College Basketball Power 10: Louisville Cardinals Get Statement Win
By Jeremy Karll
10. West Virginia (11-1)
West Virginia continued to roll last week with wins over Radford and UMKC by a combined 58 points. It gives them seven straight wins since their only loss of the season thus far and a fifth straight win by more than 20 points.
The Big 12 has a lot of good teams this year, but West Virginia might have the most depth in the conference. Everyone on their roster has played in at least nine games, which also is telling of how many blowout wins they’ve had, and nine players average at least 11 minutes per game.
It’s led to West Virginia being arguably the best statistical team in the country. They score the fifth-most points per game, allow the seventh-fewest points per game, own the third-best offensive rating in the nation and best defensive rating.
The biggest knock on them is that they lost to a good, but not great, Temple team and their only impressive win is against Virginia. Illinois is West Virginia’s only other Power Five opponent this year, and the Illini are a mediocre team in the Big Ten.
West Virginia could be a legitimate top-five team in the nation or barely in the top 20, but, either way, they’ve played as well as any team against mid-majors this year.
West Virginia will start Big 12 play with a tough game on the road in Stillwater, Oklahoma, against Oklahoma State.