West Virginia Basketball: The good, bad and ugly through first 3 games of 2023-24

The Ugly: Offensive Execution

The new-look WVU basketball team had quite an impressive scoring drought in the season-opener. Against Missouri State, they managed to shoot just 4-32 (12.5%) from the floor in the first 20 minutes. This run included the Mountaineers missing 21 consecutive shot attempts over the final 14 minutes of the half.

Jesse Edwards must get the ball. Defensive game planning against the Mountaineers has already shown that teams want to limit the touches and contributions of Jesse Edwards on the offensive end. The Mountaineers must counter this more effectively if they hope to win games against better opponents. Edwards is far and away the best player available for this team at the moment, the offense and defensive game plan should be centered around him.

While Bob Huggins is no longer the head coach, the offensive struggles of this WVU basketball team are eerily similar to Huggins-coached teams. Outside of Edwards and Slazinksi, offensive efficiency has not been there for the other Mountaineer players. Seth Wilson is shooting under 30% from the field, Ofri Naveh is at 22% and Josiah Harris is at 20%. While it is hard to say what the rotation will look like in the future, the Mountaineers are hoping to get both Akok and Battle sometime this season. Kriisa will remain out for the next 6 games. In the meantime, scoring must come from some other places if the team wants to have success.

Fort Myers Tip-Off

November 20th

West Virginia will play the SMU Mustangs in the Fort Myers Tip-Off on Monday with game time set for 8:30 PM.

November 22nd

On Wednesday, WVU will play in either the championship or third-place game. In this matchup they will face either the Virginia Cavaliers or Wisconsin Badgers.