Photo by: Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images
Men’s Basketball Notebook
February 10, 2020 06:15 PM | Men's Basketball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Late last month, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins covered a variety of topics before his team's game against Kansas State. Some of the stuff Huggins talked about that afternoon you've probably already read while other things he discussed are still resting in people's camera phones and mini recorders.
Tucked deep inside my phone was Huggins' thoughts on the style of play we are seeing in the college game today.
It's looking more and more like the NBA every day.
"The guys who are making the decisions above us are so misinformed," Huggins began. "They think because the NBA has increased scoring it has increased its viewership. That's not what has increased their viewership. What increased their viewership is they stopped pitting one game against another. You don't ever have two NBA games on at the same time where you may have five or six college games on at the same time.
"Why are our numbers down?" Huggins continued. "There are so many games going on. Those people think the NBA has got it going on and they've got it right. They have it right in that they're not pitting one game against another like we are."
Consequently, according to Huggins, the emphasis on scoring has made the college game more frenetic and disorganized.
"So now we lower the (shot) clock more and the lower you make the clock the more bad shots you're going to see and the more turnovers you're going to see," he explained. "What do you have? You ball screen. What do they do in the NBA? They ball screen."
That's what the college game is turning into, a ball screen game with less passing and fewer offensive sets.
I recall years ago former West Virginia coach Gale Catlett borrowing a play that Indiana ran with Steve Alford to beat Syracuse in the 1987 national championship game. It involved Alford running from one side of the floor to the other past a series of screeners and the ball rotating from one side to the other to get Alford an open look on the wing.
If the defender came out to cover him then he dumped it off to a forward or center close to the basket.
Catlett used that play to take advantage of guard Chris Leonard's great outside shooting abilities.
You could run sets like that back then because you had enough time to do it. And if the play was covered, you could reset your offense and try something else and still have enough time to get a good look.
Today, a play like that would be nearly impossible to run because of the reduced shot clock.
The way teams put pressure on the ball, it takes 10 to 15 seconds just to get into position to run a play, which means roughly half of the shot clock has already expired. If the set is well-defended, which more often than not it will be today because of video-tape study, advanced scouting and analytics, you are looking at barely enough time to get off a good shot at the basket.
So what do teams do – and what we are going to see on Wednesday from third-ranked Kansas, which is now using a four-guard lineup – a high ball screen, penetrate and pitch or go straight to the rim.
That's basically the college game today in 12 words or less.
"Our game has changed so drastically," Huggins admitted. "Every time I see a preview for the Final Four now they always show Georgetown and Villanova (from the 1985 championship game). Well, (Villanova) never shot the freaking ball! And that's one of the all-time great games."
If the current rules with the shot clock were in place back then, Huggins believes Georgetown would have beaten the Wildcats by 30 points or more.
Interesting.
Here is something you might have a hard time wrapping your arms around. Do you realize that this year's team is shooting BETTER than the Mountaineer team that reached the Final Four in 2010?
Can you believe that?
Well it's true.
The 2010 squad shot an even 43 percent from the floor for the season while this year's team is presently shooting at a 43.2 percent clip.
After watching West Virginia miss 52 shots during last Saturday's loss at Oklahoma – four more than the Sooners attempted for the entire game – that's simply hard to fathom.
Something else hard to fathom was Da'Sean Butler's shooting percentage during WVU's 31-win season. The All-American guard shot 41.4 percent from the floor while his backcourt mate Truck Bryant, only a freshman that season, shot 34.6 percent.
The difference between the two teams was behind the arc. The 2010 club shot 33.7 percent behind a slightly-closer 3-point line while this year's team is converting a shade above 30 percent at 30.3.
Do those extra 17 inches make that much difference?
Who knows?
There is this from the Hayes Gardner of the Louisville Courier Journal from earlier this year. According to Gardner, college basketball is on pace to shoot lower than 33.9 percent from 3-point distance this year. That figure represents the lowest overall 3-point shooting percentage in college basketball history, which dates back to the introduction of the 3-point line in 1987.
