-Matt Cox

Key Returners: Miles McBride, Oscar Tshiebwe, Derek Culver, Emmitt Matthews Jr., Sean McNeil, Taz Sherman, Jordan McCabe, Gabe Osabuohien
Key Losses: Jermaine Haley, Chase Harler, Logan Routt, Brandon Knapper
Key Newcomers: Kedrian Johnson (JUCO), Isaiah Cottrell, Taj Thweatt, Seny Ndiaye

Lineup:

Outlook:

“For the loser now,

will be later to win,

for the times they are a-changin”

Few coaches have embraced Bob Dylan’s 1964 gospel as devoutly as Bob Huggins. Unlike many coaching relics still clinging to their rigid ways, Huggins’ willingness to roll with the changes is why he’s still pickin’ up steam at the ripe old age of 66. Like a legendary phoenix, Huggins has regenerated his coaching principles many times over.

2019 marked Huggins’ most recent rebirth. The artist formerly known as ‘Press Virginia’ abandoned its heavy-metal only, full-court pressing identity and mellowed out to the tune of a more compact defensive approach. The chart below, per Synergy data, shows the frequency of full-court press by team dating back to 2014.

A whole cast of new characters and a rotation in constant flux resulted in a bumpy transition in 2019, but those growing pains turned to steel calluses last season. West Virginia’s defense reigned terror on everyone who stood in its path, suffocating opposing offenses to under 90 points per possession for the season. Huggins reeled in the full-court press, but the Mountaineers still generated turnovers at top-30 rate in America, a testament to the pesky perimeter pressure dispatched by Miles “Deuce” McBride, Jermaine Haley, Jordan McCabe, and Taz Sherman, among others.

The ‘Eers perimeter defensive cloak helped mitigate the occasional instabilities on the other side of the ball. Overwhelmed with a smorgasbord of guards, Huggins effectively threw ‘em all at the wall to see who would stick. The backcourt depth chart was fluid early on, but McBride and Haley eventually emerged from the pile, while Sean McNeil slowly gobbled up McCabe’s minutes late in the year. McBride went on a tear in late December, headlined by a jaw-dropping 21-point outburst against Ohio State just before Big-12 action commenced. McBride surpassed double figures in 10 of 11 contests through the end of January but began to fade into oblivion down the stretch. McBride’s forgettable February coincided with WVU’s 1-6 tailspin, validating Deuce’s importance to the Mountaineers’ offensive balance. He was the only guard who consistently instilled fear in opposing defenses, which allowed Big-12 foes to collapse on the big boys inside (more on them later).

Deuce is destined to be front and center in 2021, but JUCO import Kedrian Johnson could be the real showstopper. Johnson arrives in Morgantown as the 3rd overall JUCO prospect, per JUCORecruiting.com, after stuffing the stat sheet to the tune of 26 PPG, 5 RPG, 5 APG and 3 SPG last season. The video montage below exemplifies Johnson’s deceptive burst off the dribble. At 6’4, he’s able to step by and through defenders with long strides to create separation.

Before Mountaineer fans lose their minds over what looks like the second coming of Dywane Wade, a reality check is in order. First and foremost, Johnson’s eye-popping stats were largely a byproduct of the NASCAR paced system he played in last year. Johnson’s prior JUCO team, Temple College (located in Texas), attempted an average of 80 shots per game. For context, the NCAA Division I leader in field goal attempts per game last year was Mississippi Valley State at 68 chucks a contest. Now, Temple isn’t exactly the Grinnell College of the JUCO world – for what it’s worth, many JUCO teams run with reckless abandon – but there’s no denying that Johnson’s stats were juiced up by the system.

