When the Going Gets Tough: An Early Reflection on the 2018-19 Season

Photo Credit: WVSports.com

The record books will show a 12-19 regular season and a 4-14 conference record. Those who pull statistics 20 years from now to talk about winning seasons and tournament appearances will see those numbers and wonder what happened, just a year removed from the third Sweet 16 in four years. With just 14 total wins including the conference tournament - though hopefully a few more in the CBI - this season is going to be a serious blemish on paper.

What those numbers won't show, though, is the coming together of a limited rotation of inexperienced players toward the end of the year. They won't show the fight and heart that resulted in a triple overtime win against TCU, with four different players logging 50+ minutes (a win that, if nothing else, kept TCU and Jamie Dixon out of the NCAA tournament). They won't show the excitement of the players and the fans of a 12-win team who upset two tournament-bound teams, including a top 10 team in Texas Tech, and led to calls from analysts everywhere of, "Can Huggy Bear really pull this off?"

Of course it was a bit of a pipe dream to assume the Mountaineers could win the Big XII tournament. As the bracket played out, it was clear they would have to go through Kansas and Iowa State, the two co-home-teams of the Sprint Center. But through two full games, and 17 minutes of a third, that team that had overcome so much - as well as the fans behind them - got to experience a true taste of March Madness that nobody had expected. It was an excitement that was well-deserved for a group who went through a decade of program turmoil in a four month stretch.

To recap:

• Senior guards Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles graduated, and took their 30.2 points, 9.7 assists, 7.4 rebounds, 4.3 steals - and, realistically, "Press Virginia" - with them.
• Teddy Allen transferred to Wichita State.
• Preseason all-conference Sagaba Konate tried to play through a knee injury, but ultimately made it only eight games before hanging it up for the season.
• Beetle Bolden, who was seen as the likely leader of this group, racked up a number of different injuries and eventually ended up sitting before deciding to transfer.
• Two of the remaining upperclassmen - junior Wesley Harris and the only senior, Esa Ahmad - were dismissed for violation of athletic department policies.

Photo Credit: 247sports.com

In short, WVU was down seven of their top eight leading scorers from the previous season. Lamont West was the only remaining player who had averaged more than 2 points per game the prior year.

Another statistic that won't be obvious unless someone digs a little deeper: this Mountaineers squad still managed five wins against tournament teams, three wins against teams who are currently ranked, and two wins against teams who were in the top 10 at the time they played: then-#7 Kansas, and then-#7 Texas Tech. Those who have been watching the program for decades can likely recall a time when beating a top 10 opponent was a rarity, and yet this young group managed to do it twice this season.

They went 4-6 in the 10 games since the dismissal of Ahmad and Harris. The first was a blowout at Kansas, as would be expected in that scenario. After that, they played co-champ Kansas State and were tied with under 8:00 to play; played on the road at Baylor and were leading with less than 4:00 to play; beat TCU; got down by 23 at Oklahoma before fighting back to a single digit deficit and eventually losing by 12; beat tournament champions Iowa State by 15; went to Oklahoma State and were tied with less than 8:00 to play; beat Oklahoma; beat #7 Texas Tech; and were leading Kansas by seven with a few minutes to go in the first half before running out of gas.

Photo Credit: WVUsports.com

During that stretch, it became clear that this team was nothing like the one that went 2-12 to start conference play. The effort increased, the cohesiveness of the group was apparent, and the improvement could be seen on a game by game basis. Freshmen were putting up stat lines that hadn't been done at WVU since the 70s and 80s. Derek Culver had not just one but two 21-rebound performances. Jordan McCabe, who had been averaging 15 minutes per game through the first 13 conference games, played almost 35 minutes per game over the final eight. As coach Huggins said a number of times, every game someone new stepped up. 

And along that line, perhaps the most telling statistic of all, and the one that really encompasses the group effort: over the final seven games - a stretch in which they finished 4-3 - five different players led the Mountaineers in scoring at least once.

If you had asked any WVU fan at the beginning of the season if they would be excited to watch their team play in the CBI at the end of the year, you would have been hard-pressed to find one saying yes. But after what these players have been through, they deserve to keep playing, and they deserve the support of the fans. Hopefully Mountaineer Nation packs the Coliseum for the upcoming CBI games and shows the team how much their effort has been appreciated.

After all, if the last month is any indication, it will be a long time before you'll see CBI games in Morgantown again.