Three-point accuracy was hovering around 35 percent for the last couple of years before the line moved back.
Derek Culver might be the most statistically consistent basketball player in WVU history.
Last year in 26 games as a freshman, the 6-foot-10 forward shot 103-of-226 from the floor for 45.6 percent and 93-of-159 from the free throw line for 58.5 percent.
In roughly the same amount of games so far this year, Culver has made 83-of-182 from the floor for 45.6 percent, but he's slightly off from the free throw line, hitting 82-of-143 for 57.3 percent.
Therefore, based on his sample size, it's safe to assume Culver is going to make about 46 percent of his field goal attempts and about 58 percent of his free throws.
Last Saturday's 10-point loss at Oklahoma was not too damaging. West Virginia dropped just one spot in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll at No. 14. The Mountaineers are also No. 14 in this week's coaches' poll.
In the NET rankings, WVU checks in at No. 9 this week.
This year's team has something else in common with the Final Four team in 2010 – sellouts. Wednesday's game against Kansas was announced a sellout earlier today, giving the Mountaineers six sellouts so far for the year.
West Virginia is averaging 11,871 fans per game, which is roughly 500 per game off the school-record 12,377 West Virginia averaged in 2010.
Some of this will be made up in the remaining four home games against Kansas, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Baylor, but probably not all of it.
It's more realistic to expect WVU to average roughly 12,000 fans per game for the season – which has only been done just twice - in 2010 and 2018 (12,304).
This will also be the sixth straight year the Mountaineers have averaged more than 10,000 fans per game, which has never happened before in the 49-year history of the building.
And finally, according to an email sent to me by Rene Henry, former Mountaineer cager and baseball player Ron LaNeve has not missed a home basketball game since 1981. Including his days as a player in the mid-1950s, that's more than 500 West Virginia home games!
We'll see you and Ron LaNeve at the Coliseum on Wednesday night!
Tucked deep inside my phone was Huggins' thoughts on the style of play we are seeing in the college game today.
It's looking more and more like the NBA every day.
"The guys who are making the decisions above us are so misinformed," Huggins began. "They think because the NBA has increased scoring it has increased its viewership. That's not what has increased their viewership. What increased their viewership is they stopped pitting one game against another. You don't ever have two NBA games on at the same time where you may have five or six college games on at the same time.
"Why are our numbers down?" Huggins continued. "There are so many games going on. Those people think the NBA has got it going on and they've got it right. They have it right in that they're not pitting one game against another like we are."
Consequently, according to Huggins, the emphasis on scoring has made the college game more frenetic and disorganized.
"So now we lower the (shot) clock more and the lower you make the clock the more bad shots you're going to see and the more turnovers you're going to see," he explained. "What do you have? You ball screen. What do they do in the NBA? They ball screen."
That's what the college game is turning into, a ball screen game with less passing and fewer offensive sets.
I recall years ago former West Virginia coach Gale Catlett borrowing a play that Indiana ran with Steve Alford to beat Syracuse in the 1987 national championship game. It involved Alford running from one side of the floor to the other past a series of screeners and the ball rotating from one side to the other to get Alford an open look on the wing.
If the defender came out to cover him then he dumped it off to a forward or center close to the basket.
Catlett used that play to take advantage of guard Chris Leonard's great outside shooting abilities.
You could run sets like that back then because you had enough time to do it. And if the play was covered, you could reset your offense and try something else and still have enough time to get a good look.
Today, a play like that would be nearly impossible to run because of the reduced shot clock.
The way teams put pressure on the ball, it takes 10 to 15 seconds just to get into position to run a play, which means roughly half of the shot clock has already expired. If the set is well-defended, which more often than not it will be today because of video-tape study, advanced scouting and analytics, you are looking at barely enough time to get off a good shot at the basket.
