Big 12 Basketball: Breakout candidates from each team for 2020-21 season

West Virginia – Miles McBride

Miles McBride only started two games for the Mountaineers as a freshman, but there were several games in which he was the team’s best player.

He announced his presence with a 21-point outing in a win over Ohio State in Cleveland in December, which he followed a few games later with a 22-point performance in a home win over Texas Tech.

There were other great performances as well throughout the season, but those are the two that really stick out as showing McBride’s potential. He shows off a smooth shooting stroke along with some crafty finishes around the rim that can make him a very potent scorer.

But McBride did hit that freshman wall at the end of January, reaching the double-digit point plateau just four times in WVU’s final 11 games (including each of the last three) after having 12 such games previously. Uncoincidentally, that’s when their season took a sharp downturn as well.

West Virginia‘s focus won’t change much next year with the frontcourt duo of Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe deciding to return, but there’s no doubt this team needs a backcourt scoring punch. The lack of it caused them to have a terrible 2018-19 season and, when McBride struggled in 2019-20, the Mountaineers did as well.

They need him to have a big year and I think we see McBride deliver in a way that will make him not just the biggest breakout star in the Big 12, but one of the biggest breakout stars in the country.