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does it better than Blaine Anderson and his crew. It
is time to get to know the foe by us
in the Big Twelve Tournament. They're gonna be facing the
West Virginia men's basketball team, the Mountaineers.
Speaker 1: Once again.
Speaker 3: It wasn't too long ago that we were previewing another
West Virginia BYU matchup in West Virginia came out on top,
shocking Cougar Nation. Shock in the world. And uh, they're
pulling some pretty good ball right now. We're gonna get
to the foe, see what they're doing so well and
why they're a formidable foe versus the Koogs in this
Big twelve basketball tournament. It's going to be brought to
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Speaker 1: All right, let's get out.
Speaker 3: To the hotline and welcome in the Voice of the
West Virginia Mountaineers got we have one of the best
in the business to break it all down. Insider for
all things West Virginia Basketball. Bratt House on the line, Brett,
how you living?
Speaker 4: Hello, Ben doing great surprise. We're talking again this quickly
after we just played West Virginian BYU, but excited to
be in Kansas City. I'm staring out my room looking
at the T Mobile Center right now, so it should
be a fun one coming up in a few hours.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what's the vibe been like so far at the
Big twelve tournament?
Speaker 1: How would you describe it? The glass floor and all.
Speaker 4: It's been awesome. You know, that glass floor is so
much discussion about it, and I'm a former assistant Netflix
director for marketing in my previous life, so as a
marketing guy, I absolutely loved all the possibilities you can
do with the glass floor. We'll see how it does.
There's been a lot of talk and criticism about it
over the last couple of weeks men's and women's tournaments
about maybe some slippage, is it hard to play on?
And certainly the BYU guys can answer that better than
West Virginia's. We haven't taken the floor yet. But I
was at three of the four games yesterday and I
did see a ton of slips than To be honest
with you, the graphics are awesome. We'll see about the
playing surface, but it is really cool. Great crowds yesterday.
A lot of that was driven by by your BYU group.
They were tremendous and had a presence at all three
of the games, even before the Cougars took the floor.
So it was fun, a great start to the tournament.
Here's the one switch. It was eighty four degrees yesterday
in Kansas City. Just a beautiful picture atte day. Everybody
outside the T Mobile Center today, Ben, I think we've
lost about forty five degrees. It is cold and gray
and fitting some rain on it, so better weather yesterday.
A good day to be inside watching the games.
Speaker 3: You mentioned the slippage, you didn't notice much. I mean
I maybe saw like one slip in the BYU Kansas
State game ended up being a turnover for Kansas State.
But you didn't see any slippage. No consistent issues with
TEC and surefooting.
Speaker 4: I didn't bend, but again, and I'm not playing on it,
so I'm always hesitant to say Yeah, it's overblown because
I'm not out there myself. I was on it yesterday
for westbrtdin you shoot around and walked around, but that's
a whole different deal than when you're trying to stop
on a dime and change directions, and I understand that.
So it was told to me, and again I'm as
I'm watching it, I didn't see obvious slips. I only
saw a handful of them. You're right during the case,
say yu game, I did notice a couple. I was
told by somebody else. Maybe it's like equivalent to playing
on what is a dusty floor, so occasionally you can't
stop as quickly as you would like. But we'll have
to say, we'll know more as teams play on it.
But I did not notice this out and out slips
as much as I thought I might.
Speaker 3: It seemed like they kind of dampened some of the
graphics as well, like the Big twelve logo, at least
like the Louis baton Big twelve. It seemed like they
damped it a little bit, so it wasn't as like
bright and distracting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree with you. It was much more muted.
You had to really kind of be up on it too,
and that's a great way to describe it. It does
kind of look Louis Baton, But yeah, that looked much
more muted and maybe even a little more muted than
it looked on TV from the women's tournament last week.
So yeah, it really is. The graphics and the colors
really popped during introductions in time outside when you'll see
and they've dealt it way back during the in game actions.
Speaker 3: West Virginia finished off their season I think pretty pretty well,
getting a win versus BYU seventy nine to seventy one,
and then beating UCF.
Speaker 1: You did fall to Kansas State.
Speaker 3: I'm sure that one was a disappointing one, but overall
a solid finish to the season.
Speaker 1: How is what's the mindset.
Speaker 3: Like of this West Virginia Mountaineers team with a winning
two out of their last three games.
Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously the BYU game was big for West Virginia
to get that at home and then you're right on
the road in Manhattan was just really to be blunt,
a gut punch loss for the Mountaineers because I'm then
I think I'm I'm talking NCAA tournament possibilities with you
at West Virginia wins just that game, never mind some others.
