Between The Eers: What to Make of the Kansas Win
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Good morning, everybody.
00:11 Good Monday morning, West Virginia.
00:13 Winners over the weekend, 91 to 85.
00:17 Over the third ranked Kansas Jayhawks,
00:20 obviously that number will change beside their name this week.
00:24 West Virginia now 7 and 11 on the season, 2 and 3 in conference play.
00:29 And all of a sudden, the outing years start to look like a team that can do
00:34 a little bit of something here down the stretch of the season.
00:37 What can we make of this win over Kansas?
00:41 Is it something that can continue?
00:46 Is it something that can build off of?
00:47 Or is it just kind of a one off where they got really hot one night and
00:52 everything went their way?
00:54 I think both can be true.
00:56 You look at this game, and I try not to kill the vibes or
01:02 anything like that as some people may think I like to do.
01:05 I just like to keep it real.
01:07 I'm not gonna make it all sunshine and rainbows because it's not.
01:10 It's still a work in progress.
01:13 It's still a uphill battle.
01:14 And as I stated in one of the prediction articles we did,
01:20 either the spread or the score predictions, I said, for
01:23 West Virginia to really even have a chance in this game,
01:26 they're gonna have to make just about everything they throw up.
01:30 And that's pretty much what happened.
01:33 They shot 51% from the field, 57% from three point range,
01:39 much of that coming in the first half, 9 of 11 to start from beyond the arc.
01:45 Anytime you shoot 57% from three point range and it's more than ten attempts,
01:53 you're probably gonna have a pretty good night shooting.
01:55 Rayquan battle was phenomenal.
01:59 Pat Sumnick was phenomenal.
02:03 Kirk Creaser had his best game in my opinion all the way around.
02:08 15 points, three or four from three, four or six from the floor.
02:11 Seth Wilson drained a few threes.
02:17 This is stuff that really hasn't happened.
02:23 And for Kansas, you gotta be upset with yourself because you ever looked this team.
02:32 Not only did you ever look this team, but
02:35 this is a game that could haunt you come selection Sunday.
02:39 It's gonna be one that really dings the old resume.
02:43 And I don't think Bill's self, I think Bill's self understands that.
02:51 I don't know how much his team does, but it's one that's really gonna sting.
02:57 Unless West Virginia just goes on an absolute run year down the stretch and
03:01 wins a ton of games and finds their way miraculously into the tournament.
03:05 But if you're Kansas, you gotta think, man,
03:11 if you just play a lick of defense, you win this game.
03:14 I mean, you only lost this game by six.
03:18 And if it wasn't for, again, the 12 three-pointers or
03:22 the 25 free throw attempts for West Virginia, you probably win this game.
03:28 Bad defense at the line, bad defense behind the line, doesn't help out.
03:35 So for West Virginia, I mean, you gotta think.
03:38 You feel pretty good about this because you're able to get a win over a top five
03:42 team, it's the second win in the last week over a top 25 team.
03:48 However, you've gotta do this away from home.
03:54 West Virginia struggled on the road, and they have not been a team that is gonna
03:58 shoot 50 some percent from three-point range every single game.
04:02 That's just not gonna happen.
04:03 It's not realistic, it's not realistic for any team.
04:05 But can they shoot 35, 38% from three?
04:10 Is that doable?
04:11 Can they do what they did on the glass in this game every game?
04:15 If they can, they're gonna win a lot of games.
04:17 That's the biggest issue with this team right now,
04:20 obviously, is the lack of depth that they have in the front court.
04:24 Jesse Edwards, don't know when he's coming back, but even when he was playing,
04:28 it's not like West Virginia was owning the glass by any means.
04:31 Josh Allert said before the game and after that their only chance to
04:39 beat Kansas was if they showed up and competed on the glass.
04:45 Hunter Dickinson, one of the best players in the country,
04:47 they limited him to one rebound in the first half.
