BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Missouri and West Virginia, two teams with noticeably contrasting styles of play, will meet Sunday inside the HSBC Arena in the second round of NCAA tournament’s East region. Both the Tigers and the Mountaineers rely heavily on their own unique defensive dexterity, but Missouri coach Mike Anderson described the match-up the best.
“It’s a game of wills,” Anderson said, “wills and tempo.”
By now, it’s no secret the up-tempo driven 10th seed Tigers (23-10) will look to accelerate the pace of the game to a high-octane level No. 2 seed WVU (28-6) will not be comfortable playing. Missouri tags itself as “The Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball” for a reason.
In forcing the frenetic pace, the Tigers lead the nation with 11 steals a game and 19.7 forced turnovers per game
.“Our defense is the key to what takes place with our basketball team,” Anderson said.
Missouri may boast the deepest bench WVU has played this season -- nine different players average at least 12 minutes and seven play 20 or more minutes per game.
Along with the varying personnel, Missouri will dial up multiple defensive looks -- some zones, all ball-pressure based -- to try to give WVU problems setting up its five-out open post motion offense. The switching defenses will be highlighted by extended full-court pressure designed to drain teams in several ways.
“Pressure busts pipes,” Missouri guard Zaire Taylor (pictured at right) said. “We’re going to live or die by that. I think the wear and tear of the press physically, mentally and even emotionally will wear teams down.”
“If we can get you psychologically and mentally out of doing what you want to do, then that really plays into what we’re trying to be successful in the game,” said Tigers guard J.T. Tiller.
Game planning for the Mountaineers, who average just 11.6 turnovers, would figure to focus around spreading the floor and breaking the press, then getting open looks once the ball is advanced. WVU coach Bob Huggins says his team shoots better when pressed, and welcomes the challenge presented by Missouri.
Although that may hold true, there’s no denying that the Mountaineers have had less than consistent play at point guard this season. If WVU is to advance past Missouri and into the Sweet 16, Huggins will need steady play from guards Truck Bryant -- who has struggled since the end of the regular season -- and back-up Joe Mazzulla, who has fought off a nagging shoulder injury, but found his stride in recent games.
“We have to try to play a half-court game and try to slow the game down,” Bryant said. “We played against Louisville -- a pressing team. It’s the same thing.”
“Truck and I have talked about it,” Mazzulla said. “It’s no secret we’re only going to go as far as the point guards take us.”
Huggins explained his team works on breaking presses every two or three days and how he’ll need more than solid point guard play to move the ball up the floor and run offense. Missouri claims it aims to grind out fatiguing teams in the final 10 minutes, but Huggins hardly seemed worried about conditioning.
“I think the other thing that happens in all honesty is time outs in this tournament are about an hour and a half,” Huggins chided dryly. “So you have a lot of time to catch your breath.”
But WVU will be the other team on the floor come Sunday and can dictate what kind of game it wants to play just the same as Missouri.
Mountaineers star forward Da’Sean Butler admitted the Tiger’s style was “chaos” but pointed out, “For us to come out successful, we can’t fall into that. We need to take care of the ball and just do what we do … play defense, rebound and win the game.”
Bryant was a touch more assertive in his projection of the game. “It’s probably going to be difficult, but it won’t be that difficult because we’re going to play the way we want to play them,” he said. “We won’t let them alter our game. We’re going to make it a half-court game instead of running and playing helter-skelter with them.”