College Basketball Power 10: Villanova Starts 2017 On Top
By Jeremy Karll
7. West Virginia (12-1)
The knock on West Virginia’s 12-1 start is that it really hasn’t played anyone that good outside of Virginia. It makes people overlook their fifth-ranked scoring offense and 12th-ranked scoring defense.
West Virginia showed how good they are on both ends last week against Oklahoma State.
More from NBA
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
- Constructing the NBA’s perfect all-under-25 starting five
- Grading every NBA team’s highest draft pick in the last five years
Oklahoma State won’t win the Big 12, but they’re not bad. That said, against West Virginia, they looked as lost as they did against North Carolina earlier in the year at the Maui Invitational.
West Virginia held them to 28 points in the first half and shot 55 percent in the game. Even though Oklahoma State picked it up in the second half and scored 47 points, the Mountaineers still won 92-75, while also scoring 51 points in the second half.
There will continue to be doubters about West Virginia because of their poor strength of schedule, but they continue to be one of the most statistically impressive teams, nonetheless.
It’s hard to have both the second best offensive rating and best defensive rating in the nation no matter who you play.
The Mountaineers are good, but we’ll have to wait another week before their showdown with Baylor. West Virginia will travel to Texas Tech and host TCU this week.