West Virginia looks to bounce back from a loss to Monmouth on Friday, as they host Jacksonville State on Tuesday. The Mountaineers are on the final game of a three-game homestand, before they head to the Fort Myers Tip-Off Event next week.
Figuring Out The Offense
This sounds quite realistic and easy, but so far scoring has been a chore and then some for the Mountaineers. Even with a small sample size in two games, West Virginia is shooting 33.1 percent from the field. Simply put, that’s not great.
That number ranks 343rd out of 350 in the country. That is a recipe for losing games like you lost to Monmouth, where the Mountaineers shot 24 percent from the field in the second half. There has now been two halves of basketball (out of four) so far this season, where the Mountaineers have legitimately struggled to score.
If you combine the first half versus Missouri State and the second half versus Monmouth, WVU would have shot a combined 13 for 69 from the field. Put that together and that is a full game of basketball where WVU has made just 18.8 percent of their field goals. If that were to happen across a full game, it would be the lowest total since Mar. 5, 1938 against Carnegie Mellon where they shot 18.3 percent in a game.
If West Virginia is going to want to even compete next week in Florida, or down the road in non-conference play or Big 12 play, they need to figure themselves out offensively.
Defense in Spurts?
West Virginia has given on and off effort on the defensive end of the floor. The Mountaineers have played defense at times, but against Monmouth struggled to get the stop needed to get back into the game. With the depth of this team, playing 40 minutes of consistent defense feels like a tall task with the effects on the legs.
How do the Mountaineers account for this. A zone, different rotations, what will help them be better defensively. They went to a zone against the Hawks who shot right over it, but if they can deploy a zone at times and be able to switch looks on defense and string together stops, that will help the defensive effort.
Needing to Bounce Back
West Virginia suffered a quad-four loss and while the NCAA Tournament seems far fetched, that’s the ultimate goal. Another couple of losses similar to last Friday and WVU could be looking back in agony come March no matter how good they are in Big 12 play.
The Mountaineers need to win on Tuesday night against Jacksonville State. Not only is it a momentum builder before they head to face some serious competition next week, but you simply can’t keep affording to lose buy games if you want to be at all serious in the grand scheme of things conversation.
