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WVU Basketball Suffers Big Drop in KenPom Ranking After Back-to-Back Losses

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WVU Basketball team on bench

This time last week, WVU basketball had risen to No. 37 in the KenPom Rankings coming off a win over No. 2 Iowa State. Now, after two disappointing losses this week, the Mountaineers have fallen over 10 spots down to No. 49.

West Virginia (13-6, 4-4 Big 12) worked back into the top 25 ranking to No. 23 this week but will fall back out when the latest poll is released on Monday. The Mountaineers lost two games last week to teams tied for 13th place in the conference currently, Arizona State and Kansas State. WVU got off to poor starts in both games, a result of poor shooting and defense.

Against ASU on Tuesday, West Virginia went down 10-2 to begin the game before the Mountaineers battled back to make it 24-23 at halftime. The Sun Devils began the second half on a 13-1 run, however, as WVU’s defense fell apart after halftime. ASU shot 61.5% in the second half while grabbing seven offensive rebounds. The Mountaineers shot just 31% for the entire game.

The Mountaineers tried to bounce back at Kansas State, which had lost six in a row, on Saturday. Again, a poor start doomed WVU as the Wildcats jumped out to a 19-2 lead in the first seven minutes. KSU shot 53.3% in the first half, carrying over WVU’s defensive struggle from the second half against Arizona State.

For West Virginia to break its first losing streak of the season, the Mountaineers will need to get revenge against No. 7 Houston. The Cougars beat WVU 74-50 two weeks ago at home and travel to Morgantown this week for the rematch Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Houston pulled off an incredible double-overtime win at Kansas on Saturday. The Cougars tied the game in regulation with a pair of free throws with 14 seconds left. Then in the first overtime, Kansas led by six with less than 30 seconds on the clock. Houston made a three, stole the inbounds pass and then made another three to tie the game with two seconds left. Houston then rolled in the second overtime, outscoring Kansas 13-7 to win 92-86.

Houston is the last undefeated team in Big 12 play, sitting at a perfect 8-0. The Cougars have won 12 games in a row, last losing on Nov. 30.

Big 12 KenPom Rankings

3. Houston
4. Iowa State
7. Kansas
10. Texas Tech
16. Arizona
26. Baylor
31. BYU
49. West Virginia
53. Cincinnati
60. Arizona State
64. UCF
88. TCU
89. Utah
92. Kansas State
99. Colorado
115. Oklahoma State

For a related story, poor defense, shooting lead to back-to-back losses for WVU basketball.

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