Two Mind-Blowing WVU Basketball Stats You Won't Believe Compared to Last Year's Squad

West Virginia's offense was abysmal this season, and it doesn't take a trained eye to notice how poorly they played on that end of the floor. The Mountaineers were 14-2 when they scored 70 or more points in the game, which is not all that far off from their 69.2 points per game average that ranks 296th nationally.

WVU didn't need an elite offense to win more games this season, and statistically speaking, they didn't even need a slightly below-average one. They just needed to be a smidge better, and they would have likely punched their ticket to the dance.

There were a number of issues with the offense, from not having enough capable scorers, guys who were very one-dimensional, lacked aggression or confidence...you name it. It led to slow start after slow start and several scoring droughts throughout the duration of the game. As bad as the offense was, there are two stats that just don't seem right when you compare this year's team to last year under Darian DeVries.

Scoring offense

A year ago, the Mountaineers averaged 68.2 points per game on 57.6 field goal attempts. This year, WVU averaged one full point higher (69.2) on just 54.8 shots per game, nearly three fewer attempts. Neither group could afford to get into up-and-down affairs, especially this year's team. The slowed things way down and yet somehow managed to average more points per game. You may say, " Well, this year's non-conference schedule was much easier than last year's." You would be right, but the point remains. In Big 12 play alone, WVU put up 65.3 points per game this season and only 63.4 points last season.

Field Goal Percentage

This had to be the worst shooting team in recent memory, right? I asked myself that a bunch of times throughout the course of the year. Nope. Last year's was worse. This season, WVU connected on 44.1% of its field goal attempts compared to 42.5% a year ago. It's insane when you think about how many more options the Mountaineers had to score the ball — Javon Small, Jonathan Powell, Amani Hansberry, Joseph Yesufu, and even Tobi Okani to some degree. This season, it felt like Honor Huff or nothing on more nights than not.

So the fact that Hodge's defense was among the nation's best, had a slightly better offense than that of last year's squad, and finished with one fewer win, should help bring some optimism heading into year two.