Sunday, February 22, 2015

Huggy Bear and the Mountaineers

This past week, West Virginia beat Kansas at home and went into Stillwater and beat Oklahoma State cementing a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Mountaineers are 24th in KenPom, 24th in AdjustedO and 50th in AdjustedD.

Speaking of numbers, they are fascinating for a 21-6 team. They have an effective fg% of 46.2% on offense. That's 288th in the land! They're 296th in 3-pt shooting, 242nd in 2-pt shooting and only shoot 65% from the line. That's 304th overall. They do gather offensive boards. They're offensive rebounding % is 40.7%, 6th best. Probably helps they have so many opportunities.

On defense, teams have an effective fg% of 52%, 287th overall. Teams shoot 36.4% from 3 (267th) and 50.8% from 2 (281st). That's horrible. They foul a lot, too. They're 348th in FTA/FGA. What they do on defense is force turnovers.  They have the highest defensive turnover %, 29.6% and the highest defensive steal %, 16,4%. That helps explain why their 21st in possessions per game.

Sr. Juwan Staten is their best player. He scores 14.8ppg and runs the offense. SOPH Devin Williams gives them 11 & 8. He is 5th in the land in defensive rebounding%.

West Virginia didn't do anything special out of conference, losing at home to LSU while beating UConn & NC State. They have more than held their own in the nation's toughest league.

They have a Sweet 16 ceiling but strike me as team not making it to the second weekend. If they draw some poor ball-handling teams, they'll have a chance but if you protect the ball against them, they can be beaten.

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