WVU Basketball is Officially Off the Rails

What went wrong, and where does it go from here

Credit: Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register

Watching the Iowa State game on Saturday, I was taken back to memories from my youth when I would be sick from school. No, I don't mean the nausea (though there was plenty of that last night too). I mean the Price is Right - specifically, the Cliff Hanger game. There may be no better analogy for watching WVU basketball over the last few weeks: the slow climb to the edge of the cliff, and the accompanying feeling of helplessness to stop the inevitable fall.

Mountaineer fans are left scratching their heads. After a massive beating to start the season, the team rebounded in true Huggins fashion and rolled off 15 straight wins, climbing to number two in the polls and a projected top seed in the NCAA tournament. Halfway through the Texas Tech game, with another double-digit lead in hand, talk started to turn to Villanova's upcoming game against Butler and the potential of being ranked number one in the country. We all know where the story goes from there.

This is my attempt to sort through what has happened, what hasn't happened, and what needs to happen for this to still be a successful season.

The Good

Credit: Rachel Mummey-
USA TODAY Sports

As hard as it is to believe, there are some good things we've seen over the last six games. The obvious one is the 35-point bludgeoning of Texas. Less obviously, and more painfully, the blown leads: it takes a really good team to build 12, 16, and 17 point leads against Texas Tech, Kansas, and Kentucky, respectively, in the first place. There's no denying that the ceiling is high.

From a player standpoint, Beetle Bolden has been a bright spot over this stretch. Chase Harler has put
in some good minutes, and Logan Routt has shown major improvement. We got to see some good moments from D'Angelo Hunter over that stretch, when he had been otherwise silent the rest of the season. Even Esa Ahmad (who has been the target of blame for a lot of fans) had 17 points on 70% shooting and eight rebounds against Iowa State, easily his best offensive performance since coming back. That's a lot of experience gained in big games for our "depth" players.

Individually, at some point, all of our pieces have proven their worth during the season. The issue is they have not shown it collectively, nor consistently. 

The Bad

Oh, the bad...where to begin?

There are a lot of problems with this team. Not being able to close out games seems like a major one, but if you listen to Huggins, that's more a result of other problems than it is its own problem. 

The Iowa State game seems to confirm that, because it put to rest a lot of the excuses that were being made prior to it. The blown leads against Texas Tech and Kansas were a product of big egos and not being able to handle the moment. The loss at TCU was a result of a two day turn-around with a road trip. Kentucky? Well they are full of five star recruits, and they just out-talented our three star guys in the second half.

But Iowa State? It was a Wednesday game, not a quick turn-around. Iowa State is a bad team, possibly the worst in the conference. They were missing their best all-around player, and their roster is less talented than the Mountaineers. They scored 45 points against Tennessee on Saturday in HiltonJohn Beilein's first season.

Credit: Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register

Coliseum. And they absolutely, unabashedly tore apart West Virginia from start to finish, putting up the most points any WVU team has given up since

There is no chemistry on either side of the ball. No offense is being run, and no one is getting to their spot on defense. The scoring spurts that do come are all individual efforts - mainly Carter, Konate, or Bolden making plays to keep the rest of the team afloat.

The collection of forwards - West, Harris, Ahmad, Bender, and Allen - have been a major disappointment over this six game stretch. Each has shown flashes of brilliance at times this season, but more often than not they're seen chucking bad shots and not getting back on defense. 

And Daxter Miles has disappeared.

The assumption keeps being that one of these losses will be a wake-up call, but it's just the same nightmare over and over.

The Ugly

The post-game by Bob Huggins after the Iowa State game contained things I hadn't heard him say since the 2012-2014 stretch of bad seasons. The complete feeling of defeat, the references to guys needing to leave the program; it was reminiscent of the mass exodus when McCune, Williamson, Forsythe, Miles, Gerun, Brown, Murray, Hinds, Henderson, and Harris all transferred over a three year period. Most of those guys were good players - Harris, Henderson, Hinds, Miles, and Brown actually sound like one heck of a starting lineup - but they weren't the players that Huggins needs. They weren't Da'Sean Butler, they weren't Nathan Adrian, and they weren't Jevon Carter.

Credit: USA TODAY Sports

At 16-6 and 5-4 in the toughest conference in basketball, I don't think we're at that point yet. I feel like, in our Price is Right Cliff Hanger game, we're a dollar away from the peak with one guess to go. A loss on Saturday, though, and in seven games this team will have gone from being talked about as a one-seed to being talked about as potentially missing the tournament altogether in one of the biggest collapses in college basketball history.

