West Virginia University Basketball Picks and Analysis

West Virginia (WV) is a very young team this year. They only have 3 returning players from last year’s team. Two freshman point guards will be responsible for running Huggins' offense with Truck Bryant moving from the 1 to the 2. Kevin Jones, who entertained the possibility of turning pro after his Jr. year is back for his Sr. season and is the team's best player. WV will be playing a lot of true freshman including their top recruit; pg Jabarie Hinds. Hinds joined the team late this year because of academic issues and missed their 2 week trip to Italy. One of the goals for the trip was for the team to learn to play together so having your starting freshman pg miss the trip was not a positive. West Virginia lost its only exhibition game to a D2 team and barely beat Oral Roberts (there was no spread on that game). Until this team shows it can handle an opponent with ease, 9 points seems to high to lay, regardless of who they are playing.

thx for the info DubV, didn't know what huggie bear had this year.  GL

<love the "everything" WVa threads = nice>

Good stuff Dub, looking forward to your thoughts all season......GET MONEY!!!!!!

looks like you know youre shit in cbb,

nice call. VERY young!!

11/22/2011    Morehead St.(+15.5) at* West Virginia (*In Charleston, WV)

I was a bit surprised when I saw this line come out as high as it did. I believe it is in part due to two bad losses by Morehead St. to N.C. St. and Charleston, but those teams shot the ball very well against Morehead St., so in a sense they were slightly unlucky in that regard. Morehead St. is an experienced team who likes to press, which could spell trouble for WV due to their inexperienced true freshman point guards.

WV has 3 experienced players on the roster (Kevin Jones, Truck Bryant, and Deniz Kilicli). Huggins knows exactly what he is going to get from these 3. The problem right now is the inconsistency of the rest of the young roster. They will look good in practice one day and the next day will look completely lost. In high school they were able to get the ball and just beat guys off the dribble and score at will but they can't do that at this level because the talent is so much better. Huggins is teaching them his system which emphasizes the fact that they have to do a lot of work (i.e. cuts, screens, etc) before they get the ball, which will enable them to score. They are having a hard time adjusting to this and it will take more time before they are able to play well as a team.*  Look for Jabarie Hinds and Keaton Miles to get the start along with K.J., Truck, and Deniz.

*(Full disclosure: I am not an x’s and o’s basketball person. When I discuss x’s and o’s it is because I have acquired the information from another source, as I lack the technical understanding of the game necessary to be able to perform that type of analysis.)

This game is being played in Chareston, WV which is in the southern part of the state as opposed to Morgantown which is in the northern part. Even though the crowd will certainly be pro WV, it almost becomes a semi road game for the Mountaineers, as a majority of the roster have never been to Charleston before.

WV is the more talented team and it is very possible they cover this number in a blowout but I think the safe bet here is to take Morehead St. and the 15.5 points.

The Pick: Morehead St. +15.5

Note: My goal with these write ups is to provide a betting perspective from someone who follows the WV program. It is entirely possible that I end up with a losing record ats but I feel the information I provide would still be valuable. If you do bet on WV games, whether you are going with me or fading me, I recommend never betting more than 2% of your bankroll on a single game.

11/28/2011 Akron(+10) at West Virginia

This game feels like a toss up to me and I wouldn't be completely shocked if Akron won. Akron has a very solid front court which could give WV some trouble. Akron also beat Mississipp St. and Mississippi St. went on to beat Tex A&M and Arizona. WV's blowout of Morehead St. creates some value here on Akron. I am taking the +10.

The Pick: Akron +10

like the thread, thx for the solid info

12/3/2011  West Virginia at Mississippi St.(-3)

This WV team has been very hard to get a handle on so far this year as their games don't seem to be landing anywhere near the line. This will be WV's first road game of the year and Miss St. has a lot of talented players. WV and Miss. St have one common opponent this year in Akron. Miss St. lost to Akron by 10 and WV beat Akron by 20. I don't think this is as meaningful as others might feel it is (I think Miss. St was missin one of its better players who is now returning for this game), therefore I believe it creates some value on Miss St. at this time. I heard Allan Boston on Chad Millman's podcast saying WV is a team he wants to start playing on because of Bob Huggins history as an excellent coach. He then went on to say that WV might become a little overrated in terms of perception because of how well they have played recently. I just can't trust such a young team on the road for the first time against a talented team and only getting 3 points. Plus WV has been shaky at the free throw line. Miss. St seems like a good bet in this spot.

The Pick: Miss. St -3