West Virginia vs Iowa State Pick: Tuesday, February 2nd

By Jimmy The Bag Feb 2, 2021

West Virginia vs Iowa State Pick: Tuesday, February 2nd: West Virginia is coming off a disappointing 85-80 loss at home to Florida, in a game they closed as 4-point favorites. Derek Culver finished with a career-high 28 points to go along with 12 rebounds. He only scored 7 points in the 2nd half as Florida keyed on him. Leading scorer Miles McBride had an off night offensively, hitting just 3/15 from the field for 9 points, though he did manage to pick up 9 assists and 6 boards in the effort. McBride averages 15.4 points per game, with 3.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists on the season. Sean McNeil came off the bench to go 5/11 from behind the arc on his way to 21 points. McNeil is averaging 10.5 points on the season. While McNeil went 5/11 from three, the rest of the team went 3/17. West Virginia was just 39.7% from the field. That performance came on the heels of a 88-87 win over Texas Tech, where they shot 57.7% from the field and 63.2% from three. They don’t have great numbers on the season, though, hitting 42.4% from the field, 35.8% from three, and 69.9% from the line.

Iowa State has been dealing with a Covid outbreak and is in a tough spot. They shut down the program on January 9th after an ugly 91-64 home loss to Texas Tech. They returned on January 25th with key members still in quarantine and last 81-60 at home Oklahoma State. Things were even worse this past Saturday when they lost 95-56 at Mississippi State. They shot 34% from the field and 16.7% from behind the arc. Second leading scorer, 6’6’ Junior Javan Johnson, and fourth-leading scorer 6’8 senior Solomon Young did not return to action when the team did, and are both listed as questionable due to quarantine. Without them, their forward group is fragile. Where would they be without Rasir Bolton? The Junior has played every game, leading them with 15.5 points per game, along with 5 offensive rebounds and 4.3 assists per game on the season.

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West Virginia vs Iowa State Odds

West Virginia are 6-4 in their last ten games and have outscored their opponents by an average of 76 to 71.6 in that period. The Mountaineers hold a distinct advantage over the Cyclones, coming in as the 91st ranked offense in the nation, putting up an average of 75.7 points per game, while the Cyclones are one of the worst defensive teams in the nation (306th), allowing an average of 77.2 points per game. The combination of a well-performing offense and a middle of the pack defense is probably one of the main reasons why WVU has gone ‘Over’ the betting total in 10 of their first 16 games this season.

West Virginia vs Iowa State ATS Stats