The start of the West Virginia basketball season got off to a perfect start. On the court, they came out of the gate with a 5-0 start under new head coach Ross Hodge, including a 22-point win over Pitt in the Backyard Brawl. Off the court, Hodge and his staff continued a rather impressive recruiting stretch, picking up a commitment from the highly-touted five-star prospect Miles Sadler.
As often happens in the world of sports, things moved quickly in the opposite direction. For the first time during the young season, the Mountaineers left the state of West Virginia. The trip to South Carolina for the Charleston Classic did not go as planned for WVU, as they lost two games in three days. West Virginia lost a bit of a heartbreaker in the opening round after blowing a second-half lead against Clemson. The Tigers put up 45 points to the Mountaineers’ 35 in the 2nd half, winning the game 70-67.
On Sunday afternoon, West Virginia fell to a red-hot shooting Xavier team that connected on 16-of-25 attempts from downtown in a 78-68 win over West Virginia. West Virginia returned to Morgantown with two losses, leaving coaches, players, and fans with a slightly different perspective on the young season than just a few days earlier.
With that said, there are some claims made about this start to the West Virginia basketball season that would qualify as an “overreaction” or an “underreaction”. Then, there are some that would qualify as a proper way of reacting to West Virginia’s start to the season here in November.
Over Reactions
“After blowing a lead to Clemson and falling to a less-than-impressive Xavier team, it is going to be a long, difficult season to watch for the Mountaineers, and I do not like their tournament chances.”
If that is you, pump the brakes a little bit. The truth is, nobody knows the type of season that either West Virginia, Clemson, or Xavier will have when all is said and done.
Sure, Xavier lost to Iowa and Santa Clara in blowout fashion, but they certainly are a team that appeared to make improvements in Charleston. Not only did they beat WVU, but they nearly came from behind to upset Georgia on Friday night. Georgia’s Marcus “Smurf” Millender hit a game-winning go-ahead 3-point basket with a few seconds remaining, and Xavier held a high-powered Georgia offense to 25 points in the second half.
On top of that, they shot the lights out against WVU on Sunday. While there are legitimate concerns about West Virginia’s defense allowing that to happen, credit is due to Xavier for that kind of shooting performance.
“Jasper Floyd should come off the bench, and Amir Jenkins should be the starting point guard.”
The true freshman point guard who reclassified to join the Mountaineers a season early has shown flashes of being a very good player this season. Jenkins has brought great intensity on defense while proving to be a good passer and threat to score at times on offense. However, Jasper Floyd is the starting point guard for this basketball team, and he will continue to be in that role for the remainder of the season.
Floyd is a veteran leader who can be highly productive on both sides of the floor. His presence on the floor means a lot to this team because of his versatility and ability to stuff the stat sheet. Floyd has 28 assists and 19 steals through the team’s first seven games.
“Ross Hodge may not be a good enough head coach at the Big 12 level.”
This overreaction certainly takes the cake for the most egregious take of the young season. Even through the 5-0 start, there were those who were critical of Ross Hodge’s decision-making. There have been complaints that Hodge makes too frequent substitutions, particularly early in the game. Many were upset with Hodge’s seeming lack of making defensive adjustments in the frustrating loss to Xavier.
The reality is this: whether or not Hodge works out as a good hire for West Virginia is still to be determined. We’re not here to say that it was a home run hire or that it was a swing and a miss. We don’t know the answer to that through 7 games, and we may not know the answer to that for a very long time.
Under Reactions
“It’s only November; those two losses in Charleston don’t mean anything.”
This is false. Wins and losses in November still hold weight when the calendar turns to March. If preseason expectations are an indication of the true outcome of Xavier’s season, the West Virginia loss to the Musketeers may not look very good on their resume. Non-conference games in November and December matter. After beating Pitt in their first matchup against a power conference opponent, WVU lost its next two attempts to Clemson and Xavier. West Virginia will have more opportunities to cash in on non-conference wins against Power 5 opposition in December when they play Wake Forest (December 6) and Ohio State (December 13).
“It was nothing more than a hot-shooting night for Xavier.”
Again, Xavier shot an incredible 16-of-25 from 3-point territory on Sunday afternoon against the Mountaineers. However, it would be a considerable under-reaction to simply chalk it up to a hot shooting night and say there was “nothing West Virginia could do about it.”
The reality is, after holding Clemson to a 25-point first half, the Mountaineers struggled to defend opposing offenses for three-consecutive halves of basketball, especially when considering Ross Hodge’s standard of defense. Defensive miscues led to Carter Welling getting back-to-back open shots for Clemson to take the lead late in the game. Defensive miscues with West Virginia collapsing too much on Xavier’s penetration and allowing for open shooters beyond the arc contributed to giving up 16 threes. These are certainly things that Ross Hodge will address defensively. The hope is that WVU will be able to adjust and fix some glaring issues in an effort to bounce back and win games ahead of the start of Big 12 play in January.