Remarkable Change For West Virginia Over The Last Three Years

Following a crushing 79-52 loss to Purdue, and with the team's once high hopes evaporating into the winter night, Bob Huggins set out to fix what was wrong. It is obvious now that Huggins has delivered on his promise.

By Michael Miller@uncle_drank Jan 19, 2016, 8:06am EST

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Basketball:

Remarkable change for WVU over last 3 years | The Exponent Telegram
Three years ago today, Bob Huggins took his West Virginia basketball team on the road to West Lafayette, Ind., to play Purdue.

Mountaineers climb to No. 6 in AP basketball poll | Charleston Gazette-Mail
The West Virginia men’s basketball team is ranked No. 6 in the Associated Press top 25 poll, which was released Monday afternoon. It is the program’s highest ranking since March 15, 2010, when the Mountaineers were ranked No. 6 entering the NCAA tournament.

Expect pressure when Smart, Huggins oppose each other | The Exponent Telegram
Sometime in early March, just as West Virginia was entering the 2015 NCAA Tournament, Bob Huggins picked up the phone and called Shaka Smart, the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth University and who, with Huggins, make up probably the two top proponents of full-court pressure defense in basketball today.

Texas’ Smart admires WVU’s ability to press | Charleston Gazette-Mail
West Virginia played Buffalo, Maryland and Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament last March. VCU didn’t play any of those teams in the regular season. Yet there was Bob Huggins at some undisclosed point in the postseason, calling VCU coach Shaka Smart. The topic, of course, was pressure defense.

Think Jaysean Paige should be starting? Why tinker with success? | WV MetroNews
His team owns a 15-2 record, leap-frogged to No. 6 in Monday’s AP poll, stands 13th in the RPI, and last week came within a possession of sweeping a Kansas/Oklahoma double feature.

West Virginia Enters AP Poll at No. 25 | WVU Athletics
The West Virginia University women’s basketball team returned to the Associated Press poll at No. 25, as released by the organization on Monday.

West Virginia Athletics:

No. 24 WVU Drops Match to No. 9 OU | WVU Athletics
Despite a pair of major decisions, the No. 24 West Virginia University wrestling team couldn’t overcome an early deficit and dropped a 23-11 match to the No. 9 Oklahoma Sooners in Big 12 action on Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.

Around The Big XII:

Big 12 takes big losses with NFL draft declarations | ESPN
When you add departing seniors to early exits, the Big 12 is losing 25 of the 30 players who earned first-team All-Big 12 honors this season.

Recap: Cyclones Take Down #1 Oklahoma | Wide Right & Natty Lite
Are things back on track? It sure looks like it. For the first time since Wilt Chamberlain was storming through the Big 6 in 1957, Iowa State knocked off the #1 team in the country. The Cyclones...

No.1 And Done : Sooners Lose To Cyclones, 82-77 | Crimson And Cream Machine
The Oklahoma Sooners (15-2) were unanimously ranked number one in the AP and Coaches Poll for the first time since 1990 today, but the celebration is now over as the top-ranked Sooners lost to the No. 19 Cyclones in Ames.

Around The NCAA:

Top ranked college basketball teams are being upset more than they have in 67 years | SBNation
Iowa State upset No. 1 Oklahoma on Monday. That's par for the course this season.

Big East king Villanova knows it will be judged in March | SBNation
Jay Wright's team is once again rolling through the first part of the new calendar year, but the ghosts of past Villanova teams will follow this one around until it gets another shot in the NCAA Tournament.

Contact period gets interesting early | Charleston Gazette-Mail
Thursday began the new contact period in the world of recruiting, and things got interesting pretty quickly. Let’s go notebook-style for the latest on Mountaineer recruiting.