West Virginia opened Big 12 play with an opportunity to get a road win — something they did not do all last year.
The Mountaineers though could not take care of the ball, and could not make free throws, leading to their 82-76 overtime loss to Kansas State.
“We’ve had numerous conversations about how we excessively turn the ball over and do stupid things,” West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said. “We did some stupid things today which turned the game around.”
Turning the game around is exactly what Kansas State did. West Virginia led by as many as 14 points, as well as by 11 at halftime. The Mountaineers though had 11 second-half turnovers.
“We did some really, really, stupid things that enabled them to cut the lead to get back in the game, to make it a situation where they were a couple possessions away from tying the score or taking the lead,” Huggins said.
On the evening, West Virginia had 20 turnovers, and point guard Kedrian Johnson had three of those turnovers.
“For the most part it’s really just lack of awareness,” Johnson said on the turnovers. “Not wanting to take care of the ball. Just move it around, not paying attention. Just being careless for the most part.”
Another issue for Huggins was West Virginia’s inability to consistently finish around the rim. The Mountaineers were 12 for 26 on layups, even though the Mountaineers had 40 points in the paint.
“I don’t know how you can consistently miss one-footers,” Huggins said.
Arguably the biggest issue for West Virginia was their lack of success at the free throw line. The Mountaineers missed 18 free throws, with 12 of those misses coming from Jimmy Bell and Mohamed Wague.
“I don’t know how you can consistently miss free throws when they’re asked to make 100 before they leave practice… which obviously they’ve cheated on,” Huggins said. “I think in any walk of life, the more you try to cheat it, the more it comes back to bite you in the ass.”
West Virginia will stay on the road to go face Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are coming off a 69-67 loss on the road to Kansas.
“Game is about seizing opportunities,” Huggins said. “We didn’t seize any opportunities. We didn’t score in transition. We certainly didn’t make free throws.”
