Josh Eilert explains how West Virginia lost early lead on Oklahoma

The West Virginia Mountaineers came out of the gates hot on Wednesday night against the No. 15 ranked Oklahoma Sooners, trailing by just four points at the half, 29-25. But from there, Oklahoma would expand on their lead, not looking back and beating West Virginia convincingly 77-63. But what went wrong for the Mountaineers, who had an early first half lead against the Sooners? Following the game, West Virginia’s head coach, Josh Eilert, explained where things went wrong for his team.

“Forcing things. We weren’t we weren’t taking what they were giving us,” said Eilert. “You know, we talked a lot, especially in ball screen coverage of getting that thing out of there and not letting that ball stick. We should be able to punish people on the backside, if we can get the ball movement. We never got that ball movement all night. And the sense of urgency kind of hurt us because of their token pressure and slowing us down, and we probably got in too big of a hurry on the offensive end.”

To the naked eye, and if you’re just reading the stat sheet, it would appear as if the game should have finished a lot closer than it did and possibly with a West Virginia win. However, there is one statistic that shows the Mountaineer’s glaring weakness against the Sooners that ultimately led to their 14-point defeat.

Oklahoma dominated West Virginia on the boards, nearly doubling up the Mountaineers rebounding total, 42-23. What was even more staggering about that statistic was Oklahoma’s offensive rebounding numbers. The Sooners snagged nearly as many offensive rebounds as the Mountaineers had total rebounds with 18.

College Basketball: Coaches Poll Top 25 updated after upset-filled week

The latest version of the USA Today College Basketball Coaches Poll Top 25 rankings have been updated after a week filled with upsets.

With the college football season coming to a close over the last week, a renewed focus on the college basketball season didn’t disappointment. It was borderline impossible to predict the winners in some of the biggest contests, as underdogs galore found their way to victory, shaking up the rankings.

Let’s dive into the latest coaches poll rankings from USA Today after the tenth week of the season. Here’s where each team stands at the moment, as we move forward through the first month of a new year.

1. UConn (+3)

UConn was the only team ranked inside the Top 6 of last week’s AP Poll to avoid a loss, taking down Xavier and Georgetown to boost them up the board and into the No. 1 overall spot

The Huskies will play games against Creighton before heading on the road to play Villanova…

For the complete rundown, checkout On3’s Steve Samra article.