File photo WVU’s Honor Huff is the national leader in 3-point shots made.

MORGANTOWN — “Swish!”

That is the sound West Virginia men’s basketball wants to hear throughout the Big 12 season that begins in Ames, Iowa, on Friday night, Jan. 2.

It’s a hard way to go, especially for a team that is built around its defense, but Mountaineer first-year coach Ross Hodge has seen enough to know that his team isn’t big enough inside to win games there nor is it athletic enough to beat defenders one-on-one to go to the basket.

They aren’t exactly deadeye from 3, either, save for the national leader in 3-point shots made, Honor Huff, but of late, granted against inferior talent in 2 of the last 3 games they have come on with the treys and seem destined to feature Huff and hope Treysen Eaglestaff found his shooting eye with some late outside success.

“Our guys put a lot of work in, a lot of time in,” Hodge said as they head into the Christmas/New Year’s break. “Some of it is just being a little more comfortable with everything that is going on and being more understanding of where the shot we want them to take is coming from.

“That gives them confidence, knowing this is the shot I should take and it’s the shot wants me to take, so whether I make it or miss it, this is a good shot. I think it’s a combination of the work they put in and being more comfortable with the shots I want them to take, make or miss.”

Certainly, Hodge likes the idea that against little Rock, Ohio State and Mississippi Valley State they have been successful on 39 of 83 3-points shots, which is 47%, a big jump from early season clanks.

“There’s not really a number you can quantify on it,” Hodge said. “It depends a lot on who you are playing and what they are trying to make you do. It’s taking the shots the defense is giving you and shooting them with confidence.

“Even tonight a strong showing (when they hit 12 of 26 against Mississippi Valley State) I felt we missed a handful of them that were good shots and wide open,” Hodge continued. “We do have an unselfish group and our post players are good passers and good ball movers and they are doing a good job of finding the open guy who is ready to step into it.”

They are going to in the Big 12, a league that plays strong defense and has seven teams that hold all opponents to less than a third of their 3s: Kansas is No. 3 in the country at 25.2%, with Houston (16) 27.8%, Cincinnati (59) 29.8%), Baylor (104) 31.2%, Arizona (134) 32%, Iowa State (36) 32.1% and Oklahoma State (140) 32.1%.

Right from the start, the Mountaineers have seen themselves as a team that is going to have to be successful from outside.

“It was definitely the plan,” Eaglestaff admitted. “At our first scrimmage we had together, we had a lot of 3s. It was really hard to guard. We are putting the work in. You can’t script everything.”

The idea is that with WVU’s defense strong enough to rank fifth in the nation among 365 Division 1 teams, allowing just 60.2 points a game, a strong 3-point attack may carry them offensively.

“With our defense, I think we’re one of the best teams in the country when our 3s are falling,” Eaglestaff said, a theory that will have to be proved in the conference. “We are going to make you shoot tough shots and get rebounds, so when our shots are falling from multiple people we’re dangerous.”

Right now it is a poetic question whether Eaglestaff and Huff will be ’nuff. They have hit 27 of the 39 shots from deep that WVU has hit over the last three games.