What Happens When WVU Scores 70? The Trend is Wild and it Explains Everything

It's no secret that West Virginia's offense is going through it right now. Buckets are hard to come by, and just creating a high-percentage look is seemingly becoming more difficult with each passing game.

Teams are pouring so much attention into Honor Huff, and rightfully so. To this point, a second consistent scorer has not emerged, so why would opposing teams be overly concerned with anyone else? Right now, it's stop Huff, and you'll have a great shot at beating WVU.

What has to be most maddening about this situation for Ross Hodge is that his team has the fifth-best scoring defense in the entire country, allowing just 63.6 points per game. Although they slow the game down with their pace and limit possessions, the success on that end still shows up in the overall opponent shooting percentage (41.4%), which ranks 40th nationally.

Hodge doesn't need elite offensive play paired with this stingy defense to win games. He just needs better efficiency and another shotmaker to emerge when Huff is being taken out of the game.

I combed through WVU's first 24 games to find a trend in their wins compared to their losses. The one that is most telling to me is the scoring offense. Yes, that plain and simple, which isn't always the case. The line of demarcation is 70. Look at the dramatic shift in results when they reach 70 points versus when they don't.

Games where the Mountaineers hit 70 points

vs. Mount St. Mary’s W 70-54
vs. Campbell W 73-65
vs. Pitt W 71-49
vs. Lafayette W 81-59
vs. Mercyhurst W 70-38
vs. Coppin State W 91-49
vs. Little Rock W 90-58
vs. Ohio State L 88-89 2OT
vs. Mississippi Valley State W 86-51
vs. Kansas W 86-75
vs. Colorado W 72-61
at Arizona State W 75-63

Record: 11-1

Games where the Mountaineers failed to reach 70 points

vs. Lehigh W 69-47
vs. Clemson L 67-70
vs. Xavier L 68-78
vs. Wake Forest L 66-75
at Iowa State L 59-80
vs. Cincinnati W 62-60
at Houston L 48-77
at Arizona L 53-88
vs. Kansas State W 59-54
vs. Baylor L 53-63
at Cincinnati W 59-54
vs. Texas Tech L 63-70

Record: 4-8

Sure, they've won some games scoring in the 60s and even the 50s, but it's far from ideal, and more often than not, they're not winning those slugfests. The only loss they have when scoring over 70 was a double overtime defeat to Ohio State, a game they lost by just a single point.

Want some good news? Let's look at the upcoming schedule.

Remaining opponent point per game averages

UCF (play twice): 77.8 (264th)

Utah: 80.0 (307th)

TCU: 71.3 (89th)

Oklahoma State: 80.8 (319th)

BYU: 74.0 (162nd)

Kansas State: 80.3 (310th)

This doesn't mean WVU will hit 70 in all of these games or that they will win every game in which they do, but it does indicate that the Mountaineers should be able to at least find some answers offensively down the stretch. Many of the league's best defenses are behind them or not on the schedule. Even if you fall a few points shy of what these teams typically give up, you should be in a position to have a chance to win.

Games where the Mountaineers hit 70 points

Games where the Mountaineers failed to reach 70 points

Remaining opponent point per game averages

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