West Virginia Mountaineers vs. Baylor Bears Pick & Prediction FEBRUARY 17th 2024

Baylor is rounding into form after a three-game slide threatened to derail the Bears.

No. 12 Baylor looks to make it five wins in six games since the bumpy stretch when it faces West Virginia on Saturday in Big 12 play at Morgantown, W.Va.

The Bears (18-6, 7-4 Big 12) dropped to 3-3 in conference play before turning things around with a victory over UCF. Baylor then played four consecutive ranked teams, winning three of them, including Tuesday’s 79-62 home win over No. 25 Oklahoma.

Jayden Nunn stepped up in the victory over the Sooners with season highs of 27 points and six 3-pointers. It was the second 20-point outing of the season for Nunn, who played his first two college seasons at VCU before transferring to Baylor in the offseason.

“It was fun seeing Jayden getting hot from three,” Bears coach Scott Drew said. “He’s had practices like that, in games, a few like that. But he’s capable of that, and we need more of that moving forward.”

Nunn is 11 of 21 from behind the arc over the four past games while averaging 16.3 points. The hot streak has lifted his season average to 10.9.

“I really appreciate my teammates,” Nunn said. “They show that they trust me and they’re looking to get me open and showing that they’re not selfish. (Oklahoma was) just trying to not let me shoot again. But my team is good enough to just create on their own as well.”

Nunn’s splurge came on a night when all five starters scored in double figures.

Jalen Bridges scored 14 points, Yves Missi added 12, RayJ Dennis recorded 11 points and eight assists and Ja’Kobe Walter scored 10 points.

This is the lone meeting of the regular season between Baylor and West Virginia. The Bears have won the past five meetings and eight of the last nine.

The Mountaineers (8-16, 3-8) have lost three straight games and five of their past six. Their lone win during the stretch game against Cincinnati, 69-65 at home on Jan. 31.

Since then, West Virginia lost three straight contests to then-No. 22 BYU, Texas and TCU by an average of 21.7 points.

The 81-65 road loss to TCU came on Monday and saw the Mountaineers commit a season-worst 19 turnovers.

“(TCU plays) so physical that I knew turnovers were going to be their bread and butter going downhill after creating those turnovers,” West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert said. “When you turn it over 19 times, and they get 26 points off your turnovers, there’s the game right there.”

RaeQuan Battle led West Virginia with 21 points for his sixth 20-point effort of the season. Battle leads the Mountaineers with a 15.6 scoring average.

Quinn Slazinski tallied 15 points against the Horned Frogs and Kerr Kriisa had 13.

Both Kriisa and Noah Farrakhan were hurt on the same play with about two minutes remaining. Farrakhan injured an ankle trying to move the basketball up court and Kriisa injured his shoulder trying to retrieve it.

Farrakhan’s injury is more serious than the one sustained by Kriisa.

“I was a little worried with Noah the way he went down, and Kerr has had shoulder injuries that he’s fought over the course of his career,” said Eilert, “but hopefully Noah’s is just a slight ankle issue that we can work through this week.”

Kriisa averages 11.3 points per game and Farrakhan averages 9.6.

–Field Level Media