Takeaways: Nothing Pretty For West Virginia in Big 12 Opener vs. Houston

West Virginia opened up Big 12 play against No. 3 Houston. While it was expected that the Mountaineers would fall, nothing came out pretty from a 34-point loss on Saturday. Let’s look at some takeaways from the game.

Things Could Get Ugly

West Virginia now sits at 5-9 and the schedule isn’t getting any easier. WVU will host Kansas State, Texas and Kansas while traveling to Oklahoma over the next two weeks. Three of those teams are ranked and K-State won their Big 12 opener over UCF by 25.

WVU has the talent to win Big 12 games. The problem is the team has still yet to play a single game together. The Mountaineers have been without big man Jesse Edwards for about two weeks now. The current group is trying to mesh together as Kerr Kriisa, Noah Farrakhan and RaeQuan Battle all need the ball.

West Virginia is running out of time to turn things around.

Battle’s Bad Day Shows in Score

Through his first three games, Battle looked like an all-conference player. On Saturday, Battle struggled to get anything going against an elite Houston defense. Battle finished with four points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field. This was the first time Battle had a bad day for West Virginia and it showed in the scoreboard.

Battle dealt with first-half foul trouble once more. The question is can the 6-foot-5 guard turn it around quickly before Kansas State, who he scored 27 points against in the NCAA Tournament with Montana State.

Suemnick Showing Consistency

If there has been any positive as of late with the team it’s Pat Suemnick. Suemnick is averaging 10.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in his last two games. Suemnick helped get WVU into overtime vs. Ohio State and was the leading scorer for the team against Houston.

Following Saturday’s loss, Josh Eilert mentioned that Suemnick deserved the opportunity for more playing time while the team waits for Edwards to come back.