Iowa State's Morris could negate No. 7 West Virginia's pressure (Jan 31, 2017)
On the surface, it seems like a dream matchup.
When No. 7 West Virginia visits Iowa State on Tuesday night for a Big 12 game at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa, it will be the Mountaineers' ferocious full-court pressure against the Cyclones' cool point guard, Monte Morris.
The team that forces 22.7 turnovers per game against the preseason All-America pick who has committed only 23 turnovers in 20 games. The team averaging nearly 12 steals per game versus the team guilty of just 10.1 turnovers per game.
Something has to give here. But it might not necessarily be advantage West Virginia (17-4, 5-3) if it harries Morris and Iowa State (13-7, 5-3) into a few more mistakes than usual, or advantage Cyclones if they don't cough up a spate of live-ball turnovers.
"It's more than stealing the ball, it's about wearing people down," Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins said to the Morgantown (W.Va.) Dominion Post. "Go back to the Virginia game, people were talking about how tired they were. It's not just stealing the ball. There are other positives from it."
Such as upping the tempo just enough to perhaps force a team to play a half-step quicker than it wants to, leading to quick shots that produce fast-break points on the other end. That's the game within a game every West Virginia opponent faces.
Beating the pressure is one thing, knowing when to try to score against it or pull the ball back out and run your offense with about 20 seconds remaining on the shot clock is another. And this is where the styles could make this fight a classic.
Few lead guards in the college game have Morris' discretion at knowing when to push pace or not gamble against the numbers. The senior averages five assists for every turnover, joining Jeff Hornacek as the only players in school history with 1,000 points, 600 assists and 200 steals.
How Morris fares -- and what kind of help he receives from backcourt mates Nazareth Mitrou-Long and Matt Thomas -- figures to determine if Iowa State gets the big win it could use to fortify its resume for an at-large bid or slips closer to the bubble.
"Teams that have beaten them -- Texas Tech, Oklahoma -- have had limited turnovers," Cyclones coach Steve Prohm said. "You have to be strong with the ball and do the fundamental stuff well. You can't bring too many people to the ball."
Iowa State is coming off an 84-78 loss at Vanderbilt on Saturday in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, a game that certainly was winnable when it owned an 11-point first-half lead. But the Cyclones gave up 13 3-pointers to blow the lead and the game against a sub-.500 opponent.
The Mountaineers posted a win in the same event Saturday, forcing 23 turnovers by Texas A&M in an 81-77 decision in Morgantown. That result, coming after a resounding rout of Kansas on Jan. 24, bumped West Virginia up 11 spots in this week's poll.
But it's back to the Big 12 grind until the NCAA Tournament for West Virginia, and Huggins knows there won't be too many easy marks.
"By and large, the scores are close, and that's what happens in league play," he said.
