The West Virginia Mountaineers are one of the sleeper teams in the Big 12, can they win their conference?
There is much pride to have if anyone is a fan of the West Virginia Mountaineers. They’ve got one of the best football teams in the country. They recently got a new athletic director in Shane Lynon’s who’s an alumni and is looking to bring back more tradition to the school. They’ve also have one of the best basketball teams, arguably in one of the most difficult conferences in college basketball.
This season in college basketball, the Big 12 is a juggernaut and the numbers don’t lie when it comes to their conference. The Big 12 has six ranked teams within the AP Top 25 in No. 10 Texas, No. 12 Kansas, No. 16 Oklahoma, No. 17 Iowa State, No. 21 Baylor, and No. 14 West Virginia.
That same West Virginia school is one of the dark horses within the Big 12 and they could potentially win the conference. But of course anything worth value will never come easy. Thankfully, West Virginia isn’t used to taking the easy route and their team is prepared to make the long haul.
Can West Virginia win the Big 12 this season, and upset the rest of their foes within the conference? If you already haven’t, start believing, because before the end of the season they will be in the mix.
Mountain Men Move Mountains
They might not be the biggest team in the conference, or even the fastest, but they might be one of the most scrappy teams. Defensively, West Virginia isn’t a team that’s going to kill their opponents on the glass, or even block a ton of shots. They aren’t built as that type of team. Instead, they are the type of team that will get into the hip pocket of the defender, and hound them for 48 minutes, forcing their opponent into live ball turnovers.
That’s why on the season West Virginia is ranked as the No. 1 team in the country when it comes to steals per game, getting an insane 12.8 steals. Their team plays to the mold of their head coach Bob Huggins, playing that suffocating full court pressure and because of it their roster has nine players that average at close to one steal per game.
In addition, because of their ability to play hounding defense, they don’t allow their opponents to score a lot of points. On the year West Virginia only allows 62 points a night which is good enough for 87th in the country. On the nights when their defense isn’t taking away possessions they are still playing sound defensively. In their first 15 games they forced their opponents to score 68 points or less 12 times.
Big 12 Player of the Year?
Similar to their football team, the basketball team has one of the most potent offenses in the country. West Virginia averages 78.4 points per game which is good enough for 21st in the nation. What’s more impressive is that they are sharing the wealth.
They are ranked 59th in the country when it comes to assists per game, tallying 14.9 assists each night. West Virginia also has three players on their roster that average double figure points in Devin Williams, Jonathan Holton and their star guard Juwan Staten.
Staten is in the running for the Big 12 Player of the Year, and is fourth in scoring behind Oklahoma State’s Phil Forte III (17.7), Le’Bryan Nash (17.6) and Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield (16.8) averaging 16.5 points per game. In one of his best games of the season Staten scored 16 points against Texas Tech on the road while feeling under the weather. In a post game press conference Staten’s head coach Bob Huggins said this about Staten’s toughness:
"‘Good. That’s a good thing. That’s what men do. Men go out and do their jobs.’ That’s what men do. Don’t let a little cold bother you. Go out there and play. Sweat it out.”"
In his most recent game Staten went for 23 points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals in a narrow 74-72 defeat thanks to Iowa State. If Staten can continue to come close to leading the conference in scoring and possibly win the Big 12, it will be hard to bet against him winning the conference player of the year award.
The Big 12 is WVU’s Biggest Competition
Most of the people who are looking at the Big 12 are overlooking West Virginia, and for good reason, it’s difficult to believe in a small and scrappy team. Instead most people are looking at the other traditional powerhouse schools in the conference such as Texas and Kansas, and Oklahoma to win the Big 12 conference.
However all of those teams all have flaws that West Virginia can expose.
In the case of Kansas, they maybe the reigning Big 12 champions but for most of the season their team hasn’t looked the best. Their freshman Cliff Alexander, and Kelly Oubre Jr. have looked wildly inconsistent, while their veterans Wayne Selden Jr., and Perry Ellis haven’t looked aggressive.
As for Texas, there only one big upset away from looking like the pretender that they truly are.
Kentucky showed them up at and proved that they couldn’t play on their level. Oklahoma put it to them last week and ran them out of the gym. Even Stanford came into their building and made sure they knew they weren’t that talented. If it hadn’t been for a buzzer beating three-pointer they would have four losses on the year.
In the case of Oklahoma, West Virginia has three players who can guard their three headed monster in Hield, Isaiah Cousins and TaShawn Thomas.
Nevertheless, the Big 12 is more than a three team league, and from top to bottom their whole conference has a lot of firepower. Anytime Baylor is ranked No. 21, it only shows the depth of the conference as a whole.
Who Needs A Signature?
West Virginia should be foaming at the mouth for the opportunity to play the ranked teams within the Big 12 because the pressure defense that they play will ruin most of their competition. That defense is the reason they snapped TCU’s 13 game winning streak, and it’s the reason why West Virginia is ranked No. 14.
Iowa State managed to narrowly pull out a victory thanks to good free throw shooting late. Iowa State couldn’t manage to lose because they needed a big win more than West Virginia. Even if the fans made crazy pre-game pamphlets, West Virginia missed out on a good chance to get another signature win.
It’s not all in vein though because in the upcoming weeks West Virginia will have the opportunity to play giant killers when they play against ranked teams ten more times.
At this point their resume looks good and, barring some bad losses down the stretch, West Virginia should be a lock for the 2015 NCAA Tournament. They only need to prove that they can defeat elite teams.
Life changes quickly though doesn’t it?