Baylor vs. West Virginia Prediction, Game Preview

Baylor vs. West Virginia prediction and game preview. The Mountaineers can hand the Bears a fourth loss in five games by sweeping the season series Monday night in Waco.

Baylor vs. West Virginia Game Preview

When: Monday, Feb. 27 – 7 p.m. ET
Where: Ferrell Center, Waco, Texas
TV Broadcast: ESPNU

Baylor entered its matchup with West Virginia on Jan. 10 fresh off being ranked the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25, then looked anything but over the course of 40 minutes in Morgantown. The Bears committed an astonishing 29 turnovers against Bob Huggins’ “Press Virginia” defensive scheme and were routed, 89-68. Another performance like that Monday will extend their slump further.

Baylor has lost three of its last four games after falling 72-69 at Iowa State on Saturday, a stretch that also includes a defeat at Texas Tech and a home loss to Kansas. The biggest issue in the latest setback was defense, as the Cyclones shot 57.8 percent from the field to negate Baylor’s 37-17 advantage on the boards. Johnathan Motley finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds in a solid effort, but it wasn’t enough.

He wasn’t nearly as good in the first meeting with West Virginia, which has won three in a row after surviving to beat TCU, 61-60, on Saturday. The Mountaineers forced 21 turnovers to overcome a season-low 36.9 percent shooting from the field and only came away with the victory after TCU missed a clean look at the buzzer.

Jevon Carter had 15 points and Nathan Adrian had 13 for West Virginia, which is 23-6 and could use another signature victory for NCAA Tournament seeding purposes. There’s a prime opportunity for that with Baylor reeling, but don’t expect the blowout we saw in the first meeting.

Baylor Wins If …

… it protects the ball. The Bears’ guards clearly were flustered by West Virginia’s pressure last month, as Ish Wainright finished with six turnovers and Manu Lecomte had five. Their inability to set any kind of offense led to Motley being neutralized, with the big man finishing with eight points and five rebounds while going 3 for 10 from the floor. Motely has 48 points and 27 rebounds over his last two games and is in a nice groove. He’s going to need a lot more touches than he had the last time against the Mountaineers, and it all starts with the guards being able to hold onto the ball.

West Virginia Wins If …

… its half-court offense succeeds. It’s no secret the Mountaineers rely heavily on converting turnovers into easy points. But if Baylor learned from its issues from the first meeting, they can’t expect to feast off that many miscues again. West Virginia is shooting only 41.3 percent for its last four games and needs that to improve in this contest. Just hitting one shot would be huge for Tarik Phillip, who is 0 for 13 from the field over his last two games and shooting 2 for 21 over his last three.

Matchup To Watch

Motley vs. Adrian

This is assuming there’s enough half-court offense on Baylor’s side of the floor to all for this matchup. If the Bears can break that press, they’ll be dumping the ball to Motley as often as they can, and it will be up to Adrian to help keep his numbers down.

Baylor vs. West Virginia Betting Odds

Spread: EVEN
Over/Under: 138.5