No. 10 West Virginia set for senior night showdown
In late January, West Virginia senior forward Jon Holton was looking ahead to one game in particular.
Him and his team were scheduled to play at the University of Florida on January 30. A native of Miami, Holton was thrilled for an opportunity to compete in front of numerous family members and friends all making the car ride north to Gainesville.
Unfortunately, two days prior to West Virginia’s game at Florida, head coach Bob Huggins suspended Holton for violating team rules. Holton didn’t make the trip to Florida, derailed a chance to see family and would miss the next four games.
“The suspension humbled me as a person and player. It motivated me to look at my life more seriously,” Holton said.
Since returning from the punishment, Holton is averaging nine points and 9.4 rebounds per game proving his importance to the team. He will play the final home game of his career tonight and is excited because his family plans to attend.
“That definitely gives me some redemption,” Holton said. “I love that my family gets to come watch me. It’ll give me that extra boost to know that they’re here.”
Holton is one of three players along with guards Jaysean Paige and Richard Romeo III being honored for senior night before No. 10/No. 9 West Virginia (22-7, 11-5) hosts Texas Tech (18-10, 8-8) at the Coliseum.
Paige leads the team in scoring averaging 14.3 points per game and is the favorite to win the Big 12’s Sixth Man of the Year Award.
“I think Jaysean (Paige) and Jon (Holton) have been great,” Huggins said. “And I think the progress that Jaysean has made is probably as good as anybody.”
All Paige wants is a win in order to setup better situations for West Virginia in the postseason, so that his career can continue into late March or the first week of April.
With a win this evening, West Virginia is guaranteed the two-seed or three-seed during next week’s Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. Right now, West Virginia stands as the two-seed, but with losses in the final two games of regular season, could drop the strong positioning. Locking the up the two-seed means West Virginia would have a bye into the quarterfinals to meet the winner of the seven-seed vs. ten-seed matchup.
Reaching the semifinals of the conference tournament will likely land West Virginia at least a three-seed in the NCAA tournament.
Led by head coach Tubby Smith, Texas Tech does present challenges. When the two schools met in January, West Virginia needed eight points in the final minute, from Tarik Phillip to rally past Texas Tech and win, 80-76.
Texas Tech has defeated three ranked opponents – Iowa State, Baylor and Oklahoma – since losing to West Virginia.
“Last time, we kind of took them for less than what they are. They play hard, so it’ll be a hard fought game,” Paige said.
“Last year sometimes if they were down they would give up. They didn’t have enough pieces to compete. This year they have the pieces.”
Toddrick Gotcher, Devaughntah Williams, Aaron Ross and Zach Smith all average double digit scoring totals for Texas Tech.
This meeting marks the tenth all-time between the two programs. West Virginia owns an 8-1 record over Texas Tech. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.