You win that one, you're ten and eight in the
league in America, and I think West Virginia's live for
the NCAA tournament, And as of right now, you're certainly
on the outside looking in of that discussion. You probably
have to win a couple here to get in. But
the case a loss was extremely disappointing, then a nice
bounce back to win over UCF and get the season
sweep in that series. So this team is remarkably consistent.
Doesn't matter if it's a win, if it's a loss,
if it's a two game losing streak, a two game
winning streak, they go about their business. It's a veteran team.
They've been here and done that. They're a joy to
be around. That hope this season can keep going because
there are a lot of fun, a lot of great guys,
and they're remarkably resilient and consistent. That's the best way
I can describe them. So they're excited, they're looking forward
to it. They like playing with each other, like being
around each other, So I think they're excited to enter
the postseason here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's intriguing. So they got to win a couple like,
how many games do you think they got to win
in order to get to an NCAA tournament.
Speaker 4: It's a good question. It might be too then, and
I think that you're legitimately in the discussion. I'd be
interested to see what happens if West Virginia prevails over
BYU who as you guys now, I don't need to
tell your listeners are still rated so highly. And then
net that would be another significant win. And again, I
think if you dive inside these numbers, and there's really
probably not much sense to me talking to you a
lot about West Virginia's NCAA numbers, just yet, would you
start to look at quad one victories? Western India stacks
up with anybody from where they are in the NET
in the mid fifties all the way up into the
thirties with number of quad one wins, don't have any
Quad four losses, don't have many Quad three losses. Again,
some losses within this league, but those aren't treated like
non conference. So maybe we'll have a conversation in a
week or so. If West Virginia can get out there
and get a couple wins.
Speaker 1: What would you say, you know, is.
Speaker 3: The improvement that West Virginia has made in the in
the like the last four games of the season. What's
tangible evidence that this team is better towards the end
of the season than they were kind of in that
mid mid big twelve funk that they dropped into.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a couple things, And I don't know that
it's a ton different. I mean, you're talking about a
team that's a possession away from literally three or four wins.
And again we're having a totally different conversation, So there
hasn't been a big difference a lot of its matchup base.
And you know how this works in this league. The
margin for air is so thinned. So on one night,
if you missed a couple extra threes or don't get
to the free throw line or foul the other team
and they get to the line a little bit more,
you've got a problem and you probably lose. Now, this team,
I think is playing some of the best defense it's played.
This is an intricate defensive system that Ross Hodge employees,
and I think as we get to the end of
the season, now the guys really understand it. But when
West Virginia has lost games, it generally comes at the
free throw line. And that's one of the concerns tonight
when you're playing an Aja Debonca led team. And I
don't again don't need to tell you this, but when
he gets to the line as much as he does,
if it's one of those nights, West virgin is in trouble.
In the four losses that has had most recently, West
Virginia is minus forty points at the free throw line.
So when they have guarded and fouled, and again that's
the concern with aj going against him. He's so good
at drawing fouls best in the Big Twelve. If West
Virginia's putting him on the line, could be a tough
night in Morgantown. I thought they did a tremendous job,
one of the best jobs in any team's done on
him all season. Guarding without fouling held him too. That
season low first half total of four points kept him
off the free throw line for the most part. If
you're able to do that, West Virginia generally turns out well.
If they're fouling, could be a long night for the Mountaineers.
Speaker 3: Brad Howe, West Virginia Basketball anaeles Year on your Utah
ESPN Radio Network, getting to know the foe and getting
to know this West Virginia team a little bit better.
So what was the vibe lock can shoot around today
for West Virginia's game day. You know they're warming up,
they're getting getting into the swing of things. What's the
what's the game day vibe coming from the team?
Speaker 1: Would you say?
Speaker 4: Bouncy and excited to play, recognize the challenge. It's in fun.
I'm given with what AJ put forth last night. A
lot of guys watched that leave coaches over there scouting obviously,
so they're excited for the opportunity to go. As I
told you last time, what I think is the best
player in this league. So tremendous opportunity. And again it's
a group of guys that's excited to be at West Virginia.
They're excited to be playing in their first Big twelve
tournament for all of these guys. So it was a
bouncy crew a shoot around. They're ready to get out
there and take their swinks.
Speaker 1: How can they replicate what they did versus b YU.
Just seems like a few days ago, just a week
or so ago when they knocked off the Kops. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Again, a couple of things that are going to be
a challenge. First and foremost is what I just said about.
