Post by RanDaddy on Jan 19, 2017 9:08:36 GMT -5
www.espn.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/117224/is-press-virginia-built-for-the-long-haul
West Virginia entered the week 15-2, ranked No. 7 in the nation and carrying the cache that comes from having won games through impressive displays on both offense and, of course, defense.
None of which changes (well, except for the record) after just one game. Still, the Mountaineers' 89-87 overtime loss to Oklahoma is a useful occasion to consider West Virginia's prospects going forward.
After all, this was a very big upset precisely because the Mountaineers are so strong this season. While the Sooners had previously lost road games at TCU and Kansas State, Bob Huggins' team took the floor as the No. 1-ranked team in Division I at KenPom.com.
So what happens now? Oklahoma certainly has new grounds for hope. The win in Morgantown represented not only a shocker but also the Sooners' second consecutive impressive showing on offense (the other being their win at home against Texas Tech). Maybe it's a trend for Lon Kruger's group.
As for the home team, here's what I'm seeing from the Mountaineers at the moment:
Huggins clearly needs to stay away from overtime
Fine, this first point is tongue-in-cheek: West Virginia has two conference losses, and both of those games (at Texas Tech and now at home against the Sooners) went to OT.
Mountaineers fans will point out, correctly, that their team is just a shot here and a bounce there from being a perfect 6-0 in conference play. True, but the what-ifs work both ways. WVU also won a close one at Texas, 74-72.
Perhaps the safest point to be made is simply that West Virginia's conference games have come down to the final possession of regulation three times in six outings. It can even happen in Morgantown, against an opponent that entered the game 1-4 in the Big 12.
Yes, there might well be more impressive explosions like the epic 89-68 win over Baylor, but there probably also will be more nail-biters as well. That has been the pattern thus far.
In theory, WVU doesn't need to force turnovers, but, well ...
West Virginia's win at Virginia or the total dismantling of the then No. 1-ranked Bears in Morgantown showed that Huggins plainly has a complete team.
True, the Bears in particular committed a ton of turnovers, but even if they hadn't, the Mountaineers still shot and crashed the offensive glass well enough in their own right to come away with a win. On paper, West Virginia is still a team that takes excellent care of the ball, rebounds its misses, and scores with remarkable efficiency inside the arc.
That all sounds great, but here's another thing that's also true on paper. In the Mountaineers' four Big 12 wins, they've forced turnovers on 29 percent of their defensive possessions. In WVU's two conference losses, however, that number is only 17 percent.
It's still January, and there's plenty of basketball remaining. But to this point in the Big 12 season it is true that for West Virginia, forcing turnovers has exhibited a strong correlation to winning.
Is that a cause for concern? Most definitely. No team, no matter how fearsome their press, forces turnovers in every single game. Oklahoma gave the ball away just 12 times in 79 possessions over the course of 45 minutes. The next time an opponent shows this same ability, the Mountaineers will need a different way to win.
Huggins has cause for concern on the defensive glass
To this point in the Big 12 season, the Mountaineers have rebounded only 63 percent of their opponents' missed shots. This liability has been -- and will continue to be -- masked to a certain extent. Obviously opponents can't get an offensive board if they've already committed a turnover.
Nevertheless, when the other team does hang on to the ball, WVU has been susceptible on its defensive glass. You might say Huggins is willing to take a hit in rebounding at times in exchange for playing five guys who can all hit 3-pointers and all force turnovers. True enough. This is a situational performance issue, one that hinges in large part on the personnel combination on the floor.
Brandon Watkins is perhaps West Virginia's best defensive rebounder. The 6-foot-9 senior doesn't shoot 3s, but he became a starter in late December and he's up to about 17 minutes a game in conference play. If Huggins can find offense and takeaways with Watkins on the floor or, alternatively, defensive rebounds without him, it will mark a positive development for the team as a whole.
By the way, Jevon Carter is still woefully underrated
Let's wrap this up on a positive note, one entirely appropriate for a 15-3 team on track to earn a really good NCAA tournament seed.
Even in a losing effort, Carter showed why he's one of the most valuable players in the Big 12 if not the entire country. On a night when his 3s weren't falling (he was 2-of-9 from beyond the arc), the junior still scored 23 points, pulled down 11 boards and had 6 assists. The perfect Huggins player, Carter is a 6-2 warrior. In fact if he gets some help from his teammates on the defensive glass, this loss to Oklahoma at home might soon be a distant memory.
