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.

Why this season was better than you probably think (and why it's good that you don't realize it)

Photo credit: NCAA.com

I hear similar comments on a regular basis between September and March: "As a WVU fan, I'm used to it." Unfortunately for Mountaineer fans, coming up short of a championship is all too familiar.

The loss to Notre Dame when Major got hurt. The meltdown against Pitt that cost a chance at a title when Pat got hurt. The blown 20-point lead against Louisville in the Elite Eight, which at the time felt like we blew maybe the only chance we would have at a Final Four. And of course the Final Four, where the lasting memory for most fans is watching one of the most beloved players in Mountaineer history go down with a gruesome knee injury.

But as I looked at game recaps and read through fan comments after Thursday's loss, I realized we have changed as a fan base. This is a program that used to be thrilled to make the tournament. Beating a ranked team was a celebration in itself, and three or four in a season was an incredible year. Then John Beilein came along and started making us believe we could make tournament runs: Sweet 16s, an Elite Eight. And just as he really got things rolling, he took off for Michigan, and (for a few hours at least) we thought it was over.

It was a decade ago, but I can remember it clearly - I was in my living room at college my senior year when I heard the announcement that eased all concerns: Coach Bob Huggins was coming home to Morgantown.

The early success was awesome. A Sweet 16 the first year, followed by 23 wins and a tournament appearance the second year. Huggins' third season brought WVU's first ever Big East Tournament championship and its first Final Four in half a century. The recruiting classes looked good, and the future looked bright.

By the 2012-2013 season, Beilein's players were gone, and the new crop was looking like the basketball equivalent of Saved By the Bell: The New Class. The casual fans panicked when they saw a mass exodus of players following two down years. Some were concerned with the fact that Huggins was yet to win with his own recruits. Many who had been paying attention, though, didn't lose much sleep. Guys like Eron Harris and Terry Henderson - while talented - weren't WVU. They weren't "West Virginia". But did Huggins still have it? Could he adapt? Could he find "his players"?

That's when Press Virginia was born.

Utilizing two very passionate, very dedicated guards in Juwan Staten and Gary Browne, Huggins introduced an entirely new system that boiled down, at its simplest, to outworking and out-hustling opponents. There is nothing more "West Virginia" than that. 2014-15 proved successful, as the team advanced past Buffalo and Maryland to the Sweet 16. Last year, following a second place finish in the Big XII and runner up in the Big XII tournament, the season ended with a disappointing first round exit.

Coming into this season, expectations were higher. The team was more focused. A lot of minutes and scoring returned, and there was a hunger to prove the early exit was a fluke. For the most part, those expectations were reached. Despite what you'll read in the comment sections online, a second place regular season finish, runner up in the conference tournament, and making the Sweet 16 is a good season.

But how good?

The best season in program history is obviously the 1959 season - Jerry West carried the team all the way to the final game and almost pulled out a win. It's the closest WVU has been to a championship in the "big two" sports.

Number two on the list is also obvious, the 2010 season - the most wins in a season ever, a Big East Tournament title, and the program's only other Final Four.

At number three, it starts to get a little less clear, but I think that position has to go to the 2005 season. That team only went 8-8 in conference (T-7th) and 24-11 overall, but the win over Wake Forest in the second round will be remembered forever, and it's the only other Elite Eight in the school's history.

This brings me to my point: By my calculation, this season was the fourth best in the history of West Virginia basketball. It is one of only five other seasons with a Sweet 16 appearance since the expansion to 64/68 teams. Add to that the second place finishes in the regular season and conference tournament, wins over #1 and #2 ranked teams by a combined 37 points, and topped off with an out of conference road win against a 5 seed and a regular season sweep of another 5 seed - it's tough to come up with another better season.

So, how good? Almost unarguably top five, most likely top four, and if you wanted to argue that it's number three in terms of overall success (record, quality wins, conference tournament, NCAA tournament), you wouldn't get much push-back from me.

Yet if you read comments by WVU fans, there are all kinds of complaints:

We can't shoot. (Fact: WVU had six players shoot 38% or better from outside the arc, with four at 40% or better. We were also leading all teams - all 68 teams - in three-point percentage through the first two rounds of the tournament.)

Credit: Big12Sports.com

We are terrible at free throws. (Fact: WVU finished second in the Big 12 in free throw percentage in conference play.)

We choke in big games. (I guess this means other than Virginia, Kansas, Baylor, Iowa State, Notre Dame, etc.)

We need to get rid of Huggins. (As dumb as this sounds, there are "those people" out there.)

So why the negativity? As it turns out, our fans now expect to win. They expect to win every game, and they expect to make a deep run every tournament.

And yes, that gets annoying.
And yes, it's unrealistic.
And yes, it's unfair to Huggins and our players.

But it's also a testament to the success this program has had in recent history. Our fans have gotten used to winning. We are climbing the ladder as a national power.

WVU has had six Sweet 16 appearances in the last 13 years - there are only eight schools with more. With four of five starters returning and guys like West, Konate, and Bolden on deck, don't be surprised if we see the seventh in 14 next year.

And don't be surprised when a lot of fans still aren't happy with anything less than a title.