MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - With All-Big 12 guard Tynice Martin still on the mend from a foot injury sustained at the USA Basketball U23 Team Trials last August, West Virginia women's basketball coach Mike Carey wasn't sure where his points were going to come from at the start of this season.
 
At the end of last year, he knew where they were coming from - Martin.
 
She exploded for 32 points in West Virginia's Big 12 championship game victory over favored Baylor, prompting this from Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, "Very few times in 31 years of coaching … can I think of one player who took her team on her shoulders and won three games, and Tynice Martin did that," she said. "She did it every game here. She'd just elevate over people and make shots."
 
On the basis of Martin's late-season performance and her anticipated return at some point this year, West Virginia figured prominently in the minds of top 25 voters at the start of season. The Mountaineers started 13^th by the writers and 15^th by the coaches.
 
Well this week, undefeated West Virginia remains in the rankings without Martin because senior forward Teana Muldrow has picked this team up and put it on her shoulders, just like Martin did during last year's Big 12 tournament.
 
Teana scored 30 in the Mountaineers' season opening win against Central Connecticut State, and she's continued to score in subsequent victories over Sacramento State, North Florida, Butler, Drexel and Virginia Tech.
 
In WVU's most recent game against the Hokies, Muldrow scored 23 in an easier-than-expected, 18-point victory to capture the Paradise Jam Classic title in Melbourne, Florida.
 
Muldrow is averaging 23.8 points per game, which ranks fourth in the country this week behind only Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell (27.3), Texas Southern's Joyce Kennerson (24.6) and South Carolina's A'Ja Wilson (24.5).
 
Her lowest scoring output was 18 points in the Mountaineers' seven-point victory over 4-4 Butler. She is shooting 58.4 percent from the floor, 36.8 percent from 3 and is also pulling down a team-best 9.5 rebounds per game.
 
Muldrow's start to the season has been surprising to most, except to her.
 
"I've always been a scorer," she said earlier this week.
 
Even when paired with Myisha Hines-Allen, now at Louisville, and Imani Tilford, now at Georgia Tech, in AAU basketball, Muldrow's teams always ran offense through her.
 
Then, when she came to West Virginia after also considering offers from Florida State, Oklahoma, Pitt, Kentucky and Florida, Bria Holmes was already here to score most of the points.
 
When Holmes left for the WNBA, it was Martin who blew up.
 
"Tynice played a regular freshman role and came off the bench, and Bria was still the thing here," Muldrow recalled. "Then, when she left Tynice just blew up, which she should have, because she's put in a lot of work."
 
Now, it's Muldrow's turn to do the blowing up. Her unique combination of quickness, power, ball handling and outside shooting make her a difficult matchup for opposing players.
 
Injuries and a lack of depth have forced her to play inside where she has no trouble scoring over players her size. Her big point totals so far this year against Central Connecticut State, Sacramento State and Drexel have come against much smaller front lines.
 
But the 6-foot-1 forward also scored 23 against Virginia Tech, which had 6-3 Regan Magarity manning the post. That's more in line with what Muldrow is going to face in stiffer tests coming up at 18^th-ranked Texas A&M this Sunday, against Pitt next Thursday night and certainly in the Big 12 with Baylor, Texas, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and the like.
 
"Even though I'm undersized (in the post) I have the strength of a five so that helps me out," Muldrow explained. "I can body up and be physical but sometimes when they just lob there's nothing I can do."
 
Defending bigger post players is when Muldrow has had trouble staying on the floor because she frequently gets into foul trouble.
 
Carey is hopeful that can be fixed in a couple of weeks when 6-foot-6-inch Ohio State transfer Theresa Ekhelar becomes eligible for West Virginia's Dec. 16 game against Radford in Charleston. That also just happens to be Muldrow's birthday, which could be the best present she's going to receive because Ekhelar could allow Muldrow to play more power forward, her natural position.
 
"She plays hard and hustles so she will give us something," Muldrow said of Ekhelar.
 
Muldrow said she had to learn those attributes the hard way. Because she was always the best player on her teams, defense was only a means to an end for her.
 
With Mike Carey, defense is the beginning, the middle and the end.
 
"Some people learn the easy way and some people learn the hard way," Muldrow said. "Some people learned by getting yelled at in practice and some people have to go out and play and see, 'Okay, I just got beat three times …' I learned the hard way. I learned that getting beat on defense is going to get me taken out. So, when I went back in I realized I needed to put my nose on the ball and play defense. I thought getting yelled at he was just mad, but I definitely learned the hard way."
 
Muldrow admits the yelling was tough to take at first.
 
"I never got yelled at much and I never knew what real defense was because I just blocked everything in high school," she explained. "It just comes with maturity. In college it's not always going to work out for you. Period. You have to be an adult and grow up. That was the only option for me. It was either buy in to playing defense or you just sit there and not do what you came to college to do, which is not a good feeling."
 
Ironically, Muldrow's willingness to play defense the way Mike Carey expects his players to play defense has made her a much better offensive player.
 
Why?
 
Because she's not getting yanked out of games when the person she's guarding scores.
 
"I second-guessed myself, for sure, but the coaches always say once he stops caring (which means yelling) then you should be worried," Muldrow said. "I just didn't want it to get to that point so I always stayed coachable and I wanted him to push me at the same time.
 
"I had to look in the mirror and say 'grow up. He's not going to change because he's been doing this for 20-plus years with the same system, so he's not going to change his whole system for one player,'" she continued. "It's either grow up and be an adult or this is just not the place for me - and I always loved everything about this school."
 
So Muldrow chose to grow up, and now her college career is beginning to blow up.
 
On Sunday night, we're going to get a better read where Muldrow and her 11^th-ranked Mountaineers are facing the 4-1 Texas A&M Aggies, whose only loss came against 10^th-ranked Oregon.
 
"I think the Florida trip really helped us see where we're at," Muldrow said. "I think the first five we've got it to the point where it's just us against them every game. We didn't know which matchups worked well or who could play with who. I think (JC transfer) Naomi Davenport is fitting well into the system with four veterans on the floor with her.
 
"I think we're really going to see what we're made of (Sunday)," Muldrow added. "They're ranked and we're going to their place. Usually, when you go away you already feel like everyone is against you. You're not in your comfort zone."
 
If Teana Muldrow is out of her comfort zone at Texas A&M that will be a first because she's been in her comfort zone in every game so far this year.
 
All you need to do is look at this week's NCAA stats for proof of that.