WVU Women’s Basketball Stays in AP Poll Despite Loss

WVU Women’s Basketball held steady in the AP Top 25 Poll released Monday, January 8, despite an ugly home loss to No. 10 Texas two days prior.

The Mountaineers split their schedule last week, moving to 13-1 (2-1 Big 12) on the season as they dominated the Cincinnati Bearcats 68-53 before the Longhorns outclassed them 70-49. While they remained at No. 24, they received less favor from the voters, accruing 70 points in the rankings after managing 106 the previous week. This marks the third consecutive week the Mountaineers have made an appearance in the Top 25.

As the non-conference schedule wrapped up in December, Mountaineers’ head coach Mark Kellogg said his team might come back to earth in certain statistical categories like turnovers forced, where they sit No. 3 in the country with 25.14 per game, the most of any major program: turning St. Bonaventure over 20 times is one thing, while doing the same against Texas is quite another.

Looking at the Mountaineers’ Numbers

The Mountaineers ended up forcing 24 turnovers against the Longhorns, which bodes well as the season goes on and they continue to face premier programs. West Virginia frequently plays with a small ball lineup, giving them the speed and agility to play an aggressive full court press, although it opens up a size mismatch down low. Their +2.9 rebounding margin, good for 130th, is one of the only statistics that doesn’t favor them, but their ability to consistently create chaos helps them level the playing field.

Looking at other national rankings, WVU Women’s Basketball posts a 46.6 field goal percentage, 79.4 points scored per game and 54.9 points allowed all rank within the top 30. Their 16.7 assists per game are good for No. 45, although those numbers took a hit after their awful shooting performance against Texas.

They moved up a spot to No. 23 in the NET rankings, which take the quality of opponents into account, following the ‘quality’ loss.

They’ll hit the road this week, playing at 10-4 Iowa State at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday before taking on 9-4 UCF at noon on Saturday.