-Matt Cox

Key Returners: Sean McNeil, Taz Sherman, Jalen Bridges, Gabe Osabuohien, Kedrian Johnson, Isaiah Cottrell
Key Losses: Derek Culver, Miles ‘Deuce’ McBride, Emmitt Matthews, Jordan McCabe
Key Newcomers: Malik Curry (Old Dominion), Pauly Paulicap (Manhattan), Dimon Carrigan (FIU), Seth Wilson

Lineup:

Outlook: Bob Huggins. The old dog still mastering new tricks. Few coaches adapt as willingly or as effectively as the West Virginia head honcho. Once synonymous with physicality and toughness, Huggins is now a sly shapeshifter, reconstructing his team’s identity on an annual basis.

Last season was no exception. Oscar Tshiebwe, the presumed second pillar of the Mountaineers’ twin tower frontline, abruptly left the team just 10 games into the season. Huggins didn’t fret nor panic over Tshiebwe’s departure. He simply swerved to a more perimeter-oriented attack. Huggins promoted a pair of nimble forwards, Jalen Bridges and Emmitt Mathews, to Tshiebwe’s spot at the ‘4’ while platooning Derek Culver with defensive menace Gabe Osabuohien at the 5.

Offensively, the ‘Eers still pounded it inside through Culver, but Huggins found the magic potion in his backcourt. To jump start a revamped lineup, Huggins cut Deuce McBride, Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil loose. This trio capitalized on the improved floor spacing and blossomed into shot making extraordinaires, as Huggins let them gun with unabashed confidence. When it was all said and done, WVU checked in with the 12th best offense in college basketball, per KenPom. Though not always pretty, Huggins knew his glass crashing brigade of Culver and Osabuohien, among others, would corral enough of the long-range misses to sustain a high clip of efficiency. 

McBride’s decision to stay in the NBA draft was a gut punch but Huggins was prepared. He took out a reliable insurance policy in former Old Dominion maestro Malik Curry. An oversimplified (neighboring on lazy) description of Curry would be a poor man’s McBride. He’s nails tough on both ends and embraces the big moments with open arms. At ODU, Curry was the bell cow of a dull offense lacking in firepower. He’s no Deuce but with an improved supporting cast, he should integrate nicely at the point of attack. Sherman and McNeil and their circus shot making ability return to flank Curry on the wing, while talented enigma Kedrian Johnson will push for more backcourt run in his second full Division I season.

Huggins told the Charleston Gazette-Mail this summer that he intends to play 4-out, 1-in almost exclusively this season, which places a heavy burden on wing / forward hybrids Jalen Bridges and Isaiah Cottrell. Last year, Bridges fit like a glove in that prototypical ‘3-and-D’ role. He made 3s, crashed the glass and defended multiple positions. Cottrell, on the other hand, is a major question mark. Fresh off a torn Achilles last December, he’s furiously rehabbing in hopes of being ready to go by November. Both Bridges and Cottrell can stretch the floor, which qualifies them for that pivotal second forward spot in the smaller lineup Huggins plans to deploy.

Huggins scooped up multiple forwards off the transfer wire but none are usurping the grizzled Gabe Osabuohien. Simply put, Osabuohien is Huggins’ spirit animal. He’s the ultimate tone setter defensively, legitimately capable of guarding 1-5 at any time. Despite standing 6’7, Osabuohien can hold down the interior fort all by himself – just refer to the advanced on / off statistics at hooplens.com:

Seny Ndiaye returns as a viable reserve while two new imports, Pauly Paulicap (DePaul) and Dimon Carrigan (FIU), round out the frontline rotation. Not to belittle their offensive skillsets but their roles on the offensive end will be simple: set screens and bombard the boards.

However, the defensive end is where Huggins will extract most of their value. An insightful report from Bluegoldnews.com broke down how Huggins is envisioning redesigning the defense in 2022 – on the heels of last year’s porous defense (70th overall, really?), every players’ individual defensive contribution will be under intense scrutiny:

[The defense] will be built, of course, around the strengths of the roster, and one that head coach Bob Huggins sees is the ability to return to more pressure defense. It likely won’t be a duplicate of that seen in the “Press Virginia” era, when WVU had two defensive bulldogs in Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles to extend the press over 94 feet, but instead could be a mixture of different press looks to take advantage of WVU’s array of lengthy forwards.

Remember Nathan Adrian? Adrian was the grizzled, gritty forward who set the tone for ‘Press Virginia’ circa 2017, along with Jevon Carter, Daxter Miles and others. In new arrivals Carrigan and Paulicap, Huggins is hoping to find that same tireless work rate and activity at the top of the press. They won’t be asked to put the pedal to the medal for 40 minutes but in spot stretches, this duo needs to make life miserable for in-bounder and primary ball handlers alike.

The uptick in defensive intensity likely rekindles West Virginia’s old ‘hack attack’ ways. In the peak of the ‘Press Virginia’ era, WVU treated distressed ball handlers like defensemen on the forecheck. Last year, the ‘Eers fouled at one of the lowest rates in the country – though, it didn’t yield any noticeable returns. The fouling conundrum is one of many tradeoffs under consideration for Huggins as he retools his defense towards a hybrid model, one that splits the difference between the suffocating helter-skelter pressure of old and the more relaxed, conservative defense seen last season.

Bottom Line: This offseason soundbite from Huggins sets the table for the entire transition to the 2021-22 campaign: 

"I'm not sure we'll miss Deuce [McBride] as much as we miss Derek [Culver]," he told the Charleston Gazette-Mail this summer.

Culver wasn’t always the most efficient scorer on the block but he was an absolute load in the paint. His interior presence and production will have to be replaced on a by committee basis, while the guards need to pick up the scoring slack. There’s a wide range of outcomes here, as indicated by the variance in our individual rankings, but tread lightly before dismissing the 2022 outlook as a ‘down year’.