West Virginia men’s basketball captured a much-needed win over Utah this past Saturday that significantly boosted their odds of an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. The Mountaineers got a total team effort in the scoring column and did their best to out-scheme a team with a larger and deeper roster en route to victory. Here are a couple more things that standout from Saturday’s win.
Defense Creating Offense
This edition of the Mountaineers can often be undersized and out-matched in terms of bench depth, and fatigue does occasionally set in a bit too heavily. But something WVU does well to counter it is using their defensive prowess to create efficient scoring opportunities.
The Mountaineers won the turnover battle on Saturday, though it wasn’t by a jaw-dropping margin or with an insane number of takeaways -- WVU would force 10 Utah turnovers while giving away just 7 turnovers of their own. But what they did with those turnovers was quite impressive, especially compared to the Utes.
The Mountaineers outscored their opponent 16-6 in points off turnovers -- it shows an ability to make up for their lack of outstanding scorers (aside from Javon Small, that is) and lack of bench depth by creating opportunities where other teams might not. And that 10-point differential in points off turnovers makes quite a difference when the margin of victory is only 11 points.
WVU is finally getting the “Sixth Man of the Year” version of Joe Yesufu
Senior Joe Yesufu was once a Missouri Valley Conference Sixth Man of the Year for current WVU Head Coach Darian DeVries when they were both still with the Drake Bulldogs. He averaged 12.8 points per game that season, and averaged 23.2 points per game during the final nine-game stretch.
Yesufu has shown glimpses of that player this season in his role as a primary reserve off the bench for the Mountaineers -- he stepped up and scored 14 points against North Carolina Central in the WVU’s first game without Tucker DeVries, when things could have gotten sidetracked following the forward’s season-ending injury. He also added in a pair of massive three-point buckets in a 6 point performance as WVU earned one of their signature wins of the season and gained their first-ever road victory over Kansas, who sat ranked in the Top 10.
But it seems Yesufu is finally stepping fully into that sixth-man scorer role and embracing it as the season hits the February homestretch. Yesufu has scored 16 points (at Cincinnati), 11 points (at TCU), and 14 points (vs. Utah) in the team’s last three games where they went 2-1 following a three-game losing streak. Over that period, Yesufu is shooting lights out from behind-the-arc, going 9-for-18 from deep range.
Yesufu also added his season-best scoring performance in a crucial WVU win in January on the road against Colorado, where he dropped 18 points going 6-for-9 shooting from the field and playing a major role late in a tightly-fought 78-70 win.