West Virginia Basketball: 3 takeaways in loss against Gonzaga in Jimmy V Classic
1. Big-12 Championship isn’t out of the question
Statistically, anyone could win the Big-12 Championship, but realistically we’re looking at about five teams who hold a real possibility of achieving that feat, and the Mountaineers are one of them.
Looking ahead on West Virginia’s schedule to conference play, there are a few games we’ve circled that we think you should too. The December 22nd match-up, when the Mountaineers head into Allen Fieldhouse in Lawerence, Kansas to take on the #7 Jayhawks is the first of those picks.
Kansas also suffered a close loss to the Zags and will be looking to take some of that aggression off on the Mountaineers, a team they’ve had pretty measurable success against. Other notable games include #17 Texas, and of course #2 Baylor here in the next month.
A lot of their success will ride on the play of Derek Culver, however, as we stated earlier, he’s already outpacing his stat-line from last season (10.4 ppg/ 8.6 rpg).
Huggins is heading into his 14th season as West Virginia’s head coach, and he’ll be looking to improve on a 21-10 overall record with a meager 9-9 record in conference play this past season.
The Mountaineers’ biggest task will come in getting some key wins in conference play. A Big-12 Championship victory will punch them a ticket to the big dance, but they’ll want to have a strong resumé regardless of that result.
There is a projected six teams currently making the tournament out of the Big 12, and West Virginia is one of them. What helps their argument is a strong strength of schedule, and playing in one of the best conferences in basketball. A win over a ranked Richmond team would really help their case down the road.
Next. Takeaways from 2020 Jimmy V Classic Classic. dark
The result wasn’t what they wanted, but West Virginia really did impress in their loss over Gonzaga. It was a tightly contested game that could have gone either way in the end. While it was a loss, Huggins will hope his team can learn something from it, and use it to put them over the top as they aim for the perfect duo in a Big-12 Championship and NCAA title.