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7) Miles McBride is West Virginia’s most important player – and a future star

West Virginia improved to 13-2 with a home victory over Texas Tech on Saturday, and the Mountaineers will likely be ranked in the top 15 when the new rankings come out. They’ve succeeded largely thanks to the stellar play of big men Derek Culver and five-star freshman Oscar Tshiebwe, both of whom have been All-Big 12 caliber performers.

That said, their most important player is in the backcourt in the form of Miles McBride.

The freshman had the best game of his career against the Red Raiders, scoring 22 points while shooting 8/11 from the field. It was the latest performance in a string of quality outings for McBride, who has now scored in double figures in six consecutive games, including 21 against Ohio State and 13 against Kansas.

After the game, McBride said his recent spike is a result of hard work.

“I work hard on my shot every day. After practice, before practice, I’m always there trying to perfect my craft and it was just falling down tonight. I just knew my range was something I worked on a lot, and I just go to it.”

For a West Virginia team that has struggled to find consistent offensive production from the perimeter since Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles Jr. left, McBride’s scoring has been welcome.

There’s also reason to think McBride could turn into the kind of star Carter and Miles were, too. He has shown the ability to make shots from all three levels with the quickness, feel, and ball-handing to create for himself.

We know West Virginia is great defensively, but it’s been a while since they’ve had a legitimately great offensive threat. McBride looks like he can be that guy, which raises WVU’s ceiling considerably.