WVU men’s basketball has started out the season with a 3-0 record, but I wouldn’t call them perfect. I might even call Thursday nights 75-61 win over Mercer concerning. It’s still early for alarm bells or panic but the schedule gets much more difficult starting with Wednesday’s matchup against Auburn.
Here are 3 questions I have heading into some tough out of conference matchups for the squad:
Will Miles Sadler’s scoring translate?
Miles Sadler has been a lot of fun to watch through 3 games. He has been affective on the scoreboard as well
averaging nearly 18 points per game. I’ve seen enough to say that I’m a believer in his potential to be a great point guard for us, but I’m not convinced that this type of scoring will continue when the competition stiffens. A lot of his scoring has come from penetration, and while he is extremely fast, my concern is that at only 6 feet tall these opportunities will be limited with the added length he will see against Power Conference opponents. He hasn’t shot the ball well enough to convince me that he is a consistent threat from beyond the arc. Again, I think his passing and the way he pushes tempo will translate and be huge upgrade for us at the point guard position this year, I just think we will also see so some growing pains if we rely on him to be our leading scorer.
Will this team live and die by the 3?
Through 3 games we have seen some very cold stretches of shooting from the entire team. The first game against Niagara was a perfect example. We came out of the game shooting any open look from 3 and missing almost all of them. As a result Niagara opened up a double digit lead to start the game. Eventually we got on track by not settling for 3’s and getting points in the paint, them in the second half the 3’s started falling and we eventually won 91-46. The reliance on the 3 point shot falling has been apparent in the other games as well. If this continues there will be games where we gold cold and the 3’s aren’t falling. Will we be able to find other ways to score? Sadler and Bizjack have both been able to get points off of dribble penetration when their shots aren’t falling. Will that continue against the big bodies of the Big 12? We will see.
Is our depth for real?
One thing that has jumped out to me in the first 3 games has been the quality and depth of our bench. It’s safe to say we have a much deeper squad than we had last year. The encouraging part isn’t that the non starters are able to just come in and contribute, but they have been weapons and legit scoring threats. Joson Sanan is averaging 11 points a game and is shooting 61% from 3 so far this season. Going deep into our bench and still keeping offensive pressure on teams will be a big factor for our overall success this year. Will our bench get exposed by the more talented teams as the season goes on? Time will tell, but so far they have passed the test.
What has jumped out to you so far this year? Are you excited about the squad?
