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.