The defensive end of the floor is a key catalyst for this West Virginia basketball team.
That was on full display against Cincinnati as the Mountaineers used their defense to generate offense with 20 points scored off 14 turnovers while holding the Bearcats to 31-percent.
The Mountaineers were able to challenge Cincinnati at every step of the way and that activity played a major role in snapping the three-game losing streak with a 63-50 win.
“For us, it has to be our defense. Everything starts and ends there and we just really feel like when we’re active defensively and giving that max effort defensively a lot of good things will happen,” head coach Darian DeVries said. “Even when you make a mistake guys cover for one another and play off one another and have a connectivity about them and that leads to a better offense.”
It was quite the turnaround after a recent stretch of play where the Mountaineers struggled to generate stops and at times were too spaced out. That wasn’t an issue Sunday as there was a clear focus on that end of the floor and the results reflected that.
The goal is to turn that defense into points on the other end either in transition against broken sets on the other end or finding ways to channel that energy into the offensive sets.
That’s been the formula for this team all season when they’ve experienced success and it’s a big area that the Mountaineers place a ton of emphasis on. That’a why the results of the prior three games were so surprising considering that had been such a key part of their makeup.
“I honestly feel like we’re at our best when our defense is better than our offense if that makes sense. Whenever we play really good defense it just translates to offensive buckets,” guard Javon Small said.
Now, the goal is to capture that moving forward and that starts with effort and buy-in across the board which will be critical for the Mountaineers to continue to experience success. If the defense is clicking then the offense should benefit along the way.
“When you’re that connected defensively then offensively you can go make plays and go play unselfishly,” DeVries said.
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