West Virginia making strides in all departments
The West Virginia basketball team has come a long way since the beginning of the season.
At least in their eyes of their head coach. The same team that couldn’t play defense, rebound or do mostly anything else right in the eyes of head coach Bob Huggins is starting to find its footing at 13-2.
Yes, significantly more difficult challenges await but for now the Mountaineers are seeing some of that work pay off in real time on the floor.
Despite the actual climb it took to get to that point.
“I can’t speak for them but it was a grind for me. We would think we would get something fixed and try to move on and do something else and then we didn’t do what we had been working on,” Huggins said.
That understandably took time, but the results are now showing up on the floor.
The veteran head coach credits the collection of older players on the roster for helping to get things to stick which has increased the productivity in areas such as rebounding, help defense and more. That along with a commitment to the fundamentals in those departments.
Taken even an area such as free throws which had been an adventure, but the coaching staff hit the players hard on that with drills to become more consistent there. Against Oklahoma State, the Mountaineers hit 21-22 which is the most made free throws to hit over 95-percent in school history outside of one other occasion when the Mountaineers made 23-24 against Kansas State in 2018.
The schedule will get more difficult in a hurry with a trip to Kansas set for Saturday and then hosting Baylor the following Tuesday. It’s a golden opportunity for the Mountaineers to see how they stack up against the class of the league. It’s one the players are certainly aware that is available.
Find a way to win one or both of those games and things get every interesting for a team that is currently 2-1 in the league with home wins over Kansas State and Oklahoma State.
“Not really a statement, but it’s expected that we’re ready to compete in the Big 12 every year. I feel like in our conference there’s not just one team that’s unbeatable so it’s anybody’s race. Anybody can get the regular season championship so we’re focused on that,” forward Gabe Osabuohien said. “Opportunity. We haven’t been ranked in the top 25 all year so an opportunity.”
It’s encouraging to the players because they are starting to see the buy-in during practice pay off with results in games. That is a dangerous combination for a team that is still finding itself in many ways. That makes for some exciting possibilities moving ahead if the group continues to improve.
“I think the sky is the limit for us and we’ll go as far as we want to go,” forward Jalen Bridges said.
There’s still a lot of work left, but it certainly is an improvement over what the Mountaineers were doing before and that is certainly a step in the right direction.
“We’re getting better slowly but we still have a long ways to go,” Osabuohien said.
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