West Virginia Men Set To Face Florida
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The West Virginia University men's basketball team will have at least a little fan fever on its side Saturday when the No. 11 Mountaineers host Florida in the Big 12/SEC Challenge in a 2 p.m. tipoff at the WVU Coliseum.
The ESPN audience will see fans in the Coliseum stands. An COVID-19-reduced crowd of 1,000 is expected to cheer on WVU (11-4) against a Gators (9-4) team that has won its last three games.
"I think everybody is excited about (having fans again)," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins told reporters Friday. "We'd been really disappointed if all of this hadn't happened, and we only had 1,000 fans there, but now that we haven't had hardly any and to have 1,000 I think that's a step in the right direction."
West Virginia is coming off a last-second 88-87 win Monday over No. 10 Texas Tech. Sophomore guard Miles McBride scored a career-high 24 points in that game, including the game-winning bucket with 5.9 seconds left.
SQUAD LEADERS: McBride has averaged 15.9 points and 4.2 assists while Derek Culver has put up 13.1 points and 10.2 rebounds. For the Gators, Tre Mann has averaged 14.7 points and 5.2 rebounds while Colin Castleton has put up 11.8 points and five rebounds.
SPARKING THE OFFENSE: McBride has made or assisted on 41 percent of all West Virginia field goals over the last three games. The sophomore guard has accounted for 18 field goals and 13 assists in those games.
UNBEATEN WHEN: The Mountaineers are 9-0 when they hold opposing teams to 71 points or fewer and 2-4 when opponents exceed 71 points. The Gators are 9-0 when they score at least 72 points and 0-4 on the year when falling short of 72.
PASSING FOR POINTS: The Mountaineers have recently converted baskets via assists more often than the Gators. West Virginia has an assist on 40 of 76 field goals (52.6 percent) across its past three contests while Florida has assists on 45 of 96 field goals (46.9 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: West Virginia has attempted the second-most free throws among all Big 12 teams. The Mountaineers have averaged 21.9 foul shots per game this season.