Additionally, Johnson shot a dismal 27% from 3-point range last year (32/118), a stark contrast from his near robotic free throw precision (85% on 147 attempts). The tape shows a noticeable push in his release, so banking on Johnson setting the nets on fire from downtown might be wishful thinking. However, even if Johnson’s jumper proves to be erratic, there’s no denying his explosiveness. Huggins now has two pairs of guard prototypes at his disposal: two dynamic creators in McBride and Johnson, and two long range snipers in McNeil and Sherman. From a pure positional standpoint, a true point guard is the only hole on this roster, but McBride and Johnson are versatile enough to handle those duties.

All those guards will simply serve as a support system to the Eers monstrous frontline. Armed with two terrifying enforcers in Oscar Tshiebwe and Derek Culver, Huggins will put the shoulder pads back on this year. You can almost hear Huggins murmuring something along the lines of, “Screw this whole NBA pace and space movement – we’re going to play rugby”. Last year, West Virginia stubbornly pounded the rock inside and unleashed Tshiebwe and Culver on the offensive glass with no restraint. Huggins could give two shits about style points. As long as this bully ball produces points at a semi-efficient rate, Huggins knows opponents aren’t scoring on his impenetrable fortress on the other end.

West Virginia’s connector piece, Emmitt Matthews, was the latest victim of ‘the Matt Cox curse’, a Madden-cover type of jinx in which my excessive hype of a certain player sets them on a collision course for doom (I swooned over Esa Ahmad once upon a time). Matthews caught fire toward the end of his freshman campaign back in 2019, which may have been the fool’s gold that led me astray last season. Rather than harp on his dreadful conference performance last year (the evidence includes, but is not limited to, an 85 O-Rating and a 38% effective field goal percentage in league play), I’ll highlight his season finale heroics against Baylor – Huggins relegated him to a reserve for the first time all year, and Matthews responded with 18 points and four rebounds in 33 stellar minutes to lift the Mountaineers over Baylor 76-64. Did this foreshadow Matthews’ fate as a super-sub in 2021?

Well, that’s contingent on what the once lauded Jalen Bridges shows in practice this summer / fall. The former 4-star, top-100 ranked recruit could be a sleeping giant in this crowded rotation after graduating a year ahead of schedule. His slender frame doesn’t fit the bill of Huggins’ typical forwards and wings, but his bounce and deep range give him a chance to flourish in a lineup starved for shooting. Though, as alluring as Bridges’ upside is, he’ll likely wait in line behind Matthews and defensive specialist Gabe Osabuohien on the wing.

Rounding out the frontline is Isaiah Cottrell, the newest member of the Huggins’ big men brigade. Cottrell offers the ‘Eers a different dimension at the 4 position, scouted as a more versatile, perimeter-oriented change up to Tshiebwe or Culver. It’s unlikely he unseats Tshiebwe or Culver in the starting lineup, but like Bridges, he gives Huggins yet another toy to play with.

Notice the theme emerging here? Depth is plentiful, a consistent hallmark of Huggins’ rosters. He went 12-deep last season, and by the looks of the projected depth chart, he has enough soldiers to keep fresh bodies on the court at all times. It also allows him to hedge against inevitable foul trouble, a common occurrence for this over-aggressive defense.

Bottom Line: Don’t let last year’s double-digit loss tally and .500 Big-12 record fool you. Despite navigating the choppy waters of a fickle backcourt, the respected analytic barometers pegged the Mountaineers as a top-15 caliber team at season’s end (Barttorvik.com: 16th, KenPom.com: 10th, Haslametrics.com: 12th). Defensive destruction. Rebounding rampage. That’s what propped up the Mountaineers last year, allowing WVU to overcome an atrocious 26.4% team 3-point field goal percentage and 62.9% team free throw percentage, each of which ranked dead last in the Big-12.

The sheer physicality and tenacity underpin one of the highest floors of any team inside our top-25 rankings. Even if the offense is dragged down by erratic guard play again, Huggins has shown that defending and rebounding at an elite level can mask these offensive scars. That said, I’m betting on McBride and Johnson to be the ointment to last year’s offensive wounds, which could vault the Mountaineers into top-10 territory.