I don't necessarily disagree with your comments or evaluation.Coach Kellogg stated at his hiring that he would install the pressure defense.His reasoning was women don't pass or handle the ball well and he could capitalize on this.WV has had talent since he arrived but it's been thru guard play.The more talented teams have talented bigs which WV has yet to produce.This year Wheeler and Mccray have improved inside play without the height.Hopefully that improves in the future.Not to be disrespectful but from an outsider Baylor was not as talented as your fan base would imply.Also you lacked quality bench play.There is more balance play in the B12 and everyone is improving.Dominance in the B12 will be much harder if even possible.

Boone

1. I agree that folks on the board have both overestimated BU's talent and underestimated WV talent. I predicted they would give us heck before our game. And your bigs handled the elite big at TCU well.

2. It is thug ball. The rules established should govern the game. All of that slapping, grabbing and reaching in is not allowed. Nor is the constant body contact. It should be called or we should change the rules. I'm OK either way.

3. In the tournament WV is going to encounter refs from another conference that actually know and enforce the rules consistently. Your players will be in foul trouble very quickly.

4. I don't blame your coach for doing it as long as they get away with it. But it is not the defense the NCAA dictates.

5. I hope Geno, who knows and plays by the rules (skilled ball, legal defense) has to play WV. He will go on a tirade about your street ball that is just something played in community parks, not real arenas. He hates the way you all play.

6. IMO Miles had established her real estate under the basket waiting for a rebound, feet planted. Your very talented guard plowed over Miles who was not even facing your player, nor moving after your player jumped.

7. I'm glad you won. Good luck in the big tournament. And I think since the refs ignored WV street ball tactics, you would have won with or without Miles in foul trouble.

8. If we are going to play street ball, Texas gets close to it as well, we just need to adjust the rules for clarity allowing defense to touch, slap, grab with altering force contact, reach around the body to cause jump balls, and body trip players.

9. It was the ultimate hypocrisy when the TCU big fouled out for contact creating a jump ball. Your coach yelled as if all of a sudden he was an evangelist for clean play. Now that's funny.

10. I'll be pulling for you in the big dance unless you play BU. Your coach is a sly genius who prepares his team well and motivates

PS. Thanks for engaging with a spirit of civility, Our shout, yell, belittle, tantrum culture is way out of control, especially on anonymous social media. If we, as culture formers, don't change our tone asap the American experiment is going to degenerate to untold pits of crudeness. Democracy must have civility to survive. Famed Scholar James Davison Hunter, sociologist at UVA who studies and promotes the study of cultural wars (he coined the term) says that wout manners and civility we are headed to endless violence.

We can politely disagree wout attacking. It is refreshing .

Baylor was easily the 2nd most talented team in the B12 this year. And the gap between them and TCU in talent was closer than the scoreboards indicated. That's not to say BU was uber talented on a national level. It more so points to the lack of talent in the B12 as a whole. Campbell/Kellogg are just significantly better coaches. Coaching matters more than anything else in athletics. And Kellogg and Campbell ran circles around Collen. Not that that's particularly hard to do. She's as mid as mid gets.

We saw how West Virginia defended TCU and how physical and tough they were. They made TCU uncomfortable and put them out of rythm on offense. Baylor allowed TCU to do anything they wanted within their comfort zone.
Baylor s approach better change which starts with finding some dawgs in recruiting. We saw WVU fight for every loose ball and rebound and take it to TCU. The teams TCU has lost to this year are the tougher teams including Colorado

all defense-first teams play thug ball.

respectfully, all bad defensive team fans

fredbear said:

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Observations.

Note I wanted WV to win.

1. WV plays thug ball. They constantly slap, reach in. Push and pull, but seldom get called

2. Miles was plowed over by WV player in third quarter (4th foul on Miles) and was not even facing the guard.

3. These 2 coaches are the best in the big 12

4. I can't imagine WV pays big bucks; but they get it done with coaching and motivation.

5. TCU seemed unmotivated from the coach down.

6. Glass floor causes slips and seemed underwhelming on TV. Why pay all the money if you can only expose its tricks to the 5,000 there.

7. Baylor better get serious about WBB

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I not only wanted WVU to win, but I thought all along before the tourney even started that I would not be surprised if they did. WVU plays a style that most teams face infrequently in a season and are not really ready for. Sort of like going up against Army in football. On paper it is a team people expect you to steamroll.....but it seldom works that way.

That style will carry you a long way, but in and of itself likely won't get you to the finish line against the elite. The thing I saw hurting WVU earlier in the season was that they could not score (kind of like a team which we all follow here). They lost the games where they hosted TCU and TT solely because they couldn't hit the ocean in the fourth quarter. Both games should have been WV wins. But later in the season they started scoring. Why, who knows. Probably as hard to answer as to why teams stop scoring.

You probably don't have to pay up a lot for players that fit into the WVU scheme as they are usually not the type that are looked for by the "headliner" teams. The thing that makes it work however, is that the players buy into that style and the coach looks for those players. A lot of coaches look a lot better if they have the players that match what they want in their system. But most don't get those players to a degree that is needed to make the system work. Kellogg does.

As another mentioned, the danger is that you run into a set of refs in the NCAA that get picky and you find your starters in dangerous foul trouble early. I am not against the style of play....there have many times I wish we were able to put on the pressure as they do. We did that some in the TCU game late, and we started turning TCU over. But we are not built to do that throughout the game.

I recall that once after a game with A&M when Vic was in charge of the defense, KM made the comment "I don't know what that was out there, but it wasn't basketball".

WVU will be a tough out for anyone that has not faced that style of play to any great extent and their shots keep falling.