Go-To Five Remain Illusive for Huggins

Bob Huggins has almost found his perfect combination.

There's a jarring disconnect happening within the minds and actions of this WVU Men's Basketball program.

Listen to five minutes of head coach Bob Huggins in a press conference, and you'd be shocked to learn that his team is now 10-7, 0-5: the equivalent to No. 9 of 10 in the Big 12 Conference rankings. Through five games, Huggins has reiterated that, although his team is losing right now, the motley crew of transfers is on the precipice of greatness.

"We're playing in the best league in the country," Huggins said. "We've got some transfers, we've got some junior college guys, and we've got some portal guys. I don't care who you are. If you put all that in a mixing pot, it's going to take us a little while. Now, when everybody gets to clicking and understanding what one another does a little bit better, don't worry about us being 0-5. We're going to catch up fast."

At 0-5, there's a significant amount of catch-up to play. Huggins seems convinced that he's finally nearing a line-up solid enough to compete with the 2023 Big 12 opposition. During the loss to Oklahoma on Jan. 14, Huggins spent nearly the entire second half playing a group of five that seemed to gel the best of any combination thus far.

G Erik Stevenson.

G Joe Toussaint.

G Kedrian Johnson.

F Emmitt Matthews Jr.

F Tre Mitchell.

With this combination in, WVU outscored Oklahoma and Oklahoma State by a collective score of 25-21. Baylor, Kansas, and Kansas State didn't see this line-up; against the Wildcats and Cowboys, Toussaint was exchanged for a larger body in F Jimmy Bell and F Mo Wague (K-State). This kind of subbing pattern allows WVU an answer for Big 12 rebounding stats, at one point the roster's Achilles Heel.

G Seth Wilson has also proven a valuable piece of the puzzle when swapped with Stevenson, but he averages slightly more than 15 minutes per game, and ~13 ppg during the 257 minutes he's seen the court this season.

What the Mountaineers sacrifice in rebounding potential sans Bell or Wague, they tend to nearly make up in scoring with a smaller, shiftier offense-based scheme.

Now, these core five won't work 100 percent of the time against the largest, strongest conference in the country, but Mitchell leads the team in rebounds (101, 77 defensive) and stands near the top of the team's 3-point production. He's a dual-threat guy, and he's been in nearly every second of Big 12 play. A combination of Mitchell and Bell defends well off the glass, and can normally compete with the rest of the conference's bigs, but it's proven to dramatically decrease WVU's offensive impact.

Statistically, WVU plays best with a free-flowing combination of Stevenson, Toussaint, Johnson, Matthews Jr., Mitchell, Wilson, and Bell. Against Big 12 defenses, the inclusion of Wague and F Patrick Suemnick spruces up WVU's height in the paint.

"What I think people don't understand is we've got such a mix of guys," Huggins said. "I think for all the doubters out there: we're going to be a good team. You watch us, you know that. We're going to be a good team. Now, do we got to make free throws? That's got to change. We couldn't pass the ball. That has changed. When we first started, we couldn't make a free throw and we couldn't pass it to our own team. We fixed that. That part we fixed. Now, we've got to fix the free throw shooting or make sure those guys who can't make them don't get to the free throw line."

Slowly but surely, the Mountaineers are moving past the 0-5 start. The last time WVU began Big 12 play 0-5, Matthews Jr., now a graduate, was a freshman. The 2018-19 roster ended the season 15-21 (4-14) in the semi-finals of the Big 12 Conference Championship and two games into the CBI. Huggins vowed never to end another season like that, and he sees significantly more talent in this roster.

"We're trying the best we can to figure out what best suits us, and that's going to vary according to who you play, how they play, and their personnel," he said. "Every game is going to be different. There are going to be many instances when [playing small ball is] not the best for us. To the best of my ability, I'm going to try and put the guys out there that give us the best chance to win."

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