There is no question that much of West Virginia's success on the basketball court last season was due to the unique style employed by the Mountaineers. 

 

Pressure. Non-stop pressure. It's rare that you see a team put full court pressure on a opponent for an entire game. 

 

It's uncomfortable to play against. It's hard to prepare for since so few teams do it. 

 

West Virginia used that unique style to win 25 games, come within a game of the Big 12 regular season title and advance to the Sweet Sixteen. By all measurements, a successful season.  

 

I like when West Virginia uses a unique system; being different in terms of style of play works here. It gives West Virginia an edge.

 

WVU employed a unique offensive system under Rich Rodriguez and came within a game of playing for a national championship in 2007. 

 

Uniqueness isn't new for the West Virginia basketball team either. John Beilein's best teams at WVU not only featured a 6'11" guy that played on the perimeter, but ran a defense, a 1-3-1 zone that caused problems for teams not used to seeing it.  

 

Beilein's success in the postseason, including multiple runs in the NCAA Tournament and NIT show how difficult it is to play against unique styles given short prep time. 

 

Speaking of the 1-3-1, remember Bob Huggins using that same 1-3-1 to help propel his first WVU team into the Sweet Sixteen? Or how he used it to "close" games during the Final Four year? 

 

Unique works. And it works really well at West Virginia. That's why Mountaineer fans should be disappointed in Texas' recent hire.

 

On Thursday, word broke that the Longhorns had agreed to terms with VCU's Shaka Smart to replace Rick Barnes as the Texas basketball coach. 

 

Why should you care? At VCU Smart ran a similar system to what West Virginia used last season. He even has a catchy name for it. Havoc. 

 

Pressure. All the time. Full court. Relentless. Sure, there will be some minor differences to what West Virginia ran. There will be things about the two styles that may not be exactly the same. 

 

But, the basic principles are the same. Don't let up, make you uncomfortable and be relentless. 

 

Suddenly, just when West Virginia had seized upon something that made them unique again, made preparing for them a real challenge, Texas comes along and hires a guy that does the same thing. 

 

Now a team that plays Texas prior to West Virginia will have an advantage. They will have seen the pressure, understand what it looks and feels like. It won't be such a shock to their system when they see it. It's not a leap to think teams will handle the pressure better since they will face it twice as much next year as they did last year. 

 

Does this mean WVU can't have success using the same style as last year? Of course not. Does it mean it takes away some of their competitive advantage? Yes. 

 

How many times last year did we hear opposing coaches talk about how hard West Virginia was to prepare for? Outside of Texas, Baylor and Kentucky every other opponent really struggled the first time they faced the Mountaineers. That's not a coincidence. 

 

Some of that advantage is now gone. How much? That remains to be seen.

 

We've seen this in football haven't we? The old Texas Tech, Mike Leach inspired Air Raid system worked tremendously well for a long time. It was unique. It gave Tech an edge when it couldn't compete straight up on talent with the likes of Texas and Oklahoma. 

 

Pretty soon others adopted similar styles. Fast forward to 2014. How many teams now run some sort of spread, zone-read, up-tempo attack. Seemingly everyone, right? Advantage gone. 

 

Now you're seeing programs look for other styles that defenses haven't seen. Become unique again. 

 

We're a ways from that kind of system adoption in college hoops. In fact, it likely will never get to the point that we see the majority of the teams employ a full court, 40 minute pressure system. 

 

However, I do think, for Mountaineer fans, it's worth keeping an eye on how Smart uses his Havoc system at Texas. 

 

Shaka Smart is regarded as one of the best, young coaches in the country. He took VCU to a Final Four and five consecutive NCAA Tournaments. 

 

Give a guy like that the keys to a program like Texas, with nearly unlimited resources, good tradition, a new arena on the way and you can see where Texas should be very good in the coming years. 

 

Texas doesn't need a scheme/system advantage to be successful. They have everything you need to win. Now they have a coach that has been unique in the past. 

 

Count me as one that hopes Smart decides to scrap Havoc and go more "traditional" once he takes over in Austin. 

 

Editor's Note: Middle photo shows former Texas Coach Rick Barnes, far left, and his staff during a recent trip to Morgantown, while the top and bottom photos shows the relentless pressure WVU applied this year against foes. Photos by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.