West Virginia basketball used the same starting lineup for the first ten games of the season.

But after the departure of sophomore Oscar Tshiebwe, the season-ending injury to freshman Isaiah Cottrell and a two-week pause due to COVID-19 head coach Bob Huggins has used three different starting lineups over an eight game span.

The Mountaineers started with a lineup that consisted of junior forward Derek Culver, redshirt freshman forward Jalen Bridges, junior forward Emmitt Matthews, junior guard Sean McNeil and sophomore guard Deuce McBride for three games immediately after the departure of Tshiebwe.

But things were then brought to a standstill after West Virginia had to deal with COVID-19 issues that forced three postponements and some adjustments to the schedule.

But when things did resume two-weeks later, the Mountaineers had a different looking group with McNeil and Matthews replaced by senior guard Taz Sherman and junior guard Jordan McCabe. The decision to put Sherman in the lineup was an easy one, while McCabe made sense due to his understanding of whatever is being asked out of him.

That was the lineup that West Virginia would start over the next four games with the Mountaineers going 3-1 during that span. Until Huggins elected to make another adjustment prior to the start of the Kansas game by moving things around once again.

“We’re going to change things. Their perimeter guys are so big and so long,” he said. “We just wanted to try to match up their size which I thought would help us defensively and rebounding wise.”

The adjustment was to remove McCabe from the lineup and reinsert Matthews who had battled back from losing 15-plus pounds during the COVID-19 pause. He had gotten his legs under him and provided some valuable length to the Mountaineers starting roster.

The end result was one of the best defensive efforts of the season as the Mountaineers beat Kansas 91-79.

But that wasn’t the only reason.

Huggins also felt that taking McCabe and inserting him into that second wave could help provide a spark off the bench. That is a tactic that he has used plenty during his time with the Mountaineers from Jaysean Paige to Tarik Phillip. It’s a role that some have thrived in by being able to get a feel for the game and observe things before being inserted into the contest.

“We’ve got nothing off the bench in terms of enthusiasm, somebody that was going to uplift us a little bit. I thought Jordan would do that. They all respect the heck out of him,” Huggins said. “I did that a lot at Cincinnati bringing guys off the bench which really raised our intensity level.”

It’s unclear if the Mountaineers will keep this starting lineup moving forward but it’s just another adjustment in a season full of them for West Virginia. The Mountaineers have been trying to find the best lineups and rotations and perhaps this latest one is the key?

“I like what we did. Why screw with it if it’s successful?” Huggins said.

----------

• 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