The West Virginia Mountaineers got their next big taste of Power 5 action in non-conference play on Saturday night as they traveled to Charleston, W.Va for a neutral site affair against Wake Forest, and things did not go well for WVU.
The Demon Deacons outmatched the Mountaineers on the court for the majority of the game, jumping out to a quick lead in the first half, which WVU was able to trim into and tie the game just before the halftime break. But Wake came out with another massive run to take the lead in the second half, and would never look back as they kept the Mountaineers at bay comfortably in what was ultimately a 75-64 win for the Deacons. Here are our initial takeaways from the loss.
This Offense Is Bad
There's no use in sugarcoating things at this point in the season, and the truth of the matter is that WVU's offense is not very good. Or at least, if they can look good, they certainly aren't showing it.
The Mountaineers shot just 21-of-52 (40%) from the field, and a miserable 6-of-27 (22%) from three-point range. One of our points of contention after WVU's large win over Coppin State earlier this week was that the shooting needed to get better for West Virginia, only for it to get worse against tougher competition. Someone other than Honor Huff is going to have to be a consistent scorer for this team.
Treysen Eaglestaff Might Be Better Served As A Sixth-Man
There were some high hopes for Eaglestaff entering this season after he transferred to Morgantown as one of the more highly-touted scorers in the transfer portal following a season which saw him lead North Dakota in scoring and put up multiple 50+ point performances. But Eaglestaff is shooting just 23% from behind-the-arc and averaging 7.8 points per game this season.
On Saturday against Wake Forest, it was another lackluster performance that saw Eaglestaff fail to register a single point. With Chance Moore coming off the bench and scoring 16 points against Wake, freshmen such as DJ Thomas and Amir Jenkins looking better each week, and Jackson Fields looking impressive in limited action since returning for injury, it might be time to rotate Eaglestaff into a smaller role for this team.
It Could Be A Long Year In The Big 12
This isn't a team that is going to lose a ton of games to mid-major and low-major competition, clearly, so they're a step ahead of the historically bad edition of WVU two years ago under interim Josh Eilert. But they are now 1-3 against Power 5 competition, and 0-3 against such teams since beating Pitt in the Backyard Brawl. And outside of one half against Clemson, the Mountaineers haven't looked to competitive at all in those three losses. Enjoy some more non-conference wins while you can, because Big 12 action might present a different story entirely.