Osabuohien

Iowa State is 12-0, Baylor remains unbeaten at 11-0, TCU shows a 10-1 record, highly-regarded Kansas is 9-1, Oklahoma is 10-2 before conference play begins this weekend, Texas is 9-2 so far, Texas Tech is rolling along at 9-2, Kansas State is currently 8-3 and Oklahoma State is the only team with four losses at 7-4.

Tomorrow, the Mountaineers — having just reached the Top 25 in the polls — are in Austin to see the timber-tall Texas Longhorns. And then on Monday, West Virginia is in Fort Worth to face Texas Christian.

West Virginia’s wins included successes against arch-rival Pitt, Clemson, Connecticut and Alabama-Birmingham. The win over Alabama-Birmingham came on the road. The lone loss was in a tournament setting against Marquette.

The 2021 portion of the schedule was closed with an eight-game winning streak and with Coach Bob Huggins reaching his career wins total over the 900 mark.

Bridges

Although not using its well-known full court pressure defense muscles at all times, the Mountaineers floored visiting Youngstown State with the turnover-causing pressure in their last game before Christmas.

Opponents are scoring 59.8 points per game and coughing up 18.4 turnovers against Mountaineer defenses.

But West Virginia has made only 62.4 percent of its free throws and has been out-rebounded for the season to date.

So far, there have been nine players receiving most of the playing time.

The far-and-away scoring leader is 6-foot-4 Taz Sherman, among the nation’s leaders with his 20.9 points per game average. Sherman does make nearly 80 percent of his free throws. Sean McNeil, who missed one game with an injury, scores 14 points a game, makes over 70 percent of his free throws and adds problems for opponents with his perimeter shooting.

Cottrell

The other three starters have been 6-foot-7 Jalen Bridges, 6-foot-10 Isaiah Cottrell and 6-foot-3 point guard Kedrian Johnson. Johnson scores 4.8 points and converts 59 percent of his foul shots. Bridges averages just over seven points a game, but makes only 65 percent of his foul shots. He is the team’s leading rebounder and is an able defender — especially in the pressure defense.

Cottrell splits playing time with hustling Gabe Osabuohien, often an ominous force on defense. Osabuohien makes only 29.6 percent of his free throws and Cottrell doesn’t shoot many, but makes only 53 percent. Cottrell averages 4.5 points and Osabuohien 4.3 points.

Three players came to the roster through the transfer portal and all are reserves. Malik Curry (6.8 points but just 57 percent on free throws) came from Old Dominion, Pauly Paulicap played at DePaul and Dimon Carrigan played last at Florida International. Paulicap scores at a 3.7 clip and converts 59 percent of his free throws. Carrigan scores 2.4 points and makes 33 percent of his limited number of free throws.

The nine-player rotation has been the usual WVU method of stuffing non-conference opponents.

The Big 12 often crams the NCAA tournament brackets with its teams. That same scenario appears to be in play this season.

Johnson

How will the full court pressure defense be handled by the experienced rosters of many of the conference contenders? Will mediocre free throw shooting pull the Mountaineers into the loss column in close games? Will team rebounding cause too many problems? Or will the Mountaineers have too much defensive energy and unity to be victimized on many nights?

Sherman