West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert spoke postgame after West Virginia’s 91-86 upset win over No. 3 Kansas on Saturday.
The Mountaineers were able to take down the Jayhawks behind a day where they shot 57 percent from three and 52 percent from the field, while also knocking down 21 of their 25 free throws.
Great day to be a Mountaineer. That one felt good,” Eilert said. “That is what our guys needed for the confidence to start snowballing in the right direction. It’s one thing to get a top 25 win against Texas. It’s another thing to beat a hall of fame coach and a top 5 program at home.”
Rebounded by Rebounding
West Virginia had an ugly loss, in which Oklahoma was able to out-rebound WVU 42-23. Tonight, the Mountaineers out-rebounded Kansas, 31-22, holding Hunter Dickinson to only five rebounds.
“I think it was effort, in a lot of ways. Sometimes it’s a little skewed in terms of shooting percentage, and who’s getting those rebounds, but we were neck and neck with shooting percentage. We shot 52% and they shot 53% so, I think that we were quicker to the ball in a lot of cases, and if you look back to the Oklahoma game, it seemed that they were quicker to everything in that regard as well,” Eilert said. “I felt like we were quicker to the ball in everything we did and in a game of inches, that can be the difference.”
First Half Slugfest
It felt like neither team could miss on Saturday afternoon in the first 20 minutes of the game. The teams combined to score 102 points, as the opening 20 minutes ended in a 51-51 tie. WVU went 9 for 14 from three in the first half, while Kansas shot 61 percent from the field.
“Not going to lie, I was very concerned,” Eilert said of the first half.
“The game plan was to shorten up the paint and do everything we can to keep Hunter Dickinson from beating us, you know just force it down low. He ended up with 19 points, but as I said the one thing that Kansas is challenged with is all the teams and all the guys in the league don’t shoot it all that well or they don’t shoot a high volume of threes. So, I said, let’s make them shoot us out of this game. If they’re going to win, they’re going to have to shoot us out of it.”
“Shots were falling for us, we were neck and neck. But going into half time, you look at it and it’s 51 all, and we’ve had a lot of halftimes where we’ve come out flat and didn’t really perform in the second half, but you know you guys are up 51 in the half, that’s very concerning. In terms of trying to win a tough Big 12 match anywhere, whether it be on the road or at home.”
A Sigh of Relief
For the first time since June, it finally feels as though West Virginia and West Virginia fans got something to go their way. The win culminated with WVU fans storming the court, and taking part in singing Take Me Home Country Roads.
“I didn’t really think about it. I grew up in Kansas, I was a Kansas State grad, 95% of people in my family go to Kansas State. So, I’ve watched Big 8 basketball to Big 12 basketball, and KU has always been a dominant program. I always respected the year in and year out they were winning big and the first thing that came to mind was my dad,” Eilert said when the clock hit double-zeros.