AJ got to stay out of foul trouble so that
if they do, then that allows six nine Brennan Laurient
to get the bulk of the reps against AJ, and
I think that's just critical. Brennan Laurian is the guy
that matches AJ size, has the ability to move laterally
if Brennan is not in foul trouble and can be
the primary matchup West Virginia feels good. That's number one.
Number two, you got to keep the turnover low, as
West Virginia did in Morgantown. Make BYU have to grind
out possessions. That's how West Virginia wants to play. They're
giving up easy baskets to the Cougars going the other way.
It's By's favor. And then I think the third part,
and I'll be surprised if West Virginia has the same
level of dominance this game, because I would imagine Kevin
Young focused heavily on this. But West Virginia had a
season high eighteen offensive rebounds in the first meeting, So
I thought that was if we're niching it really down
to anything. That was the biggest difference in the first
meeting is West Virginia was really on the glass. So
those are the three things guard without fouling, low turnovers offensively,
got to get on the offensive glass.
Speaker 3: When when you've been discussing the scattering report of BYU
with the coaching staff and the players, and you see
the undulations of BYU, you see the jackal and hide.
You see like on one game they're just they look
like one of the worst teams in the Big twelve,
and then the next minute they can knock off top
ten teams. Give me an eval of who BYU is
from your perspective and maybe the perspective of the coaching
staff and those that you interact with.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the biggest thing is, again I'm not breaking any
news here, but it's just two of the most dynamic
offensive players in this league and Right and Devons, and
so the ability and the resources it takes to try
and close the lane off on those guys primarily is
such a challenge because then you're leaving shooters on the line.
And again, I know by use a lot different with
no Ritchie Sanders sitting out there in the wing. I mean,
you can see why when you have those three operating
it with such a difficult offense to stop, but there's
still shooters for YU and this Mountaineer team and coaching
staff knows that. So you're trying to cut off the lane.
You're trying to load the paint and eliminate those pick
and rolls and those drives to the basket that both
of those guys are so good at, but still be
able to recover to the three point line. So that's
the biggest challenge, and that's why I think it's important
if you're West Virginia the time of possession. You know
that that's normally a football staff that we use. The
time of confession is critical for West Virginia. They like
to use clock. They want to slow down some of
these teams that are really athletic and good in transition,
and BYU is one of those. If you look at
West Virginia's top six games this year when they lead
possession by the greatest amount of time, they're five to one.
At the top of that list is the game against BYU.
Last week. West Virginia had it for a bigger gap
of time of possession than in any other game during
the season, and we saw how that turned out. It
was advantage West Virginia. So if you're watching tonight kind
of a back and forth at BYU is able to
get turnovers and run out and get quick easy shots
against West Virginia, advantaged Cougar's. If this turns into a
little bit of a grind and West Virginia's using clock
and it's forcing BYU to make some passes, that's probably
advantage West Virginia.
Speaker 1: Who do you think wins this big twelve tournament? Who's
your favorite to win it all?
Speaker 4: Oh, it's such a great question. So hard. I just
I think Houston's really good. It's hard to go against
Arizona at this point. They're just so talented and can
beat you with so many different guys. So again, I
know that's not that's breaking any news to come on
your program and give you a talk like that, But
those two are really good, you know. I Aoway state
has a lot of talent, and this place a lot
of times turns into Hilton South, So that's a challenge.
I just think the top of this league is just
so so good all national championship contenders, so really wouldn't
be surprised with any of those top teams in there.
Speaker 3: How many Big twelve teams do you foresee getting into
the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 4: Well, you're asking hard hitting, tough questions here. All of
them should be in this isle.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 3: Like there's an argument for that, I don't. Unfortunately, they're
not gonna tip the cab to the Big twelve. I
think they're going to try to get as many of
them in a It's just a really good conference this year.
Speaker 1: In particular, I think this.
Speaker 4: I do think the conversation needs to be broaden though,
and I know those of us that follow the league
understand this. And again I'm recognizing my own biases in
there with with the West Virginia side of things. But
I'll take it all the way down to that level
to this league, all the way down from from Arizona
down through the TCU b YU, Cincinnati, u CF, and
West Virginia's I think all of those have have cases.
And again I know BYU, based on its net, is
going to be in even though it walks into this
tournament at the tenn zee, they're in the tournament. But
I think you can make arguments for Cincinnati, UCF and
West Virginia. Ben, this is the West Virginia team that
beat both of those teams twice, four and oh over
those two teams. If West Virginia beats the BYU team again,
it's six and oh over those teams, which again UCF
kind of considered a lock. Buyu's inn. I think there
should be all the way down through West Virginia have
a legitimate case in what I think is the best
league in America.