The Future

Our fans owe it to our players to show up on Saturday, but the players owe it to the fans to do the same...not just Saturday, but throughout the rest of the season. 

The WVU fan base is one of the most passionate in the country, and they'll be there every step of the way if they feel the players are giving it their all. But they also share the frustration of Huggins, and many see the same lack of caring and emotion that he sees. 

Let's get back to playing for each other and playing for the state again. Like Huggins said in his post game, if your man beats you on defense, you should be mad. You should take it personally. 

Let's get back to West Virginia basketball, starting Saturday, and keep it from going over that cliff.

And, most importantly: Let's Go Mountaineers.

What We've Learned About WVU Through 15 Games

Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

It was fair to question the top 10 preseason ranking. After the first game of the season, it would have been crazy to not question it. After all, many of the key pieces from the 2016-17 Big 12 runner-up and NCAA Sweet 16 season were gone.

There was no Nate Adrian coaching from the court. Tarik Phillip and Teyvon Myers weren't coming off the bench for scoring. Elijah Macon wasn't available to provide his signature bursts of energy. And, yes, Esa Ahmad would eventually play, but who knew where WVU would stand when he finally made it back?

But the team bounced back from that embarrassing opening loss to reel off 14 straight wins (the longest streak in the country), resulting in a likely #2 ranking when the polls come out later today. As I'm sure you've heard, that's the highest ranking WVU will have had since the Jerry West era, and it's been a heck of a journey to this point.

Jevon Carter Just Keeps Getting Better

Credit: AP Photo/Raymond Thompson

Through 12 games, senior point guard Jevon Carter was already putting up historic numbers. If you plugged his points, assists, rebounds, and steals per game into the statistics database, you would have seen that no one had ever reached the level he had in those four categories since they started tracking assists in the 1980s.

Games 13 and 14 were a step back, and it was discovered later that he suffered a sprained wrist against Oklahoma State. Even in a "down" performance, he managed to not only rack up 10 assists and eight rebounds against Kansas State, but he held his man scoreless from the floor on 0-10 shooting. All of this was setting up for a showdown with the best offensive player in the country: Oklahoma's Trae Young.

Young spent two hours being harassed by Carter and the rest of the Mountaineer defense. He was visibly flustered all game, and his frustration led to him forcing bad shot after bad shot. Young left Morgantown with a loss thanks to his worst shooting percentage, assist total, and turnover total for the season. Meanwhile, despite sitting for almost a full 10 minutes in the second half due to foul trouble (and at least one questionable call), Carter still managed 17 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds, and three steals. He surely would have had a 20/10/10 night if he was able to stay in the game.

The Rest of the Team Has Grown

The scariest thought going into the Oklahoma game was Carter getting into foul trouble and having to sit for an extended period. Only a few minutes into the second half, that thought became reality. Fortunately, the rest of the team picked up the slack. Not only did they not let Oklahoma take over the game, they actually built on the lead during the time Carter was out.

Sagaba Konate put up 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds, along with a whopping five blocks. He was perfect from the free throw line, and all five of his made shots came while Carter was out.

Lamont West hit some big threes early, as well as knocking down an important long two and all of his free throws down the stretch on his way to 17 points.

Credit: Photo courtesy of WVU

The big story - as it has been since conference play started - was freshman Teddy Allen. Allen played 24 minutes and scored 20 points, shooting 82% from the field and going 2-2 at the line. He's now managed 57 points (19.0 points per game) in 59 minutes (19.7 minutes per game) during conference play, hitting 70.5% of his shots from the field and 90% from the stripe. His 0.996 points-per-minute mark in conference is even better than Trae Young's impressive 0.877. It's likely his playing time will continue to increase as the season progresses.

The Road Doesn't Get Any "Esa"-ier

While Esa Ahmad's return is great news, the next few weeks aren't going to get any easier. Baylor comes to town on Tuesday night, and Ahmad's return will coincide with what could be a top 10 road match up against the red-hot Red Raiders of Texas Tech on Saturday. Assuming WVU can get through those two battles, they'll be rewarded with facing a hungry (and talented) Kansas team for Big Monday two days later, followed by Texas, a road game at TCU, and back home for Kentucky. The last thing the Mountaineers want is to go on a 3-3 or 2-4 slide after the momentum gained from Saturday's win.