So what do teams do – and what we are going to see on Wednesday from third-ranked Kansas, which is now using a four-guard lineup – a high ball screen, penetrate and pitch or go straight to the rim.
That's basically the college game today in 12 words or less.
"Our game has changed so drastically," Huggins admitted. "Every time I see a preview for the Final Four now they always show Georgetown and Villanova (from the 1985 championship game). Well, (Villanova) never shot the freaking ball! And that's one of the all-time great games."
If the current rules with the shot clock were in place back then, Huggins believes Georgetown would have beaten the Wildcats by 30 points or more.
Interesting.
***
Here is something you might have a hard time wrapping your arms around. Do you realize that this year's team is shooting BETTER than the Mountaineer team that reached the Final Four in 2010?Can you believe that?
Well it's true.
The 2010 squad shot an even 43 percent from the floor for the season while this year's team is presently shooting at a 43.2 percent clip.
After watching West Virginia miss 52 shots during last Saturday's loss at Oklahoma – four more than the Sooners attempted for the entire game – that's simply hard to fathom.
Something else hard to fathom was Da'Sean Butler's shooting percentage during WVU's 31-win season. The All-American guard shot 41.4 percent from the floor while his backcourt mate Truck Bryant, only a freshman that season, shot 34.6 percent.
The difference between the two teams was behind the arc. The 2010 club shot 33.7 percent behind a slightly-closer 3-point line while this year's team is converting a shade above 30 percent at 30.3.
Do those extra 17 inches make that much difference?
Who knows?
There is this from the Hayes Gardner of the Louisville Courier Journal from earlier this year. According to Gardner, college basketball is on pace to shoot lower than 33.9 percent from 3-point distance this year. That figure represents the lowest overall 3-point shooting percentage in college basketball history, which dates back to the introduction of the 3-point line in 1987.
Three-point accuracy was hovering around 35 percent for the last couple of years before the line moved back.
***
Derek Culver might be the most statistically consistent basketball player in WVU history.Last year in 26 games as a freshman, the 6-foot-10 forward shot 103-of-226 from the floor for 45.6 percent and 93-of-159 from the free throw line for 58.5 percent.
In roughly the same amount of games so far this year, Culver has made 83-of-182 from the floor for 45.6 percent, but he's slightly off from the free throw line, hitting 82-of-143 for 57.3 percent.
Therefore, based on his sample size, it's safe to assume Culver is going to make about 46 percent of his field goal attempts and about 58 percent of his free throws.
***
Last Saturday's 10-point loss at Oklahoma was not too damaging. West Virginia dropped just one spot in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll at No. 14. The Mountaineers are also No. 14 in this week's coaches' poll.
In the NET rankings, WVU checks in at No. 9 this week.
***
This year's team has something else in common with the Final Four team in 2010 – sellouts. Wednesday's game against Kansas was announced a sellout earlier today, giving the Mountaineers six sellouts so far for the year.
West Virginia is averaging 11,871 fans per game, which is roughly 500 per game off the school-record 12,377 West Virginia averaged in 2010.
Some of this will be made up in the remaining four home games against Kansas, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Baylor, but probably not all of it.
It's more realistic to expect WVU to average roughly 12,000 fans per game for the season – which has only been done just twice - in 2010 and 2018 (12,304).
This will also be the sixth straight year the Mountaineers have averaged more than 10,000 fans per game, which has never happened before in the 49-year history of the building.
***
And finally, according to an email sent to me by Rene Henry, former Mountaineer cager and baseball player Ron LaNeve has not missed a home basketball game since 1981. Including his days as a player in the mid-1950s, that's more than 500 West Virginia home games!
We'll see you and Ron LaNeve at the Coliseum on Wednesday night!
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's BasketballTV Highlights: WVU 74, UCF 67
Saturday, February 14
Ross Hodge | UCF Postgame
Saturday, February 14
United Bank Playbook: UCF Preview
Friday, February 13
Ross Hodge | UCF Preview
Thursday, February 12