Speaker 1: It's a great one.
Speaker 4: Box, but there you go.
Speaker 3: I love I love the soapbox commentaries. It's it's the good,
the bad, the beautiful, the ugly of being in such
an awesome conference. Right, Like, there's a strong argument that
that you're right. Like if if West Virginia had beaten
Kansas State, right and they and they waltzed into this
Big twelve tournament and they're ten and eight, like, it
just feels like they should be. They should be an
NC double A tournament team, They should be in the
in the Big Dance. And right now it's unfortate because
beating BYU and then getting getting past a really you know,
an even better team in the in the next round.
I mean, that's a tall task, just to get into
the Big Twelve, into the Big Dance, into the nc
double A tournament.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be a difficult thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there's no question. I mean to give
you the number, the reason I'm saying, if West Virginia
had beaten Kansas State, I think you're in. It's seventy
six out of seventy six teams that have gone ten
and eight in this league since twenty ten that have
made an NCAA tournament. Yeah, So just full stop. I
don't know that it matters what else. I think you're
staring at a couple of teams. Cincinnati's in that boat
do at nine and nine. So I just I think
this is a really quality league. And I think if
at least if you're having bubble discussions, if West Virginia
find a way to win this game, in particular over
another really quality team with again, what I think is
one of the best players in the country is not
the best. I think that deserves at least some conversations.
And again, this league is so good and deep it
deserves to get that recognition.
Speaker 3: In my opinion, Big Twelve awards were doled out earlier
this week. Any qualms anything that you pointed out, I
disagree with this, whether it be it Newcome or Player
of the Year or first second team. Where did you
stand Any honorable mentions that you thought I should have
been mentioned?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I wish I could scream and yell a little
bit more about that. I get that it's so hard
in this league, and if we study the voting, it
generally goes as it does. Coach of the Year is
generally the coach that wins the league, although I generally
side with a coach that has overachieved comparative to preseason expectations,
but that's just a personal bias. I see why Jaden
Bradley got Player of the Year. Is certainly deserves I
think I told you when we talked last I thought
AJ's the best player in the league. But I get
it it generally goes to somebody that wins the league.
In that category. You just start to go down those
first and second teams. It's remarkable. And again you have
me on to talk West Virginia, so I'll talk about
Honor Huff for a second. Guy that's top five nationally
in three pointers made, He's a guy that in the
one hundred and some year history of West Virginia basketball,
he's only been three that have made one hundred or
more threes in a season. And I recognize it didn't
always have the three point line, but one of three
guys to do it, and he just slides into honorable mentions.
I think that shows you the depth and talent in
this league, which is just just jaw dropping.
Speaker 1: No doubt about it.
Speaker 3: Give me a little prognostication on this BYU West Virginia game.
BYU's favored, but I think they were favored last time.
I think they're favored by four and a half. ESPN
Analytics giving BYO sixty eight point one percent chance of victory.
Speaker 1: Five pm. Tip off at.
Speaker 3: Team Mobile Center in Kansas City, by the way, Cougar Nation,
you can watch it on ESPN two. What do you
how would you break this game down and how do
you think it ends up?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I think this is going to be a really
good one. I think if from a West Virginia perspective,
the challenge for it will be not only just the
stopping aunt Debontsa, who's obviously not the confidence is ever
a problem, but coming off the game in which he
had yesterday, and you get a BYU team that got
its lakes under it, and it understands how to play
on this floor, and it got if there were any
jitters that existed, it got that out of there. So
some believe that playing in that first day gives you
advantage in that second game. If you're West Virginia, you've
got to be able to replicate the game in Morgantown,
and the challenge will be some of those categories turnovers
and offensive rebounds in particular. We're at or near your
season best, So the duplication of a performance that may
have been West Virginia's best this season in back to
back half, that would be the challenge I see going forward.
And so again I just give you one real key
of all those things I've talked about. If AJ's drawing
fouls early, I think big advantage for BYU. If West
Virginia is guarding and the thing looks kind of ugly
and bonds of not getting to the line early, then
I think we're in for a game, and I think
we have a real good one today.
Speaker 1: Brad.
Speaker 3: Best way to support you what you do, how you
do it, for all of our listeners.
Speaker 4: Probably the easiest you can find me on X at
Brad Howe Howe and then the numbers zero seven at
Brad how zero seven.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you, Brad, always a pleasure talking ball with you.
Enjoy the game tonight and we'll catch up with again soon.
Speaker 4: Okay, Ben, thanks for having me. I always like talking
with you.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, appreciate Brad how That segment was brought to
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