Cincinnati, West Virginia have work to do to for postseason berths

Two teams on opposite sides of the bubble meet in a Big 12 clash Wednesday night when West Virginia hosts Cincinnati in Morgantown, W. Va.

The Mountaineers (15-10, 6-8 Big 12) have lost two straight and three of four, with the most recent defeat on Saturday, a 74-71 overtime loss at Baylor. Free throws contributed to West Virginia's setback. The Bears went 27 for 32 from the line, while West Virginia converted 11 of its 17 attempts.

"We've got to figure out how to do a better job of keeping people off the free-throw line," coach Darian DeVries said. "When you give a team 27 points and they shoot 32 free throws, it's hard to win."

The Mountaineers also could do a better job getting to the charity stripe. In conference play, they rank last among the 16 teams in both free-throw attempts (184) and makes (124).

Senior guard Javon Small leads West Virginia and the conference in scoring for all games, averaging 18.6 points per contest. He scored 22 in Saturday's loss to Baylor.

Despite the Mountaineers' sub-.500 record in Big 12 games, bracketologists from ESPN, CBS Sports and The Athletic still expect DeVries' team to make the NCAA Tournament. Those analysts, though, do not expect the same for the Bearcats (15-10, 5-9).

Cincinnati saw its three-game winning streak snapped on Saturday when it lost 81-70 to then-No. 10 Iowa State on the road. The Bearcats led 48-45 with 15:06 minutes remaining, but the Cyclones responded with a 10-0 run to pull away.

Since a 63-50 home loss on Feb. 2 to West Virginia -- which was Cincinnati's fourth straight loss and eighth in 10 games -- the Bearcats have seen their offense improve. In their last four games, coach Wes Miller's team has averaged 83 points per game and shot 53.4 percent from the floor and 43.5 percent from the 3-point line. In the previous 10, Cincinnati averaged just 59.6 points and made only 39 percent of its shots and 26.6 percent of its 3-pointers.

Jizzle James leads the Bearcats in scoring, averaging 12.2 a game. However, the sophomore guard has stepped it up of late, matching his career-high of 25 points in each of his last two games. In the game before that, against BYU, he finished with 24.

James, though, fouled out in the Iowa State loss, as the Bearcats committed a season-high 23 fouls.

"Jizzle and Dillon (Mitchell)'s foul trouble really affected our ability to navigate the game the way we want it from a lineup and substitution standpoint," Miller said after the loss.

--Field Level Media