West Virginia Needs to Find Its Heart

Mountaineers must find a sense of urgency to finish the season strong.

Morgantown, WV – Heading into Saturday, West Virginia had lost five out its last six games, four of which was on the road and the fifth being a home loss to currently No. 1 Kansas.

It’s been a common theme throughout the season that the Mountaineers have struggled on the road. Of course, the noticeable stat is field goal percentage with West Virginia hitting 49.3% of their shots at home while 38.9% on the road and we’ve all heard West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins say this during the season, “We have to make shots.”

Maybe it was a string of road games and playing the top two teams in the country, but those road shooting stats followed them home in the loss to Oklahoma on Saturday hitting just 34.3% from the field.

Nonetheless, the strength of this team has never been shooting but it’s been defense and rebounding. It’s been a stark contrast in stats compared two home and away and those two things take desire and “want to” to achieve the kind of stats they’ve put up at home this season.

In West Virginia’s 19 wins, they’ve outrebounded their opponent on an average of 11.6 boards per game. In losses, just they grab just two more rebounds. At home, the Mountaineers were averaging +13.8 in rebound differential and averaging a +2.3 rebound margin on the road before the loss to Oklahoma.

Defensively, the Mountaineers were holding their opponent to 58.2 per game on 36.3% shooting from the floor at the Coliseum as opposed to 66.7 points on 42.5% from the field on the road.

All those road numbers seeped into the Coliseum on Saturday. Oklahoma shot 49.1% from the field, including an impressive 61.5% in the second half and the Mountaineers only outrebounded the Sooners by four, 43-39.

West Virginia doesn’t have the same “edge” they played with throughout the season and after Saturday the team looked defeated physically and mentally.

While the offensive end of the floor has been a thorn in the Mountaineers side, it’s been their ability to out hustle and bully their opponents that’s overcome their offensive struggles and, most of the time, increased their shooting percentage with good looks around the rim.

Naturally, it affects the offensive end as well. Second chance opportunities will boost the shooting percentage and grabbing long rebounds and pushing the pace to get numbers in transition will lead to easier baskets.

Then, in the half-court offense, West Virginia goes through the motions instead of setting a strong off the ball screen while the cutter edges to create separation and get an open look. Instead, they haphazardly run plays.

As bad as the offense has looked, statistically West Virginia is not that far off from Kansas, who leads the Big 12 in scoring and seventh nationally with 75.3 points per game. The Mountaineers average 69.9 points per game. They average 24.9 field goals made on 59.3 shots attempted per game while Kansas sits at 27.5 field goals on 56.7.

It’s a few buckets off and that was the difference in both meetings against Kansas this season. It’s also two of the three rebounding statistical anomalies in the year. They out-rebounded Kansas by 14 in Lawrence and 11 in Morgantown, but it was shooting in the second half that was the Mountaineers demise and Kansas playing aggressive on both of ends of the floor had a lot do with that but because they rebounded and played with passion and they had an opportunity to win.

The third, Northern Iowa out-rebounded the Mountaineers 40-35 at the Cancun Challenge but it was Deuce McBride that had a big final eight minutes and Emmitt Matthews Jr. grabbing an offensive rebound and drawing a flagrant one with under a minute to play to seal a 15-point comeback. Also, hitting 11-16 from the free throw line in the second half.

West Virginia was winning with tenacious defense and rebounding, although it never did translate on the road despite minor improvements. Now, the home loss to Oklahoma may have shattered what little confidence this team had.

With two games left, the Mountaineers need to dig deep, come together and get back to being the aggressor if they want to salvage the season and they have to do it on the road in Ames to take on the Iowa State Cyclones at 9:00 pm on ESPNU.