Bob Huggins Has Turned West Virginia into "Press Virginia"

College basketball is often an insular world, where coaches playing not to lose are too conservative to institute new schemes and ideas.

Auto-bench your best player when they get two fouls in the first half, because that's what everyone always does. Don't go two-for-one at the end of a close game, because way back when, real coaching men like Bob Knight never realized how to cash in on getting more possessions than their opponents. Don't foul when your team is up three, because giving opponents free throws sounds scary, even if simple, non-scary arithmetic suggests it's a good idea.

Fortunately, West Virginia's Bob Huggins is not your typical coach. A year ago, following two straight years of missing the NCAA Tournament—after making the Big Dance his first five years as with Mountaineers—Huggins decided something needed to change. So he threw out his old philosophy and went all-in on one concept to take advantage of his team's length and athleticism: Press Virginia.

Press Virginia is just what it sounds like. The Mountaineers full-court press their opponents for the entire game. This isn't just a situational strategy—WVU commits to a press no matter what, refusing to relent on opposing offenses, which must be on their toes at all times. It's not just a standard press, either. The Mountaineers constantly swarm to the ball.

As stats from KenPom.com show, West Virginia doesn't care that it ranks poorly in certain areas—the same areas so many other teams are worried about. Rather, the Mountaineers are busy focusing on executing their strategy as well as they possibly can:

Despite having such poor shooters, WVU—incredibly—still has a top 35 offense. The Mountaineers create their offense by forcing steals and using fast breaks to get easy shots. In fact, as bad as they are at shooting threes, they're as good at getting and making inside baskets:

The Press Virginia strategy has so perplexed opponents that West Virginia is ranked No. 14 in the country—with wins over No. 1 Kansas and at No. 14 Iowa State—despite lacking Kansas-level talent. That's the beauty of Huggins' strategic shift: West Virginia can't beat teams like Kansas by playing their game, but they can win by shaking things up and forcing opponents way out of their comfort zones.

Here's a great example of how West Virginia's unrelenting pressure flummoxes opponents. Notice that even when Kansas is able to get the ball across half court—the point at which most pressing defenses revert to a less frenetic half-court set—the Jayhawks aren't out of the woods:

Press Virginia just too strong for KU so far. Don't believe it? See for yourself ⬇️. — Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference)January 13, 2016

If you're still unconvinced, listen to Iowa State All-American candidate Georges Niang, who described the Mountaineers' defense like this: "If people want to know what it's like, have you ever been chased by a couple of wild pit bulls? That's what their press feels like. They're everywhere. They're looking at making you feel as uncomfortable as possible."

Frenetic ballhawking isn't a strategy a lot of coaches would be comfortable using night in and night out, minute after minute, win or lose. It's risky, it's different, and when it doesn't work, the results can be pretty terrible. So credit to Huggins for going his own way, and for having the Mountaineers poised to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.