Miles finds his shot at the right time

Throughout the season and particularly over the last month, West Virginia sophomore guard Daxter Miles had a hard time finding success with his jump shot, but on Saturday before him and his teammates battled Baylor, he told head coach Bob Huggins that he finally figured out how to fix the problem.

Entering the showdown with the Bears, Miles made only five of his last 27 three-point attempts.

During the seven-game stretch, he missed at least two attempts from beyond the arc in each contest. He also missed all four three-point shots he took in West Virginia’s home win over Kansas State.

“Technique. I wasn’t working on my technique enough, so I’ve been in the gym and focusing on my technique to shoot and score the ball better,” Miles said.

“We tried to fix a couple things that weren’t major, but ended up being major, mechanically with his shot,” Huggins said. “When you have habits ingrained for all those years, it takes a lot of work and a pretty special guy to stop doing the things that you’re doing mechanically, but he has been really receptive.”

“He (Miles) told me before the game at shoot around, ‘you’re right, I watched the film.’

For West Virginia, the epiphany couldn’t have come at a better time from Miles.

Since West Virginia joined the Big 12, the 1-3-1 zone defense of Baylor has given fits to the Mountaineers because in order to beat it, the opponent of the Bears has to consistently make shots or pose a threat from the perimeter to do so. Under Huggins, especially in the last few years, West Virginia hasn’t featured an efficient three-point shooting roster.

This season, guard Jaysean Paige is the only West Virginia shooter to make more than 30 three pointers.

“The coaches have told me that they would need me to score again in order to win, and that I couldn’t keep having those bad-type of games,” Miles said.

Miles shook the slump and buried four of five three-pointers to help him score 20 total points to help the Mountaineers push past Baylor, 80-69.

“I got that rhythm tonight,” Miles added. “Jevon (Carter) found me four or five times and told me to be ready to shoot it, so I was.”

Thriving as a three-point threat, Miles, in turn, spread the typically tedious zone of Baylor, extremely thin, which allowed West Virginia to find scoring opportunities close to the basket.

Forward Devin Williams had multiple easy looks at the rim and scored 16 points in support of Miles.

Once, West Virginia started scoring close to the basket, Baylor had to switch out of the zone into man-to-man.

“That forced them out of that 1-3-1 forcing. That lit my eyes up seeing them have to go man-to-man,” Williams said.

“He (Miles) responded. That was part of growing up, because everyone goes through it but he responded and got out of the slump. It was helpful because we needed him tonight.”