West Virginia entered the week 15-2, ranked No. 7 in the nation and carrying the cache that comes from having won games through impressive displays on both offense and, of course, defense.
None of which changes (well, except for the record) after just one game. Still, the Mountaineers' 89-87 overtime loss to Oklahoma is a useful occasion to consider West Virginia's prospects going forward.
After all, this was a very big upset precisely because the Mountaineers are so strong this season. While the Sooners had previously lost road games at TCU and Kansas State, Bob Huggins' team took the floor as the No. 1-ranked team in Division I at KenPom.com.
So what happens now? Oklahoma certainly has new grounds for hope. The win in Morgantown represented not only a shocker but also the Sooners' second consecutive impressive showing on offense (the other being their win at home against Texas Tech). Maybe it's a trend for Lon Kruger's group.
As for the home team, here's what I'm seeing from the Mountaineers at the moment:
Huggins clearly needs to stay away from overtime
Fine, this first point is tongue-in-cheek: West Virginia has two conference losses, and both of those games (at Texas Tech and now at home against the Sooners) went to OT.
Mountaineers fans will point out, correctly, that their team is just a shot here and a bounce there from being a perfect 6-0 in conference play. True, but the what-ifs work both ways. WVU also won a close one at Texas, 74-72.
Perhaps the safest point to be made is simply that West Virginia's conference games have come down to the final possession of regulation three times in six outings. It can even happen in Morgantown, against an opponent that entered the game 1-4 in the Big 12.
Yes, there might well be more impressive explosions like the epic 89-68 win over Baylor, but there probably also will be more nail-biters as well. That has been the pattern thus far.
In theory, WVU doesn't need to force turnovers, but, well ...
West Virginia's win at Virginia or the total dismantling of the then No. 1-ranked Bears in Morgantown showed that Huggins plainly has a complete team.
True, the Bears in particular committed a ton of turnovers, but even if they hadn't, the Mountaineers still shot and crashed the offensive glass well enough in their own right to come away with a win. On paper, West Virginia is still a team that takes excellent care of the ball, rebounds its misses, and scores with remarkable efficiency inside the arc.
That all sounds great, but here's another thing that's also true on paper. In the Mountaineers' four Big 12 wins, they've forced turnovers on 29 percent of their defensive possessions. In WVU's two conference losses, however, that number is only 17 percent.
It's still January, and there's plenty of basketball remaining. But to this point in the Big 12 season it is true that for West Virginia, forcing turnovers has exhibited a strong correlation to winning.
Is that a cause for concern? Most definitely. No team, no matter how fearsome their press, forces turnovers in every single game. Oklahoma gave the ball away just 12 times in 79 possessions over the course of 45 minutes. The next time an opponent shows this same ability, the Mountaineers will need a different way to win.
Huggins has cause for concern on the defensive glass
To this point in the Big 12 season, the Mountaineers have rebounded only 63 percent of their opponents' missed shots. This liability has been -- and will continue to be -- masked to a certain extent. Obviously opponents can't get an offensive board if they've already committed a turnover.
Nevertheless, when the other team does hang on to the ball, WVU has been susceptible on its defensive glass. You might say Huggins is willing to take a hit in rebounding at times in exchange for playing five guys who can all hit 3-pointers and all force turnovers. True enough. This is a situational performance issue, one that hinges in large part on the personnel combination on the floor.
Brandon Watkins is perhaps West Virginia's best defensive rebounder. The 6-foot-9 senior doesn't shoot 3s, but he became a starter in late December and he's up to about 17 minutes a game in conference play. If Huggins can find offense and takeaways with Watkins on the floor or, alternatively, defensive rebounds without him, it will mark a positive development for the team as a whole.
By the way, Jevon Carter is still woefully underrated
Let's wrap this up on a positive note, one entirely appropriate for a 15-3 team on track to earn a really good NCAA tournament seed.
Even in a losing effort, Carter showed why he's one of the most valuable players in the Big 12 if not the entire country. On a night when his 3s weren't falling (he was 2-of-9 from beyond the arc), the junior still scored 23 points, pulled down 11 boards and had 6 assists. The perfect Huggins player, Carter is a 6-2 warrior. In fact if he gets some help from his teammates on the defensive glass, this loss to Oklahoma at home might soon be a distant memory.
