West Virginia seemingly had to have Saturday’s game against Texas Tech.
27 points from Jaylon Tyson, Texas Tech being plus-11 in the rebounding margin, and the Red Raiders forcing 14 turnovers leading to 15 points later, the Mountaineers faced the harsh reality that the NCAA Tournament is no longer easily attainable and with that came the endless questions about where to go from here.
Attitudes after a loss are often predictable. Answers become shorter, but the biggest answer that was given on Saturday from West Virginia came in the form of questions and little conviction after their 78-72 loss makes their path to the NCAA Tournament that much harder.
“I don’t understand. I don’t. You’re asking me questions that I don’t have any answers to,” West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said on Texas Tech finishing with a 39-28 rebounding advantage. “We have talked and drilled and talked and drilled on the fact that we have an advantage here. We’re playing at home. We play well at home, generally.”
Generally, yes, West Virginia has played well at home. The Mountaineers had won four of their last five at the WVU Coliseum entering Saturday, but they failed to take care of business on their home court.
Just over the halfway point of the second half after WVU had gone on an 11-0 run and looked to be in control of the game with 9:06 to play.
“We’re up eight. All we’ve got to do is take care of the ball. Run good offense,” Huggins said. “They wanted to play zone. That crew wanted to play zone, so we switched it to a three zone and that didn’t work.”
That zone not working helped the Red Raiders respond with a 15-3 run, to take a 70-66 lead with 6:01 to play. During that run, Texas Tech got multiple offensive rebounds off of missed free throws on the same possession, leaving Huggins completely puzzled.
“Then, we go to the free-throw line, and we’ve got guys just standing there watching the ball. They never went to
rebound. I don’t have an explanation for that,” Huggins said. “As long as I’ve done this, I don’t have an explanation for why you would stand there and not rebound a miss.”
Down the stretch against the Red Raiders the Mountaineers’ leading scorer Erik Stevenson — who finished with 27 points — missed his final five shots, including missing three from three-point range.
“That’s not what lost us the game though,” Stevenson said about his late misses. Stevenson said his team lacked energy, and the will to win, as the Mountaineers were already coming off back-to-back losses.
“We want to win it’s just today we didn’t have it,” Stevenson said. “Some days you just don’t have it.”
Huggins’ response to Stevenson’s theory of West Virginia lacking energy and just not having what it took to win, was more of a direct shot at the fifth-year guard.
“He shot it 21 times. He had to have some energy,” Huggins said. “It’s okay for him to go 9-for-21, though? Please.”
As for how the Mountaineers rebound after a loss which certainly derails their plans, Stevenson said that is going to be the challenge heading into tonight’s game against Oklahoma State.
“We got to do our best to forget this afternoon,” Stevenson said. “We got to come in and win the game. No more simple than that; we got to win the game.”
Winning the game is something West Virginia will have to do more times down the stretch if they want to get back into a safe zone for the NCAA Tournament. A start would be to defeat the Cowboys tonight, and also win your final home game on Mar. 4 against Kansas State. Sandwiched between those two games is a two-game, three-day roadtrip to Kansas and Iowa State. Steal one of those two games and protect home court and there will be an easy answer to if you’re playing in the NCAA Tournament. Fail to do that and the Mountaineers will go to Kansas City with just as many questions that circled them following Saturday’s loss.
Photo by Aaron Parker, Blue Gold Sports
