Team Stats
Points Per Game	74.1	78.9
Points Against	74.4	65.4
Field Goal %	42.1	48.4
Rebounds Per Game	40.0	35.6
Assists Per Game	13.1	16.6
Blocks Per Game	4.3	4.6
Steals Per Game	5.9	7.2
Streak	L2	W1

Tip-Off: 7:00 est

Location: Hilton Coliseum (Ames, Iowa)

TV: ESPNU

Announcers: Clay Matvick and Tim Welsh

The West Virginia Mountaineers (9-11) are sitting at the bottom of the Big 12 standings at 1-6. It’s the worst start to conference play since the 2001-02 edition of the Mountaineers – they ended the season at 1-15 in the Big East. It doesn’t appear WVU will improve upon their record Wednesday night as they face the 20^th ranked Iowa State Cyclones.

West Virginia will be without their most consistent and second leading scorer, junior guard Beetle Bolden (12.2 ppg), after landing awkwardly on a receiving end of an alley-oop in Knoxville Saturday. Beetle has been battling a list of injuries all season and missed two games in mid-November due to a hand/thumb ligament issue. Bolden will not be making the trip. Instead, he will be receiving treatment on his ankle in an attempt to get back on the floor with his teammates as soon as possible.

West Virginia has shown they can compete with some of the league’s best teams, and it was evident a week and a half ago in a win over then seventh ranked Kansas. However, long periods of poor shooting and turnovers have been the root of their problems. It showed up  Saturday in the loss to No. 1 Tennessee when WVU went on a nearly 10-minute scoring drought.

It’s always hard to count a Huggins team out, but the Mountaineers will be going up against one of the best offenses in the Big 12. If West Virginia’s continues these poor stretches of offense it, could get ugly inside the Hilton Coliseum.

The Cyclones are coming off a tough four-game stretch that included three road games and went 3-1 with the win over No. 20 Ole Miss on Saturday in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

For the season, the Cyclones are shooting 48.4 percent from the field, which would be their third-best FG percentage in the last 20 seasons if it holds up.

The Cyclones are shooting 56.3 percent on 2-point field goal attempts, which ranks among the top-20 teams nationally. ISU’s 55.8 effective FG percentage is also among the top-20 teams.

Iowa State’s Marial Shayok leads the Big 12 in scoring at 19.8 points per game shooting 51% from the field and 41% from three. The Virginia transfer faced the Mountaineers twice as a Cavalier. He played five minutes in the first meeting but in 2016-17 Shayok scored 9 points in 18 minutes.

The Cyclones Freshmen have been making a big impact on the season. None may have had a bigger impact than Talen Horton-Tucker. In the last two games on the road, he had 16 points against Kansas, then followed it up with 23 points and eight rebounds in the win over Ole Miss.

Six-foot-five guard Tyrese Haliburton has 36 steals and 20 blocks on the season. Along with his defense, he’s been a facilitator on offense leading the team in assists and averaging five assists the last four games.

Iowa State’s success comes in their spacing of the offensive end of the floor. Point guard Nick Babb starts the offense by creating space off the dribble and getting into the gaps of the defense. Quick decision-making and precise passes give the Cyclones open shots with ease.

The Mountaineers are 6-7 all-time against the Cyclones and 2-4 inside the Hilton Coliseum