The West Virginia Mountaineers came within a few made free throws of beating the Gonzaga team which made the national championship game and played North Carolina close into the final minute. West Virginia could have been in Gonzaga’s place – last season’s team was that capable.
The Mountaineers will start fresh and try to become the team which snaps Kansas’ run of 13 straight Big 12 regular season championships. The Jayhawks have not lost the league since 2004, when Oklahoma State won the outright title and KU wasn’t able to at least gain a share.
Offseason Changes
The pair of Elijah Macon and Nathan Adrian is gone from the frontcourt, while Esa Ahmad is ineligible for first half of the season and will try to become eligible by January. West Virginia has rarely depended on its big men to be the central scorers and producers on the team, but the Mountaineers always need their frontcourt players to be dependable on the boards and as low-post defenders. Losing Macon and Adrian brings up fresh questions, and the Mountaineers need to find answers to those queries. Ahmad is expected to become a valuable scorer for this team.
The Mountaineers badly need him to become eligible in January. The good news is that if he succeeds in rejoining the roster, he will be physically fresh in January and could become a high-energy player in February, when a lot of other teams and players across the country are running into fatigue just before the NCAA Tournament. Ahmad is an X-factor for this team in 2018, especially in light of the fact that he will miss November and December for sure.
Will Succeed If…
The frontcourt defends and rebounds and is quick in defensive rotations to help the backcourt. West Virginia can’t get by with only two or three players applying pressure. This has always been a team which hounds opposing ballhandlers and post players with five players all contributing on defense. There is an expectation that every WVU player will be a competent defender, but each season brings about the need for new players to carry their share of the workload. Offensive competence matters, but never as much as defense for a Bob Huggins-coached team.
Won’t Succeed If…
Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles, the two stars, don’t get enough help at the offensive end of the floor. This is where Ahmad comes into the picture. He has to be there in January in order to make it harder for defenses to key on Carter and Miles. West Virginia will probably be one-dimensional on offense in the early stages of the season. If Ahmad joins the roster in January, everything should improve, but even with Ahmad, role players will need to provide enough offense to balance the floor. Free throw shooting will be part of this – West Virginia missed a lot of high-leverage free throws last season, not just against Gonzaga, but throughout the Big 12 season as well. Being able to make considerable progress at the foul line will give WVU several extra points per game, which might be the difference between a disappointing season and a special one.
Roster
Jevon Carter
James Bolden
Daxter Miles Jr.
Brandon Knapper
D’Angelo Hunter
Teddy Allen
Chase Harler
Lamont West
Wesley Harris
Esa Ahmad
Maciej Bender
Logan Routt
Sagaba Konate
Outlook
The Mountaineers will have some tough non-conference games, starting with Texas A&M on a neutral site to start the season. They’ll also have a stiff test when Virginia visits on December 5th followed by a road game to Pittsburgh. Other than that, they should win all of their non-conference games (barring some kind of major upset).
The Mountaineers will do what they normally do. However, they were a top-four seed in each of the last two NCAA Tournaments. This year, that might slip a little bit. The Mountaineers will make a run at Kansas but probably won’t have enough firepower to win the Big 12. Second or third are more likely.
The 2018 March Madness futures are out. There has been plenty of news to keep up with in the offseason but keep an eye on the betting lines as they move around at Diamond Sportsbook! Get the latest college basketball betting lines right here.
