Arizona (8-5, 2-0) at No. 21 West Virginia (11-2, 2-0) | WVU Coliseum | 5 p.m., Tuesday | ESPN Plus | 1290-AM
PROBABLE STARTERS
ARIZONA
G Jaden Bradley (6-3 junior)
G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)
F Anthony Dell’Orso (6-6 junior)
F Trey Townsend (6-6 senior)
C Tobe Awaka (6-8 junior)
WEST VIRGINIA
G Javon Small (6-3 senior)
G Sencire Harris (6-4 sophomore)
F Toby Okani (6-8 senior)
F Jonathan Powell (6-6 freshman)
C Eduardo Andre (6-11 senior)
How they match up
The last time: Wing Tucker DeVries had 26 points and hit 8 of 12 3-pointers, while forward Toby Okani added 20 points, to help West Virginia beat Arizona 83-76 in overtime of the Battle 4 Atlantis third-place game on Nov. 29 in Paradise Island, Bahamas. Caleb Love hit a transition 3-pointer to tie the game near the end of regulation and scored 24 points but made just 4 of 12 3-pointers.
Series history: The Mountaineers’ Nov. 29 win tied the series at three but the teams have only played one other time in the past quarter century – when West Virginia beat Arizona 75-65 in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament, ending a UA season led by interim head coach Kevin O’Neill.
What’s new with the Mountaineers: West Virginia hasn’t lost since losing to Louisville in a Battle 4 Atlantis semifinal game on Nov. 28, a streak of seven straight wins that is the nation’s eighth longest active streak.
The Mountaineers have won the past five without DeVries, who suffered an unspecified upper body injury and has no specified timeline of return. But they have returned to using Angolan/British big man Eduardo Andre, a formidable rebounder who is hitting 80% of his two-point shots. Andre missed the Nov. 29 game with Arizona because of what WVU is calling an “upper extremity injury” but has played since then, playing a big role in the Mountaineers’ upset win at Kansas with 15 points on 7-for-9 field goal shooting.
West Virginia runs the 15th most efficient defense in Division I, allowing only 93.9 points per 100 possessions, and holds opponents to just 42.7% shooting from two-point range (ranking eighth best nationally in defensive two-point percentage) and 27.4% from 3-point range (fourth).
He said it: “DeVries is a great player and played really well against us, but defensively, they're really dynamic. Andre is a shot blocker, rim-runner. He's doing a great job out of short rolls, passing and making decisions. He brings a different dynamic to their team. He’s just gotten better and better. Since he’s somebody that we didn't play against, it's almost like we're playing a different team.
“If the season ended today, (Small) might be the conference Player of the Year. He's really, really good. (On Nov. 2) he was playing his third game in three days, all overtime games and he had played a ton of minutes so I'm not sure we saw him at his best (Small had 14 points but shot 2 for 9 from the field).
“We have to be prepared for an all-conference guard, a really good big, and the freshman (Jonathan Powell) is shooting the ball well. And Okani might be the best role player in the conference. He had a great game against us and he hurts you in a lot of different ways. He’s made 3s. He rebounds, he defends, he cuts. He’s just a really good basketball player.
“They’ll still run some of (the screens they ran for DeVries). They'll run it for Small, they'll run it for Powell, but they also want to keep the ball in Small’s hands. He's going to have the basketball a lot of the time and he's the guy who's making decisions for them.”
— UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Mountaineers
Key players
West Virginia – Javon Small
Coming off a double-double against his old team, Oklahoma State, and game-winning heroics at Kansas, the Mountaineers’ point guard is on a roll. He’s ranked No. 6 in Kenpom’s analytics-based Player of the Year rankings because of his production on both sides of the court, and is especially effective at getting to the line (drawing 5.0 fouls per 40 minutes) and hitting free throws (87.8).
Arizona — Henri Veesaar
Without Motiejus Krivas, Veesaar’s ability to match up with bigger players and add to post starters Tobe Awaka and Trey Townsend has been critical for the Wildcats and also could be Tuesday against Andre. In two Big 12 games so far, Veesaar is averaging 11.5 points, 75.0% field goal shooting, 5.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists.
Arizona’s Henri Veesaar reacts following the team’s win over Cincinnati on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in Cincinnati.
Sidelines
Mountaintop
The Mountaineers are climbing a peak just as the Wildcats are arriving into town.
West Virginia jumped into the AP Top 25 poll Monday at No. 21 while Small was named the Big 12's Player of the Week. West Virginia was ranked No. 21 after beating Kansas and Oklahoma last week, while Arizona picked up votes for the first time since after it lost to Oklahoma and West Virginia in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Small led West Virginia to a 62-61 upset win at Kansas, collecting 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists while hitting a game-winning free throw with 1.8 seconds left. He also had 24 points and 11 rebounds on Saturday in West Virginia's 69-50 win over Oklahoma State.
Arizona guard Caleb Love was nominated for the Big 12's Player of the Week award after scoring 33 points on UA's 90-81 win over TCU on Dec. 30. Love added another 12 points in the Wildcats' 72-67 win at Cincinnati on Saturday.
Hello, again (?)
While Arizona and West Virginia already faced each other less than six weeks ago in the Battle 4 Atlantis, both Mountaineers coach Darian DeVries and UA associate head coach Jack Murphy said it's a different matchup now.
For West Virginia, part of the change is losing DeVries' son, Tucker, and getting increasing production from Andre inside.
For Arizona, it’s the way the Wildcats have continued to adjust and improve without Krivas, who had only one point in 12 minutes against the Mountaineers on Nov. 29.
“They've changed a little bit of what they were doing in the Bahamas,” Darian DeVries said of Arizona, adding that West Virginia assistant coach Kory Barnett, who is scouting the Wildcats “said they're playing at a pretty, pretty high level.”
“We're a little bit different, too, with our personnel. So, we gotta take that game, learn what we can from it, but also apply it to how does that work (considering) how they're playing right now and how we're playing.”
Maybe as much as anything, the Wildcats’ composure may be different now.
“We were struggling a bit, coming off a few losses,” Murphy said. “Our confidence wasn't where it's at now. So I feel like it's almost like a brand new season for both of us.”
Come on over (if you can)
While DeVries praised West Virginia fans for coming out Saturday for a game with Oklahoma State despite “not the greatest weather in the world,” Tuesday’s game could be more of a challenge.
Not only are West Virginia students still on winter break this week but a winter storm closed the campus Monday and is threatening to keep others out of the WVU Coliseum on Tuesday.
WVU responded Monday by posting a “Snow Day Special” for online ticket buyers.
“Nine inches of snow for $9 off Upper Baseline = $16 Tickets to the WVU vs. Arizona,” West Virginia posted.
Numbers game
29.0: 3-point shooting percentage of Arizona opponents during the Wildcats’ four game winning streak.
30.5: Combined points averaged by reserves Henri Veesaar, KJ Lewis and Carter Bryant over Arizona’s two previous Big 12 games.
34.2: Arizona’s ratio of 3-point attempts to overall field-goal attempts, the 65th lowest such ratio in Division I.
— Bruce Pascoe
