Photo by Ron Rittenhouse/The Dominion Post WVU center Harlan Obioha defends against Mercyhurst.

MORGANTOWN — Behind Door No. 1 is a dominating WVU men’s basketball defense that’s shown up in a big way against mid-major opponents and rival Pitt.

Behind Door No. 3 is a WVU defense that was picked apart against Power Conference opponents Clemson and Xavier, who are a combined 13-4 so far.

What’s behind Door No. 2? That just may be where the real Mountaineers’ defense resides, in the middle. Not truly as in command as advertised in the first door, not as inefficient as was seen against the Tigers and Musketeers.

“It’s probably a combination of both,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge admits. “When you play against talent, you can play things the right way and they can still make (shots). There’s also the intent of what you’re trying to do.

“In particular, that Xavier game, our intent on what we like to do and what we were trying to do was not good. You couple in your intent not being well and you’re playing against talent, you get what you saw.”

WVU (6-2) followed that poor performance against Xavier with another defensive exhibition of excellence, holding Mercyhurst to just 38 points and 33% shooting from the floor. The 38 points allowed was the fewest by a WVU opponent since 2017, against Coppin State.

Which directly leads into today’s 7 p.m. matchup, as Coppin State (2-8) visits the Hope Coliseum for the first time since that 2017 game.

The Eagles are no strangers this season in playing good competition, having already faced the likes of Maryland, VCU, James Madison and LaSalle. Coppin State has struggled offensively, shooting 40.5% and averaging less than 68 points per game.

That all points to another Door 1-type of performance for the Mountaineers, who will then travel to Charleston for a showdown against Wake Forest on Saturday, in what will likely be a more suitable case of finding the real WVU defense.

“We’ve just got to continue to get better and improve,” Hodge said. “There’s still a lot of ways to improve from even (the Mercyhurst game).”

As it currently stands, WVU ranks first among Big 12 schools in points allowed per game (57.1), which is the good news, because the Mountaineers also rank last in the conference in points scored.

Don’t read too much into that, because that seems to be the early theme among Big 12 teams. No. 8 Houston — last season’s Big 12 champ — is second in the league in points allowed, but also next-to-last in points scored. Cincinnati, Kansas and TCU round out the top five in the Big 12 in points allowed and also round out the top five lowest-scoring teams in the conference.

Essentially, Big 12 teams are leaning heavily on defense in nonconference play. It’s that type of trend that had WVU athletic director Wren Baker seek out Hodge in the first place.

“It’s still early in the season, so we obviously still have to get better on the defensive side,” WVU guard Amir Jenkins said. “Our coaches say when we do it right, it looks good, it works. We just have to hone down and be more consistent and do it for longer periods of time. That’s what we’re working on right now, but we’re going to play great defense throughout the season.”