MORGANTOWN — A four-game stretch in which no opponent has shot better than 40% from the field may have Bob Huggins leaning toward another upgrade on his opinion toward West Virginia’s defensive effort.
It began this season with a “we’re horrible” from Huggins. From there, the WVU coach said the Mountaineers defense, “We’ve gone from horrible to terrible.”
Then came this stretch of games against out-manned Bellarmine, Radford and Kent State, but also included a win against national-ranked Connecticut.
WVU allowed just 52.2 points in those four games, with no opponent scoring more than 55.
UConn was held to just 39% shooting. Kent State mustered only 34.5%.
“I think, statistically, we’ve done a pretty good job defensively in the last couple of games,” Huggins said. “We’re standing in front of people, and we’re spending more time with individual defense guarding the ball.”
Even with its recent defensive efforts, WVU (9-1) is finding it hard to be considered a sort of Minister of Defense in the Big 12.
On the same night the Mountaineers held Kent State to 50 points, Baylor secured the No. 1 ranking in the country by holding then-No. 6 Villanova to just 36 points and 22.2% shooting.
A look at the Big 12 stats show that half the league is allowing less than 60 points per game, in what may be a sign that the Big 12 is no longer a wide-open offensive-shootout conference. Nine of the 10 Big 12 teams are ranked in the top 68 in the country in fewest points allowed.
As to how much of the defensive hole the Mountaineers have dug themselves out of, WVU is still last in the Big 12 in defensive field-goal percentage.
Opponents are still shooting 43.3% against WVU this season.
Big East-Big 12 Battle
The conference showdown between the Big East and Big 12 is about to come to a close this week.
The Big 12 needs a win Saturday from TCU, which travels to Georgetown, just to force a 5-5 tie in the season series.
Unlike the Big 12/SEC Challenge that sees 10 games over the course of one day, the Battle this season was spread out over three weeks.
It began on Dec. 1, with Providence taking out Texas Tech. WVU’s 56-53 victory over Connecticut last week tied the series 3-3.
Even with Baylor’s blowout over Villanova, the Big East still holds a 5-4 advantage heading into the TCU/Georgetown game.
The two conferences tied, 3-3, last season in a series that saw three games canceled due to COVID-19.
The Big East came away with an 8-2 victory in 2019, the first year of the series.
The contract for the Battle runs through 2022. No announcement has been made if the series will continue beyond next season.
WVU is 2-1 in Battle games.
Sherman wins again
For the second time this season, Taz Sherman was named the Big 12 Player of the Week.
In wins against Connecticut and Kent State, Sherman shot 54.8% from the floor and averaged 25 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists.
On the season, Sherman is sixth in the country in scoring at 21.8 points per game and is second in the Big 12, behind Kansas’ Ochai Agbaji (22.4 ppg), who leads the nation in scoring.
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