The #1 NBA draft pick is coming to Morgantown. Can WVU stop the bleeding?

Date: Saturday, February 28, 2026

Tipoff Time: 5:30PM ET

Location: Hope Coliseum — Morgantown, West Virginia

Broadcast Information

Channel: FOX

Streaming: Fox Sports app (with TV provider login)

Announcers: Kevin Kugler and LaPhonso Ellis

Radio: Mountaineer Sports Network (Radio Affiliates) | SiriusXM Channel 388 and Streaming Channel 978 | WVU Gameday App (Apple | Android)

Radio Announcers: Tony Caridi and Brad Howe

Reminder: It is against site policy to post links to illegal streams in the comments.

Betting Odds

Get in on the action with our friends at FanDuel Sportsbook.

Spread: BYU -2.5 (-102) / WVU +2.5 (-120)
Moneyline: BYU -140 / WVU +116
Total: O/U 140.5 (-110 both sides)

(As of 7:00AM ET/February 28, 2026)

Game Preview

AJ Dybantsa comes to town as the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. 6’9”, averaging 25.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, and has functionally taken over as BYU’s de facto point guard. He’s the guy every defense has had to scheme around all year, and nobody has really stopped him.

WVU is 16-12, 7-8 in Big 12 play, and coming off three straight losses that have most likely knocked them off the bubble. The pattern in those losses is what matters — turnovers at the worst possible moments, defensive breakdowns late, a rebounding unit that led the conference most of the season and has now allowed three of their four highest opponent offensive rebounding totals in those last three games. The free throw line has been a problem as well. Over the last three games, the Mountaineers’ opponents have gone to the stripe 29 more times than WVU has.

This team is still capable. Ross Hodge said it best this week — none of those three loses felt like a wall you can’t climb. They were a rebound here, a free throw there, a made shot at the right moment. But you can’t have those same issues pop up each game in a league where the margin for error is razor thin.

The Cougars are coming in a bit desperate too, in their own way. They got blown out at home by UCF on Tuesday — down 36 in the second half, BYU fans booing at the Marriott Center, Kevin Young telling reporters he wanted his players to feel embarrassed. Richie Saunders, their first-team All-Big 12 wing from last year, is out for the season with an ACL. This is a team that came into the season thinking national championship and after losing six of their last nine games, they’re now scrambling to hold their seed line.

The Game Within The Game

Ross Hodge wants WVU to play in the low 60s on possessions. BYU wants to push it closer to 70. That tempo battle will define everything.

Vegas has the total set at 140.5. BYU is averaging 85 points per game, though they’ve been well below that lately. WVU wants a game in the low-to-mid 60s. One of them are going to get what they want, and that number tells you oddsmakers think it’s probably WVU.

When BYU gets out in transition with Dybantsa and Rob Wright running, that’s a different game than one WVU wants to play. Wright is averaging 18.1 points per and is one of the best point guards in the conference. When he’s on, BYU is almost impossible to handle.

The good news: WVU is second in the Big 12 in fewest fouls per game at 15.3, which matters a lot here. Make Dybantsa earn his points in the flow of the game rather than at the line. Mix coverages, accept some discomfort and keep him off the stripe. The situational numbers back this up — WVU is 14-4 this season when they shoot more free throws than their opponent. When that’s reversed, they’re 2-7. The free throw battle has been the story of the losing streak, and it’ll be a major storyline this evening.

Honor Huff needs two more made threes to pass Alex Ruoff’s 2008 mark and move into third place on WVU’s all-time single-season list. He’s also 8th among all active Division I players in career scoring with 1,907 points. In a game the Mountaineers desperately need, a monster performance from Huff would go a long way. The Coliseum crowd would lose their mind.

A note on Dybantsa

If you’re in the Coliseum this evening, you’re going to see something special — even if the final score doesn’t go our way.

Over his last five games, the 19 year old is averaging 31 points. He’s getting better in real time when most freshmen are hitting the wall. Draft analysts draw comparisons to Tracy McGrady, Paul George, Kevin Durant. Take your pick. The common thread is a 6’9” wing who can do things at his size that most players his size simply can’t do.

He’s not a finished product. He favors his left side heavily, and when defenses load up that way he can be forced into turnovers. He tends to keep pushing into traffic when the easier play is right there. Whether the Mountaineers can exploit that will be the most interesting chess match on the court this evening.

The Coliseum has hosted three other No. 1 picks over the years — Austin Carr in 1971, Allen Iverson in 1996, and Andrew Wiggins in 2014. Wiggins dropped 50 that night. No pressure.

Series History

BYU leads the all-time series, 4-1. The Cougars have won all three meetings since joining the Big 12, including both trips to Morgantown. Last year’s home loss was a 73-69 game, followed by a 77-56 rematch in Provo that wasn’t nearly as close as the first one.

The one WVU win came at the very beginning — a 68-51 victory on December 8, 1947 in Morgantown. The only other pre-Big 12 meeting was an 85-83 BYU win in the 1973 Far West Classic in Portland.

By the Numbers

Category	West Virginia	BYU
Record	16-12 (7-8 Big 12)	20-8 (8-7 Big 12)
Points Per Game	69.5	85.5
Points Allowed Per Game	64.5	75.1
Field Goal %	44.4%	48.0%
3PT FG %	33.4%	35.2%
Free Throw %	67.1%	74.6%
Rebounds Per Game	34.6	39.0
Assists Per Game	12.8	14.3
Turnovers Forced Per Game	11.6	11.5
Turnovers Committed Per Game	11.2	10.6
Leading Scorer	Honor Huff – 15.5 ppg	AJ Dybantsa – 25.1 ppg
Leading Rebounder	Chance Moore – 5.2 rpg	Keba Keita — 6.9 rpg

Probable Starters

No.	Player	Position	Height	Class	Stats
1	Jasper Floyd	G	6-3	Sr.	7.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg
3	Honor Huff	G	5-10	Sr.	15.5 ppg, 2.2 rpg
52	Treysen Eaglestaff	G	6-6	Sr.	10.1 ppg, 4.6 rpg
0	Brenen Lorient	F	6-9	Sr.	11.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg
55	Harlan Obioha	C	7-0	Sr.	5.4 ppg, 4.9 rpg

Prediction

Call me crazy, but I think the Mountaineers win this game.

BYU is coming in banged up and frustrated after losing six of their last nine games. There’s a freshman leading a group of freshmen and sophomores into one of the best home court atmospheres in college basketball. And the Mountaineers have beaten UCF — the team that just wrecked the Cougars in Provo by 13.

The keys to the game are pretty simple to say and hard to execute: keep it slow, hit your free throws, box out and don’t go 12 minutes without scoring like they did against Baylor. If Huff gets hot and Eaglestaff plays like he did against Oklahoma State, WVU can win this game.

West Virginia 68, BYU 64

Find a comfortable spot, grab a favorite beverage, and let’s go. WVU needs this one, and the atmosphere in that building tonight should be incredible.

Can WVU keep Dybantsa under 30 — and is that even the right approach, or do you concede his points and make everyone else beat you? Jump in the comments.

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