Two games since the two-week lay-off due to COVID-19, and two very different styles of wins for the West Virginia Mountaineers basketball team.
Against Kansas State, it was largely propelled by the defense forcing 28 turnovers, the most under Bruce Weber in Manhattan, and holding the Wildcats to 38-percent from the floor in a 69-47 win. That was the most lopsided road victory for West Virginia since joining the league in 2012.
The Mountaineers scored 26 points off those mistakes to help position them for a win.
It was also the best that the Mountaineers had looked in quite some time on the defensive end of the floor as the visitors held Kansas State to 17 points at halftime while forcing 18 turnovers and only permitting only 18 shots at the rim. It was a smothering effort, that was aided by some sloppy play by the Wildcats to put West Virginia in the driver’s seat for much of the game.
“I thought we did a better job closing passing lanes. Thought we did a great job closing dribble lanes. We did a better job guarding the ball, staying in front of people,” head coach Bob Huggins said. “…From a defensive standpoint, I was pleased, and our defense was really what got us that lead.”
Two days later, the story couldn’t have been more different in an 88-87 home win over Texas Tech.
The Mountaineers only forced a pair of turnovers, generating zero points off those, and allowed the Red Raiders to shoot 47-percent from the field. The 87 points allowed were the most the team had allowed since playing the No. 1 team in the nation Gonzaga, and the most in Big 12 play since coincidentally against Texas Tech last season in an 89-81 road loss to the Red Raiders.
In fact, before Monday night the Mountaineers had lost 14 of their last 16 when permitting at least 87 points with the last win coming in a 104-96 triple overtime win over TCU in Feb. of 2019.
West Virginia gave up 25-points off turnovers and 44 points in the paint. They also allowed the Red Raiders to take 21 more shots than they did over the course of the game. West Virginia also didn’t hit from the free throw line misfiring on 11-attempts there.
Most of the metrics would indicate a loss, yet when the dust settled, the Mountaineers left a two-game stretch after a two-week layoff at 2-0 and firmly in the picture in the Big 12 Conference. So, how? Well, making your last ten shots of the game certainly doesn’t hurt things.
“Go 10 for 10 down the stretch you’re going to win a bunch of games. We finally made shots, we had opportunities we missed free throws, we turned it over, we were our own worst enemy for the first 32 minutes. Then the ball started going in for us and it’s a crazy thing once the ball starts going in it has a tendency to keep on going in,” Huggins said.
West Virginia has looked like a different basketball team over the past five games with the departure of sophomore Oscar Tshiebwe as the offense has played more of a four-out look with more spacing on the floor. The results have shown that as well with the Mountaineers moving the ball better and being much more efficient on the offensive end of the floor.
West Virginia has now shot 52-112 from three in the five games since the departure of Tshiebwe. That’s 46-percent. They shot 54-178 in the 10 games before that or 30-percent showcasing an obvious increase since Huggins has flipped to the style of play with spacing.
The past two contests show the versatility of this club that is still finding its footing. At 11-4, the Mountaineers have yet to record a quality loss with each of those coming inside the top 25 of the NET but Huggins believes it could have been even better.
“It’s like I said we could have, should have had a couple more wins. A block/charge call away in the Gonzaga game, a stop or a missed shot in the Texas game. We’ve been in position, except the Kansas game at Kansas, to win every game,” he said.
There are certainly areas that must improve if this wants to continue, such as preventing straight line drives and easy buckets in the paint as well as consistency on that end of the floor. But a team that has been known for its ability to grind out games, as shown that it has quite the offensive arsenal as well.
There’s still a lot more to settle when it comes to where this team will end up come time for the tournament and improvements that need to be made. But the ability to win multiple styles of games is something that is an encouraging sign moving ahead in a very difficult league.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @JaredSerre
•Like us on Facebook
