Backyard Brawl - Part 2

In ESPN’s endless pursuit to attract viewers 24/7, an extremely rare Big East Friday night affair is on tap. Two rivals with long history of hatred collide for second time in nine days, this time in Pittsburgh. Off home loss to Villanova 82-75 as 5.5-point, West Virginia opens two game road trip, facing the pumped-up Panthers.

For just the fifth time in 180 meetings and the second in a row, West Virginia and Pittsburgh meet as ranked teams. The great aspect about these two teams facing off is the overused expression “these two teams really don’t like is each other” is 100 percent accurate.

The fan incident that occurred in Morgantown, with things being thrown on the floor and Pittsburgh assistant coach being hit in the face with a coin, will only serve to heighten the tension as the Peterson Center, since West Virginia punished 70-51 on Feb. 3.

The fifth-ranked Mountaineers (19-4, 9-13 ATS) are led by forward Da’Sean Butler, whose been carrying the load. Butler continues to move up in every important school hoops record and his support group has playing back to early season level. Though Pittsburgh’s roster isn’t setup the same as Villanova, expect them to use some of the defensive elements the Wildcats sprung on West Virginia, like the triangle and two, which limited Butler to 2 for 12 shooting. Coach Bob Huggins crew has room for improvement and is 7-0 ATS versus teams averaging 53 or less shot a game.

No. 25 Pittsburgh’s offense tends to plod along, needing concerted effort from everyone. This was shown when the Panthers (18-6, 11-8-2 ATS) lost four of five and averaged 60.4 points per game a few weeks ago. Coach Jamie Dixon has preached to his team about picking up the tempo to find easier shots. The Panthers have, scoring 160 points combined in last two wins. This approach has also worked at the defensive end, where they have held last two opponents below 37 percent shooting and Pitt is 6-0 ATS in home games having won two of last three games the last two seasons.

This becomes important since Pittsburgh has been victimized by some Big East’s top scorers, not having an answer. The Panthers players have been slow in making proper adjustments if someone from the opposing team gets hot, either not creating enough on-ball pressure or making poor rotations. West Virginia has a few different players that can hot, thus making correct evaluation is tantamount for club that is 15-6 ATS at home after playing a game as favorite.

The intensity will be off the charts since it is a Friday night, with a 9:00 Eastern start (giving Pitt students time to fuel up) and hated rival in town off a loss. Pittsburgh is a two-point home underdog with total of 126.5 and is 13-5 ATS on their home floor against a team with a winning record. West Virginia expects a tough environment and coach Huggins will stress this is not the time to let one upset loss turn into two. However, the Mountaineers are 1-10 ATS and 7-0 UNDER after a combined score of 155 points or more.

Pittsburgh is 8-1 and 5-3-1 ATS in West Virginia’s last nine visits and 6-0 OVER revenging a road loss.