Oklahoma @ West Virginia Reaction

We all knew it would come to an end eventually. Trae Young couldn't keep churning out legendary performances against this grueling Big 12 schedule, and tonight, his magical run stopped.

Well, kind of. The kid still had 29 points and 5 assists, so he played pretty well from a numbers standpoint. But the bigger concern about how he handled West Virginia's stifling press was that he had 8 turnovers. Now, if this were just an anomaly, there wouldn't be anything to worry about. But this has started to become a trend for Trae Young. Going into this game, the NPOY favorite was averaging 4.2 turnovers per contest. That's not ideal for a lead guard, but it was acceptable with Trae Young because of how much he had the ball in his hands.

Against West Virginia though, it felt like he forced everything. The 29 points came on 22 shot attempts, and a lot of those were...out there. It seemed that he was trying to do too much out there, and his play suffered as a result.

Trae Young is still really good, but West Virginia showed that he could be stopped. More on that now.

We have always known West Virginia as "Press Virginia," and rightfully so. The Mountaineers have the most brutal fullcourt pressure in college basketball, and it's been that way for the past few seasons. Despite their defensive success, West Virginia hasn't been to an Elite Eight since 2010, when they rolled into the Final Four to be knocked off by eventual champion Duke.

Ever since, they haven't seemed to find success in March. We all remember the 2016 Stephen F. Austin disaster right?  The lack of success has really been surprising. We always comment on how this will be the year they break through or the year they win the Big 12, but it never really seems to happen.

Tonight's performance was encouraging. They shut down one of the nation's top players and were pretty dominant in doing so. It all will come down whether they can continue this level of play. West Virginia has lost stupid games over the years, and that's taken them out of the Big 12 race. This year; however, they seem more focused. They are currently riding a 14-game win streak that started after their embarrassing loss to Texas A&M on opening night, and they have wins over Virginia and now Oklahoma. Jevon Carter has really stepped up in his senior season. He was the one culpable of shutting down Trae Young tonight, and he has emerged as a fantastic scoring option as well. Daxter Miles Jr has also been a reliable player as well.

The kicker is that West Virginia is getting back Esa Ahmad after eligibility issues sidelined him all year. The 6-8 junior averaged 11.3 points for the Mountaineers last season, good for second on the team.

My point is that West Virginia looks really good now, and they aren't even at full strength yet. With Kansas not as strong as in previous seasons, you gotta wonder if this really is the year.