3 Takeaways from WVU Basketball’s Win Over Florida

On Sunday night, West Virginia concluded their Phil Knight Legacy tournament with a 29-point rout over Florida. Let’s take a look at three takeaways from the game.

West Virginia is Good…

How good? Not sure yet. But West Virginia is good. Heading into the season Florida was one of the teams expected to be a top-25 team throughout the season. The Gators hired San Francisco’s Todd Golden, who is one of the top upcoming head coaches in all of college basketball. Golden retained All-SEC forward Colin Castleton and recruited in Will Richard (Belmont), Kyle Lofton (St. Bonaventure) and Alex Fudge (LSU). With that being said, West Virginia had no business dominating Florida like they did on Sunday, but they did.

West Virginia’s offense was consistent enough to score 84 points and out-rebounded UF by 21. Next test for WVU will be Xavier on Saturday. Second true road game of the season in a different environment from the Backyard Brawl against Pitt.

Team’s Strength is Consistency

Through seven games, this team is consistent. Erik Stevenson, Emmitt Matthews, Tre Mitchell, Joe Toussaint are just a few names to throw out there individually. Even role players off the bench like Seth Wilson and James Okonkwo give you exactly what to expect each game.

The bench has out-scored the opposing benches in all seven games and averages 34 points per game as a unit.

Rebounding Improving Each Game

With each game, the Mountaineers are improving more on the glass. Even WVU head coach Bob Huggins with his negatives sees the improved rebounding.

“Rebounding has to continue to get better and we’ve got to take better care of the ball.”

West Virginia out-rebounded Florida 49-28 on Sunday but still rank 161st in the country in total rebounds.