Looking at the Three Glaring Issues for West Virginia

Although 7-2, the Mountaineers have some problems that need addressed.

Tuesday night, the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks had their way with No. 7 West Virginia and handed the Mountaineers their first Big 12 loss of the season. Now nine games into the season, we are beginning to see some trends with this Mountaineer team, and some of those are of the wrong variety. 

These three things, in particular, have stuck out as glaring issues for the Mountaineers. 

Oscar has regressed

West Virginia sophomore big man Oscar Tshiebwe has gotten off to a slow start to the 2020-21 season. I figured that it might take him a few games to get back into rhythm and play at the level he did a year ago, but we're now nine games in, and it still has not happened.

Offensively, Tshiebwe doesn't go up strong with the ball, and to me, that is a significant factor as to why he has struggled. Last year, we would see him throw down dunk after dunk, and so far this season, he looks a bit hesitant. To get back on track, he has to start being the aggressor on the offensive end of the floor and out-tough his man.

West Virginia can't be the team they want to be with him in a season-long funk. Head coach Bob Huggins is hopeful that he will snap out of it, but only time will tell.

Suspect defense

Kansas shot the lights out on Tuesday night, so credit to them. But you're not going to win many games, especially on the road, when you give up 16 threes. You could kind of tell that this was going to happen at some point just based on how they have been slow to rotate defensively through the first eight games. They're giving shooters too much space, and going underneath screens has not been working in their favor. With the team now on Christmas break, this will be a good time for Huggins and his staff to find a solution to the defensive woes.

Last year this group was reasonably sound defensively, and most of this team was a part of that success a year ago. They've done it before; now, they have to figure out where it all went wrong. 

Lack of a legitimate scoring threat

Sure, West Virginia has some guys that can shoot the ball, but are any of them capable of carrying a team to a win in league play? Sean McNeil had an insane night shooting, but don't expect that to be the norm. He's going to be a high-volume shooter and will have some nights where the shots just aren't falling. When he can't get it going, can Miles McBride or Taz Sherman carry the load? I know Huggins says he has confidence that his guys can make shots, but I don't know who you give the ball to if the game is on the line. To this point, no one has stepped up and shown that they can take a game over if need be. 

As a group, there has to be better ball movement, better communication, and better shot selection. Too many bad shots are being taken for a team that hasn't shown that they can make up for it defensively. Huggins talked about this earlier in the season, stating that there is "too much dribbling and not enough passing." 

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