MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The season was delayed by 15 days due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic and the opening opponent changed three times.
There was an impromptu meeting against the No. 1-rated Gonzaga Bulldogs, as well as two other last-second replacements in the schedule against North Texas and Northeastern.
Along the way, the WVU men’s basketball team also saw only its third McDonald’s All-American recruited to the school pack up and transfer just 10 games into the season. Oscar Tshiebwe announced Sunday he was transferring to Kentucky.
The Mountaineers also had their top recruit this year — 6-foot-10 forward Isaiah Cottrell — lost for the season with a torn Achilles tendon. Cottrell had surgery last week and is expected to miss the remainder of the season.
For those who like a twist-at-every-turn type of season, the 13th-ranked Mountaineers have offered plenty of them.
“I would say we have had to adjust on the fly,” WVU forward Derek Culver said. “I think we’ve done a good job of doing that.”
The latest cliffhanger came Saturday, in a 72-70 loss to No. 4 Texas, a game WVU led for 33 minutes and held a 70-65 lead with just 1:40 remaining.
What happened next was two missed shots, three missed free throws and the Longhorns won the game with 1.8 seconds left on Andrew Jones’ 3-pointer from the corner.
“It was real tough,” WVU point guard Deuce McBride said. “We had the lead almost the whole game. To give it up like that is just a real tough one. We’ll think about it tonight and then we will move on.”
In what is expected to be a 27-game regular season, the 13th-ranked Mountaineers (9-4, 2-3 Big 12) are basically at the halfway mark.
What lies ahead can’t be projected.
WVU faces 14 games — eight at home, five on the road — with 10 of the opponents ranked in the top 100 of the NCAA’s NET rankings.
As we hit the halfway point, here’s where things stand so far:
Picking a defense
Huggins’ trademark on college basketball has been defense.
He has not liked what he’s seen to this point, as the Mountaineers are seventh in the Big 12 allowing opponents to connect on 42.5% of their shots.
And while WVU is third in 3-point percentage defense — teams hit 29.1% from behind the arc — opposing teams have also launched 309 threes, the most against any Big 12 team this season.
“I don’t know what else to do,” Huggins said. “I’ll be blunt with you. We’ve tried a 1-2-2 zone and it didn’t work. We’ve tried a 3-2 zone and it didn’t work. We tried a 1-3-1 and it didn’t work.
“Our man-to-man was much better than any of those. We’ve tried to press and that didn’t work. We are what we are.”
What the Mountaineers are can maybe be best described by the NET rankings.
WVU has played six Quad 1 games, tied for the most in the country.
What is a Quad 1 game? It is any home game against a top 30 opponent, a neutral-court game against a top 50 team and a true road game against a top 75 opponent.
WVU is 2-4 in those games and are 2-0 in Quad 2 games, which is just a step below a Quad 1.
“We’re still pretty damn good, by the way,” Huggins said. “We haven’t lost to chumps. We’re still pretty good.”
According to the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), the Mountaineers have played the 11th most difficult schedule in the country.
Top quote
We take you back to last Monday, when WVU erased a 19-point deficit in the second half to beat Oklahoma State.
It was just the second game the Mountaineers played without Tshiebwe, who entered the NCAA’s transfer portal on Jan. 6.
“We’ve been dealing with things and a certain dismissal and people leaving,” Culver began. “With that said, I’ll got to war 110% every single day with the guys that I got in that locker room and I know they’d do the same thing for me. That’s a no-brainer.”
Most alarming stat
There may be a tie here between the shooting performance put on by Kansas and how opponents have taken advantage of driving to the basket against the Mountaineers.
In its 79-65 victory on Dec. 22, Kansas connected on 16 3-pointers, which tied for the most WVU has ever allowed in a game in school history.
As far as drives to the basket, the Mountaineers are giving up an average of 34.2 points in the paint per game.
Gonzaga had 60 points in the paint to lead the way, followed by Oklahoma State (48) and Western Kentucky (44).
Most improved
It’s hard to ignore the jump Taz Sherman has made this season.
Coming in as a junior-college transfer last season, Sherman shot 33.3% from 3-point range and scored 165 points.
Through 13 games this season, Sherman has already scored 161 points and is connecting on 37.9% from behind the arc.
“It’s just confidence,” Huggins said of Sherman. “He came in a year ago and was trying to feel his way through. He’s playing with so much confidence right now. It’s more of give me the ball and I’ll score. Before, he kind of took a back seat to some other guys. He has, without question, he and Derek have been our go-to guys.”
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