s five conference losses have come on the road. The most recent was an overtime 84-80 thriller in Kansas two weeks ago. And the defense, known for harassing opponents and creating turnovers, has been average in away games. WVU surrenders nearly 73 points per game in its Big 12 road games with the over at 5-1-1.
Baylor ended a two-game slide with a win over Oklahoma last week and has gone just 8-5 SU and 5-8 ATS since losing in Morgantown on Jan. 10. The Bears, Mountaineers and Iowa State enter the weekend tied for second in the Big 12 and one of those teams will need to win out with hopes of catching Kansas for the top spot. It’s unlikely the Jayhawks lose three straight, so it’s a battle for second in conference tournament seeding. Baylor failed to cover as a 12.5-point favorite over the Sooners and is just 1-7 ATS on its home floor during Big 12 play.
Last Meeting
The Bears entered the game in Morgantown on Jan. 10 unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in the country. Their debut as the top ranked team was a sloppy mess. Baylor turned the ball over 29 times and was blown away in the second half, losing the game 89-68. “They just took us out of everything,” Scott Drew said of WVU’s pressing defense. Other than the turnovers, Baylor didn’t play poorly in a hostile environment.
The Bears made nearly 45 percent of their shots and outrebounded the Mountaineers, but they had 13 fewer field goal attempts because of the turnover differential.
Key Stat
“Press Virginia” was at its best when the Mountaineers forced 29 Baylor miscues in their first meeting. It was the most for WVU since joining the Big 12. And the Mountaineers were so disruptive on defense, several of the turnovers were unforced with players dribbling the basketball off their feet or stepping on the sideline with no defender in sight.
But that’s what the Mountaineers do and they are the best at it. WVU leads the country by forcing a whopping 21.6 turnovers per game with many of those turning into fast break opportunities at the other end. They haven’t enjoyed as much success on the road, with the turnovers per game down to 19.3, but that number is almost two turnovers per game higher than last season when the Mountaineers ranked second in Division I.
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Knowing how to beat the press and actually doing it are two different things. For Baylor, their success in this game is obvious. The Bears need to value the basketball and avoid turning it over. There will be some mistakes, that happens, but 29 turnovers is way too many. If the Bears can play a game similar to what they did in Morgantown last month and cut that turnover number in half, there’s no reason why they can’t win this game.
WVU feeds off the home crowd and that won’t be a factor in this one. It’s hard to imagine the Bears, who average just over 13 turnovers per game, being so careless with the basketball again. They also don’t have the pressure of being the No. 1 team in the land. That’s a burden lifted and payback is a great motivator.
College Basketball Odds: Baylor 71, West Virginia 66
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