Big 12 Basketball: 2019-20 power rankings heading into conference play
11-1. Previous: . Mountaineers . 3. team. 469.
West Virginia may still be third in these rankings, but they have had certainly closed the gap on the top two. WVU recorded one of the most impressive victories of the season before the year ended, knocking off Ohio State on the road 67-59. Sitting at 11-1, with their lone loss coming to St. John’s by just two points, the Mountaineers enter conference play looking like a legitimate title contender.
With many other teams in the conference relying on a dominant scorer to lead their team, West Virginia is a bit unique. No player for the Mountaineers scores more than 12 points per game. Instead, scoring is distributed nearly evenly through five players. Oscar Tshiebwe is the team’s leading scorer at 11.8 ppg, but he did not even score as he battled foul trouble in the win over Ohio State. Miles McBride was the primary scorer in that game off of the bench, putting up 21 points on 12 shots.
While West Virginia may not have a clear primary scorer, they still have been a good offensive team. Their biggest strength has been their offensive rebounding. They have an offensive rebounding rate of 38.0%, good enough for eighth in the nation. The second-chance points they are able to carve out help make up for the limited shooting ability on the perimeter.
The strength of the team if by far the defense. West Virginia is 12th in overall adjusted defensive efficiency because they do such a terrific job of making their opponents take tough shots. They are only allowing a 40.5% effective field goal percentage, good for third-best in the nation. They play an aggressive style which allows them to create turnovers and push the pace. This style compliments their offensive deficiencies well by allowing them to get easy points in transition.
With West Virginia’s ability to defend and rebound, they will be very difficult to beat in conference play. They’ve got a very tough test in their opening game, on the road against Kansas. A win would push the Mountaineers closer to becoming the favorite in the conference.