West Virginia defeated Toledo 91-81 in a high-scoring affair on Saturday headlined by a strong first-half performance from RaeQuan Battle, who totaled 29 points.
Rebounding
Since the loss of Jesse Edwards, the Mountaineers have struggled to grab rebounds due to a lack of height. Saturday, they outrebounded Toledo 35-34.
“After the game, I met with the guys and the first thing I said, as everyone gave a standing ovation, ‘we finally outrebounded someone’,” West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert said.
“We were plus one on the glass. Big credit to (fifth-year forward) Akok Akok there, especially in the second half, really suring up some of those rebounding issues we were having, especially with the lack of size we have out there on the floor.”
Offensive Rhythm
With a couple of Mountaineers still playing in their first couple of games since becoming eligible the team has started to get more comfortable offensively.
“Like I said on the radio it’s a little bit of a chemistry thing. It’s one thing to practice together every day and try to learn off each other but until we get into game scenarios and get those guys the right run together it’s not the same,” Eilert said.
“I felt like they played more cohesive tonight on the offensive end. We were more of a balanced attack than we were the other night and just had more patience.”
Minutes
With Edwards out and those returning easing in, players may have different roles as West Virginia has had to adapt their rotation.
“My message to them was we have to figure that everyone is going to have new roles. Not many coaches transition like this. Sometimes they transition one guy in. I mean we’re transitioning three and a half guys into the rotation. We weren’t going to play with a six- or seven-man rotation all year,” Eilert said.
“We talked a lot about individual roles. Those guys off the bench, when we went flat early in the second half, did a great job of changing that. If the pace goes the right way and we can continue to roll with guys off the bench, we’re going to keep them in. They’re going to have a huge role in our success moving forward, and as soon as everybody buys into their role 100 percent we’re going to be a good team.”