The other discussion surrounding the return of Ahmad is how he will be integrated into the game plan. Obviously he is one of the most physically gifted players on the roster, and he was the second leading scorer last year, so he will get minutes. However, the team has won 14 in a row with him on the bench, and there is something to be said for chemistry, especially for a group like this where "team" is the name of the game. The last thing Bob Huggins will want to do is disrupt something that has been working so well, but if anyone can make it a smooth transition, it's Coach Huggins.

Credit: Ben Queen, USA TODAY Sports

Predictions

The Baylor game should be a win. I think the Texas Tech game will be a hard-fought loss. The team should rebound and beat Kansas and Texas at home, as well as TCU on the road. That would put them at 18-2 (7-1) when Kentucky comes to town, and still in the top 10. My feeling is that Esa will be quiet in his return until the Kentucky game, and it will be that game where he comes to life again.

I hope I'm wrong about Texas Tech, and I hope I'm right about the rest. But there's one prediction I'm fully confident about: no one is going to want any part of the Mountaineers at full strength when March rolls around.

West, Carter Come Up Big to Take Down "East Virginia"

Photo Credit: BlueGoldNews.com

Jevon Carter is just better than everyone else.

After last night's performance against the Virginia Cavaliers, there's no other way to say it. He's going to overcome whoever and whatever the other team throws at him.

Carter led both teams with 23 points, which isn't surprising. He led both teams with seven assists, which also isn't shocking. He tied for the most steals, which is only surprising in that he wasn't alone at the top of that column. What may be most impressive, though, is that he also led all players - both teams - in rebounds (10).

His 23 points combined with 22 from Lamont West and 12 from Daxter Miles to account for 57 of WVU's 68 points. Wesley Harris added five more, while Beetle Bolden provided the only bench scoring with six, knocking down two of three from behind the arc.

It was an especially good game for West, who shot 44.4% from three, was a perfect 4-4 at the line, and collected four rebounds while tying for the second highest point total of his career.

Photo Credit: Associated Press

West's points showed up in a lot of key moments, including 10 in the final 6:02 of the game. After back to back three pointers by Virginia's Kyle Guy to tie the game at 51-51, West drained a three of his own to push it back to 54-51. After another by Guy a minute later to tie it at 56-56, West knocked down a tough jumper to retake the lead 58-56. Guy missed his next attempt, but West kept laying it on and hit one more to extend the lead to 61-56. He also added two clutch free throws to help close out the game. It was the kind of gutty performance we saw from Lamont repeatedly throughout the 2016-17 season.

Photo Credit: BlueGoldNews.com

Sagaba Konate played 34 minutes and was held scoreless, though he pulled down eight rebounds and recorded two blocks. He also had a third block that was whistled for goal-tending, though the replay clearly showed the ball was still on its way up. It was one of a number of questionable calls throughout the game.

The team's lack of depth showed itself in this game, resulting in the starters playing 172 out of 200 minutes and accounting for all but six points, three rebounds, and one steal. This may be indicative of how Coach Huggins plans to operate in close games until Esa Ahmad makes it back.

In the meantime, it's nice to see different guys stepping up when others are having an off night. With Konate going scoreless and Miles shooting 4-13 from the field and 1-6 from three, West took it upon himself to help Carter carry the load. We've now seen that from Bolden, Miles, Konate, Harris, and West already this season.

But there are at least 23 teams this season who are going to watch one guy outwork and outplay them for 40 minutes. They're going to remember Jevon Carter.

Carter, Miles Showed the Definition of Senior Leadership in Comeback Win

It may not seem like a huge win - West Virginia was ranked and an eight point favorite - but the comeback win against Missouri is the kind of game that can set the tone for a season.

For starters, it prevents a second early loss, and it keeps WVU's impressive streak of being ranked alive. It also is another early season tournament victory, and the feeling of lifting any trophy is positive in itself.

But there is much more that comes from this win than just another game in the "W" column; we learned a lot about this team in the process.

Jevon Carter is Who We Thought He Was

Source: Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire
via Getty Images

The go-ahead three pointer in the final minute was massive. It was massive for the game, and it was even more massive for Carter, who without a doubt still remembers how last season ended. Having the confidence to pull up and take that shot ("semi-contested" as the announcers discussed earlier in the game) shows that, regardless of what happened last year, Jevon knows he can be the guy. What 

makes him truly great, though, was what started the run seven minutes earlier.