04:49 Now, of course, when you make 50 some percent of your shots,
04:54 there's not very many rebounds out there to be had.
04:56 But to be able to get a body on him and limit him, even offensively, says a lot.
05:02 So for the game, West Virginia out-rebounded Kansas 31 to 22.
05:10 And even though they were outscored 44 to 26 in the paint,
05:15 they were able to at least keep those second chance points from
05:20 happening as often as maybe they have in recent past.
05:23 So that's my biggest concern with this team moving forward, is look,
05:29 you had your best shooting night of the year,
05:32 probably won't be duplicated again anytime soon.
05:37 You could go down to Orlando on Tuesday and shoot 24% from three.
05:44 If that happens, what are the answers?
05:48 Does Pat Sumnick go for 20 again?
05:51 Is that what you gotta rely on and rely on another 20, 25 free throw attempts?
05:57 That's my question.
05:58 If they have those answers, this team's gonna be fine.
06:02 They're gonna win a bunch of games.
06:03 If they don't, we're gonna see what we've seen for the better part of this season.
06:08 So although I think it makes a ton of sense for fans to be optimistic,
06:13 I think you can be cautiously optimistic at this point.
06:18 Because you don't wanna get your hopes up that this team's gonna make this
06:23 the standard throughout the rest of the year.
06:25 I mean, this is a tough thing to do.
06:28 You're not gonna shoot like that every night.
06:31 And when you don't, you have to have other things happen for
06:35 you to be able to win games.
06:37 The benefit of this though, is that it gives the team confidence.
06:43 It gives the team confidence that it doesn't matter who you play,
06:45 where you play them, what number they have beside their name,
06:49 they have a chance to win the game.
06:50 Again, this is two wins in the last week over top 25 teams.
06:57 Now if they can do that on the road,
06:58 then that's only gonna strengthen our confidence even more.
07:03 But you have two wins over top 25 teams and
07:08 you head into this so called lighter portion of the schedule here.
07:12 Because you have UCF here on Tuesday, tomorrow,
07:16 you have Oklahoma State who's yet to win a conference game on Saturday.
07:21 Then you come back home for Cincinnati to round out the month of January.
07:25 And then things get a little tougher again with BYU, Texas, TCU and Baylor.
07:29 So this is a three game stretch right here is very, very pivotal for West Virginia.
07:34 If they can win these next three games, which they're completely winnable.
07:39 If you win these next three games and you're 10 and 11, now we can start to have
07:45 a serious conversation about what West Virginia has to do
07:49 to be able to get into the NCAA tournament.
07:53 And even then it's still gonna be a far stretch.
07:57 It's gonna be a lot of things have to go your way.
07:59 You have to really impress.
08:00 You have to win a bunch of games against ranked teams.
08:03 But we're not to that point just yet,
08:06 because they've got to survive these next three games.
08:10 Even if you lose one of these next three games,
08:13 it's still a possibility that you can get an at large, but it makes it really,
08:17 really tough.
08:19 That one loss is gonna have to either come to Cincinnati or Central Florida.
08:22 Can't come to Oklahoma State.
08:24 Oklahoma State, they're having a rough year.
08:27 They're eight and ten and
08:30 they're struggling with the roster that they picked.
08:34 Okay, so this is not a similar situation that they have,
08:39 that West Virginia has gone through or has endured with all the suspensions,
08:44 the eligibility questions, putting the team together in the summer.
08:49 That's not what's happening, is what is happening out in Stillwater.
08:51 So you can't lose that one.
08:54 But if you really wanna make a play for yourself to get into the NCAA tournament,
09:00 you've got to win these next three games.
09:03 And it's not impossible at all.
09:05 They don't need to go out and shoot 50 some percent from three in each of these
09:09 next three.
09:09 They've got to just find ways to win.
09:12 It doesn't matter if it's a defensive performance one night where you force 20
09:18 turnovers and limit a team to 30% shooting.
09:22 Or maybe it is another 50% shooting performance from three.
