MORGANTOWN — Let me tell you a story about a basketball team, and we assure you it’s all true.
It’s a story of perseverance, of sorts, one that somehow has told a different tale than what the numbers say so far.
If we went strictly by the numbers, this team could be referred to as next to last. Let us explain.
In conference play, this team is next to last in the league in shooting. It’s next to last in scoring, too, and has given up more points than it’s scored.
Well, that team better grab some rebounds, right? Wrong, it’s next to last in that category, too.
Through seven league games, this team has been outrebounded six times. The lone game where it finished with more boards, it was by a grand total of two.
Can’t shoot. Can’t score. Can’t rebound.
This is the 23rd-ranked WVU men’s basketball team.
Which brings me to another story. Unless you are in the local real estate game or in the market to buy a house in Morgantown, you may not be familiar with Allan Collins.
Before his real estate days, Collins was a masterful basketball mind and one hell of a girls’ basketball coach at Morgantown High.
We get to talking one day about a player and he’s listening to me list all of the things she couldn’t do on a basketball court.
She wasn’t this. She wasn’t that.
Collins simply smiled.
“That’s the difference between everyone else and coaches,” he said. “No one focuses on what someone does well. They see all the things they can’t do, but never the things they can do.”
And so, the same might be true with these Mountaineers.
It’s so easy to find the deficiencies that head coach Darian DeVries is trying to overcome. Does that blind us to what the Mountaineers do well?
“Our defense has to be what carries us,” DeVries said. “That’s what I know we can do on a nightly basis.”
Honestly, it’s not fair to compare this season to last season any more than it’s fair to compare a Porsche 911 to a station wagon.
Last season’s team couldn’t shoot, either, and it wasn’t very good at rebounding the ball.
The difference DeVries has made can be found on defense, which is more than just how many points are scored against you.
Only one Big 12 team has shot better than 50% from the field against WVU. Trust me, you don’t want to hear how many Big 12 teams accomplished that against the Mountaineers last season.
No one — outside of Houston — has made an impact from 3-point range against WVU.
Those aren’t exactly pretty stats, because WVU counters it by not shooting the ball well, either.
So, what makes the difference? It’s one simple thing: Turnovers.
The Mountaineers simply don’t give the ball away. Only Houston has turned the ball over less than WVU in Big 12 play.
What that means is WVU doesn’t get in the habit of doing stupid things. It doesn’t get called for a lot of offensive fouls. It doesn’t throw the ball into the third row.
Defense will be played, and you’ll never shake your head in astonishment watching the Mountaineers this season.
That’s why next to last finds itself with an opportunity to make some noise in the Big 12 this season.