With 7:38 to play and Missouri holding a 16 point lead, Wesley Harris missed a shot and the Tigers got the rebound. It looked like a loss was inevitable. But Carter did what he does: he pressured the ball, got a steal, and laid it in at the other end. The next three possessions for Missouri resulted in three more turnovers, culminating in a frustration foul and a technical. Four made free throws later, the 16 point deficit had been cut in half in exactly 60 seconds.

The most incredible stretch, though, was the one from 4:48 to 4:09 left in the game after Missouri had expanded their lead back to 11. Carter racked up three steals and six points - steal, free throws, steal, jumper, steal, layup - in those 39 seconds to pull the Mountaineers within five. Simply amazing.

The Other Half of the Dynamic Duo

Daxter Miles has shown flashes of greatness over his three-plus years at West Virginia. Listening to Huggins in post game interviews over the years, he's been open with his frustration after games where Dax just didn't show up. After putting up 23 points in the regular season finale against Iowa State last year, he turned around and scored 16 total in three games in the Big 12 tournament. In the NCAA tournament he scored two points against Bucknell before going off for 18 against Notre Dame. Then, in the final game against Gonzaga, he shot 3-11 from the field and went 0-2 at the line.

The simple fact is, this team needs Miles to be great. Outside of Carter and Miles, it's a bunch of freshmen and sophomores still getting their feet under them. There is no doubt Carter is Batman, but he needs his Robin to show up consistently. And in this game, he was great.

After starting the season shooting 63% from the line, Dax made 14 of 15 free throws against Missouri. Those extra five made free throws above his average were the difference in a win and a loss. His impact went well beyond the free throw line, though.

Miles added two steals, a couple of buckets (including a very tough contested shot), and a clutch rebound during WVU's late run, and his energy boosted the entire team. He finished the game with 26 points, five rebounds, four steals, two assists, and only one turnover.

The Youngsters Can Step Up Too

Sagaba Konate is a shot blocking machine. Through his first five games of the season (remember he didn't play against American) he'd racked up 19 blocks, which was good for top five in the country in blocks per game. Despite only registering one against Missouri, he still sits tied for eighth nationally.

Beyond the blocking, just the presence of Konate underneath the basket is enough to affect the game. Against Long Beach State, for example, after getting two huge blocks in the first half, the 49ers turned it over two more times soon after because they didn't want to get swatted again.

Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, early foul trouble and a late technical meant playing most of this game without their only real force under the basket. Luckily his fellow young teammates picked up the slack. Teddy Allen gave 11 good minutes, scoring eight points. Chase Harler played relentless defense, though it didn't show up on the stat sheet.

Wesley Harris was the biggest contributor, and he showed why he's earned a spot in the starting lineup. Harris was one point away from a double-double, putting up nine points to go with 10 rebounds (three offensive), three steals, an assist, and a block. Two points, two rebounds, and the block all came in the final three minutes of the game.

Source: AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack

Finding Ways to Win

On a night when nothing went right for 30-plus minutes, and without much contribution from two key players - Konate and Beetle Bolden, who have both been outstanding this year - the Mountaineers found a way to overcome a 16 point deficit late in the fourth quarter and come away with a victory.

Huggins still has a lot of work in front of him this season, but as he's said in the past, it's always better to learn lessons while winning games than to learn them while losing (which was a trademark of the Harris-Henderson-Miles era). 

One thing is for sure, though: our senior guards are as good as advertised (if not better), and they have what it takes to carry this group to another successful season.

An Early and Unexpected Goodbye

After it was announced that Jevon Carter would be coming back for his senior season, there was an almost audible sigh of relief around the program. It appeared that the storm had calmed and that the team would be as intact as possible heading into 2017-18.

Unfortunately, though, news broke today that Elijah Macon will not be returning this upcoming season and has opted to turn pro instead.

AP Photo

Macon had the definition of a rough start to his college career. He was ranked first in the state of Ohio and 45th overall as a senior, with a grade of 94 by Scout. He was coming off of two AAU national championships, and both he and WVU had big expectations for him.

But after transferring to Huntington Prep for his senior year of high school 2011-12, Macon had to spend the 2012-13 season in prep school and then spent the 2013-14 season at WVU as a "partial qualifier" which kept him from even being able to practice with the team. It wasn't until the 2014-15 season that he was able to make it on the court for the Mountaineers, and it was around that time that he lost his mother to breast cancer.