09:26 Maybe it's you get to the line 35 times and you go 29 for 35.
09:31 You've got to find different ways to win.
09:34 But I think what Mountain Deer fans should be really encouraged about
09:39 is the confidence in this team and not only themselves but their head coach.
09:46 To be able to go through what they have gone through so far this season and
09:51 to still be not only competitive but beating teams with numbers beside their
09:54 names, that says a whole hell of a lot about their confidence in that coach.
09:59 Josh Eilert has done a phenomenal job of keeping this team together through
10:04 all of the crappy water that they've been dragged through.
10:08 And they're sitting here at 7-11 with what is arguably the weirdest resume in
10:15 college basketball, but they're starting to come together.
10:20 And over the last three or four games really, you started to see that.
10:25 Even in the Oklahoma loss, you saw some positives.
10:30 This is really the first time we've seen this team for the most part put together.
10:34 When Jesse Edwards comes back, that'll be the first time that they,
10:40 the next time that Jesse Edwards touches the floor.
10:44 That will be the first time that Josh Eilert has had his entire roster
10:48 at his disposal.
10:49 So is that Tuesday in Orlando?
10:53 Is that Saturday in Stillwater?
10:55 I don't know, but this is the best thing that you can see out of this team is that
11:01 they're starting to play their best basketball at the best time.
11:04 Even though it's late January for them, they need to play that like it's March,
11:08 right now.
11:09 They need to play as if it is conference tourney time, they've gotta make a run.
11:13 For them to be playing their best basketball right now,
11:17 on the verge of getting one of their key players back and
11:21 then finally having that whole roster together.
11:25 That's why there's a whole bunch of optimism and
11:27 I think that you can absolutely 1000% win these next three games.
11:32 But like I said, you've got to find other ways to win.
11:39 In the defense, that has to improve.
11:41 I mean, it's been an issue all season long and I understand the depth.
11:46 Again, in the front court, the lack of size that they have,
11:49 they're playing guys out of position.
11:51 Pat Sumnick's playing the five when he's really a four.
11:53 I get that, but you still have to find ways to create turnovers.
11:58 You still have to find ways to contest shots, play help side defense,
12:02 run the floor.
12:03 There's a lot of fixable things that they can do that are in their control.
12:09 The size thing, you can't control that until Jesse gets back.
12:13 And even then, that's only one guy.
12:15 So you got what you got.
12:18 But you can't allow a team to go and score 44 points in the paint on a regular basis.
12:24 I mean, that's been an issue seemingly every single night.
12:29 That's gotta get fixed.
12:31 So I think if you're Josh, you're happy about the win,
12:35 you feel good about where things are headed, especially this week.
12:39 With two winnable games, but you also know in the back of your head,
12:43 there's a few defensive issues that need to get ironed out.
12:46 So it's okay to be optimistic.
12:50 It's okay to be not skeptical, but
12:53 understanding that this team still has some things to get figured out.
12:57 And one of the reasons why they were able to overcome the bad defense
13:02 was because they shot so well on Saturday against Kansas.
13:08 So I think those defensive issues will come together and
13:13 get ironed out once Jesse gets back, because now you have more,
13:18 again, you have more length down low, you have more size.
13:23 Are you able to do a lot of different things?
13:25 You're able to throw a lot of different lineup variations out there.
13:30 But you just kinda gotta weather the storm right now if you're Josh Island, and
13:34 I think that they can.
13:36 He has to this point, so why wouldn't he be able to for
13:38 the next game or two until they get Edwards back?
13:41 Maybe it is tomorrow night in Orlando, we'll see.
13:45 So that'll do it for this morning's episode of Between the Ears.
13:49 We thank you for tuning in.
13:51 Hit that subscribe button on YouTube at Mountaineers Now.
13:54 Give us a like and a follow at the same handle on X, and
13:58 we'll be back tomorrow with another episode.
14:00 [MUSIC]