West Virginia looks to raise grade in shot selection chart
One of the biggest obstacles for the current version of the West Virginia basketball team comes down to shot selection.
That goes from top to bottom as the Mountaineers have to find a way to generate more uncontested shots instead of settling for tough ones.
That’s not to say there aren’t those on the roster that aren’t capable of making them as guards RaeQuan Battle and Noah Farrakhan have demonstrated.
Battle has been a force offensively since becoming eligible averaging 27.3 points per game while shooting 48-percent from the field as the primary offensive weapon for the Mountaineers.
“We planned on having Rae from day one so everything we did had Rae as part of the plan. Some of the things we planned on running or targeted as running through the preseason we didn’t get to because we didn’t have that type of player out on the floor,” head coach Josh Eilert said.
But even with his production, there are ways to free up easier baskets for others on the floor.
“We can’t go into all these games thinking we’re going to outscore people taking hard shots in the half court night in and night out,” Eilert said.
The coaching staff has talked to the team about scoring either early in transition or late and not settling for what would be considered a “C” shot early in the shot clock when a “B” could come available late.
That is something that everybody on the floor must be mindful of and should come with time as the current group continues to spend more time playing together.
West Virginia has already dropped several close games this season on the way to a 5-8 start and with Big 12 Conference play set to begin the focus is on controlling the things they can control in critical situations. That comes down to factors such as rebounding, making foul shots and of course when and where the offense is taking shots.
“Getting a good shot when you need one instead of a forced shot on the fly,” Eilert said.
It’s no secret that teams moving forward are going to key on Battle and do everything they can to take him away on the offensive end, that means finding secondary actions will be critical.
And the good thing is that Battle is open to anything as long as it leads to team success. A very coachable player, the fifth-year senior understands his role as a scorer on this team but is more than willing to give the ball up if it helps in the shot selection department.
“We can also use him as a decoy from time-to-time because teams are going to key on him,” Eilert said. “They’re going to key heavily on him so he should be drawing their best defender each and every night which is going to open other guys up. RaeQuan will do whatever he can do to help us win.”
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