The guy that coach Huggins affectionately calls "Eli" in his press conferences has matured as a man as well as a player as he's worn the gold and blue, and losing both Eli and Teyvon Myers in the same season is going to be a brutal blow to the enthusiasm, leadership, and energy on the team. The two of them could always be seen propping up their teammates and cheering louder than anyone else in the arena.

Additionally, Macon really started to find his groove on the court. He averaged more than 16 minutes, 6 points, and 4 rebounds per game on the season, but that increased to 23 minutes, 9.4 points, and 6.4 rebounds over the final 11 games (including 17 points and 12 rebounds in a crucial double-overtime win against Texas Tech). He drastically improved his field goal percentage and free throw percentage, and he took over a handful of games when the team desperately needed someone to step up.

He "got in the gym". He "put in work". He was everything Huggins wants in a player. Knowing that there was one too many scholarship players on the team, it was clear that someone on the roster wouldn't be around next year. I can't say for sure one way or the other, but it wouldn't surprise me if Macon stepping away right as he was poised to take on a larger role was just one more selfless act as a Mountaineer, making way for the next generation.

We're proud of you Eli. Thanks for everything.

Jevon Carter should be leading candidate for 2017-18 Big XII POY

In discussions with fans of other teams at the Big 12 Tournament this year, the same question kept coming up, and the response was always the same:

Source: Cooper Neill/Getty Images North America

"Is Carter a senior this year?"

"Nope, junior."

"Seriously? Dang. Seems like he's been there forever."

There are those players every year in the conference that feel like they've been playing for an eternity. This year it was guys like Phil Forte and Frank Mason. Last year, Georges Niang and Rico Gathers. They're the guys that get a lot of attention, and deservedly so. Jevon Carter already feels that way for a lot of Big 12 fans, and - unfortunately for them - he will be back for another round next season.

If you have listened to the post-game interviews that Coach Huggins has with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs, his reasoning for Carter's success is pretty simple. "He gets in the gym." Likewise, when some of the other players are struggling, Huggins typically points out that their gym time is lacking. The amount of time and energy that Carter has spent working on his game is astounding, and that hard work has yielded results:

• Carter finished in the top 20 in the Big 12 for points (#11), assists (#9), steals (#1), free throw percentage (#10), three-point percentage (#7), and, most surprisingly for a point guard, rebounds (#19).
• In addition to leading the Big 12, he ranked sixth nationally in steals for the 2016-17 season.
• He was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, Second Team All-Big 12, and was on the Big 12 All-Defensive Team for the third straight year.

Not bad for a lightly recruited three-star player listed as the 67th ranked PG in his recruiting class.

As WVU fans know, not all players buy into what Bob Huggins is selling. It's not easy, to say the least, and there isn't a lot of glamour involved in relentless defense. Most of today's four- and five-star recruits don't spend much time playing lock-down defense coming up through AAU. The success of Press Virginia depends heavily on finding guys like Carter who are willing to put in what it takes to go from good to great; the kind who go to the scorer's table after a game not to see how many points they scored, but how many steals they racked up.

Source: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images North America

In addition to his defensive success, Carter quietly became a major offensive weapon down the stretch this season, and the Oklahoma State game in Morgantown was apparently a catalyst for that change. Since that February 4th loss, he averaged 16.5 points per game, going 50% or better from behind the arc nine of those 14 games. Through the Oklahoma State game, he was averaging only 11.7 points per game. That loss seemed to drive him to push his game to yet another level.

So here is an elite defender who is well on his way to becoming a force on the offensive end, has an entire off-season to improve on both, and has a work ethic that is virtually unmatched. That sounds like a pretty good recipe for Big 12 Player of the Year. Monte Morris and Naz Long will be gone for Iowa State. Frank Mason will be gone for Kansas. Jawun Evans is leaving Oklahoma State. And, maybe most importantly, Carter is already on everyone's radar going into the season thanks to a stellar junior year.

For all of the articles, columns, and interviews about Jevon's drive and dedication this season, not one sums it up better than a Facebook post made by his mom after he returned to campus following Thursday's Sweet 16 loss to Gonzaga. In it she said that while she thought he might finally take some time to relax with the guys, he in fact was going to the gym to shoot around in the middle of the night. When she pointed out to him that he doesn't have a game tomorrow, his response was simple: "Gonzaga does."

That's Jevon Carter.