West Virginia Basketball: Is it time to panic after a 1-2 start?

With a loss to Western Kentucky, West Virginia Basketball has fallen to 1-2 to start the season. Should Mountaineers fans start to worry?

After losing the team’s first game at the start of last season, West Virginia Basketball won their next 15 games, before losing their second game of the season to Texas Tech in conference play. That happened on January 13 of last year for the Mountaineers to get loss No. 2. For the 2018-19 season, that’s happened two months early.

After losing a heartbreaker at home to the Buffalo Bulls in overtime, West Virginia entered the Myrtle Beach Invitational as the prohibited favorite to win. They pulled away from Monmouth in the second half of the quarterfinals, before falling to Western Kentucky by a score of 63-57.

The Mountaineers scored just 22 points in the second half while shooting 33.3% overall from the field. The Hilltoppers struggled shooting themselves but West Virginia’s 22 giveaways combined with sending WKU constantly to the free throw line (27/34) allowed them to pull off the upset.

It’s a difficult loss for West Virginia as they were headed to a finals matchup with Central Florida and a chance for a quality win. Instead, they’ll face St. Joseph’s a capable but inferior opponent resume wise.

Now at 1-2 and nowhere near playing like the No. 13 ranked preseason team, the Mountaineers have some work to do. Although James Bolden has played well as the team’s new starting point guard, the absence of Jevon Carter and even Daxter Miles Jr. is clearly felt – particularly on the defensive end. The depth for the team hasn’t been there either, with just four players averaging over 5.5 ppg so far this season.

There’s still hope for West Virginia to get things together for the rest of this season. They have a bunch of veterans to keep things together while still incorporating the new rotation pieces joining the program. It’ll take time but the defense is still there with Bob Huggin’s team to be a thorn in every opponent’s side.

Also, it’s important to note who West Virginia lost too. Buffalo returned three 15+ ppg scorers from a 28-win team that defeated Arizona in the NCAA Tournament. Then there’s West Virginia, who under Rick Stansbury has recruited at a rate higher than a mid-major, including five-star freshman center Charles Bassey (13 points and 15 rebounds in win over WVU) and has the Hilltoppers looking at the Big Dance themselves.

Both programs are favorites in their respective conferences and have possible at-large hopes as a mid-major. Either way, West Virginia likely hasn’t suffered a bad loss yet this season (although it’ll have an impact on the Mountaineers seeding come March).

At the end of the day, West Virginia is not in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament and will still be a contender in the Big 12. In fact, after beating Michigan State in the Champions Classic, Kansas hasn’t looked impressive since. And teams such as TCU and Iowa State are dealing with injuries at the moment. The Mountaineers aren’t dealing with that which is a positive. Being 1-2 isn’t a great look but West Virginia still has the makings of a good team, and nothing yet has shown otherwise.