What Derek Culver's Departure Means for WVU

Earlier this week, West Virginia forward Derek Culver announced that he has signed with an agent and will be entering his name into the 2021 NBA Draft. The agent that he signed with is not NCAA certified which means he will not have the option to return to school.

Thankfully for Bob Huggins, West Virginia already has a plan in place as they were able to land Dimon Carrigan (Florida International) and Pauly Paulicap (DePaul) through the transfer portal.

Losing Culver is a big loss for the Mountaineers even with those two new bigs entering the fold. Culver was dominant underneath on the offensive end and was a rebounding machine. The one area that he lacked was on defense but some of that can be attributed to having to play conservative and not get into further foul trouble because there wasn't much depth behind him following Oscar Tshiebwe's decision to leave the program. Once Oscar left, it allowed WVU to open up the floor and go to a four out, one in offense which helped Culver become more efficient. Once again, the only problem with that was that it hurt them on the defensive end of the floor because they had no other bigs to help Culver down on the block or inside the paint unless Gabe Osabuohien subbed in but that was usually with Culver off the floor.

With Culver now off to the professional ranks, I would assume that sophomore Isaiah Cottrell will slide into the starting lineup. The question will be whether Huggins puts him at the four or the five. He could be a stretch four thanks to his ability to hit jump shots and threes. Huggins said later in the year that losing him to injury is what hurt the team the most as he cited Cottrell as being their best skilled big. By putting him at the four, WVU can throw in either Carrigan or Paulicap in the lineup to protect the rim. Carrigan averaged 2.5 blocks per game last season with FIU while Paulicap averaged 1.2 a game at DePaul.

West Virginia's inside defense was atrocious last season but with the addition of these two guys plus the return of Osabuohien, that problem should now be solved. It also allows the Mountaineers to potentially return to playing a fullcourt press as they did in the "Press Virginia" years. One of the main reasons why they haven't been able to do so is because they haven't had anybody that could protect the rim and clean things up if an opposing player got deep into the paint. Now, they have two of those guys.

Offensively is where things will get a little challenging. Obviously, the decisions of Taz Sherman, Miles McBride, and Sean McNeil will factor into West Virginia's style on offense but they will need to find someone to consistently score it from inside. Paulicap averaged 7.2 points per game and shot 55% this past season. Meanwhile, Carrigan averaged 6.8 points per game and shot 58%. While neither one is fully capable of replacing Culver's offensive output, the two combined (14.0 ppg) nearly equals Culver's average of 14.3 points per game. All of that seems good and fine but one of those two or Isaiah Cottrell will need to step up and be someone that Huggins can rely on to go get paint points when they need it. 

Regardless of who steps up to the plate, West Virginia will be a much different looking team in 2021-22 than they were this past season.