Huggins looks for consistency

West Virginia won by 27 points over Radford earlier this week but head coach Bob Huggins was far from satisfied.

“Lethargic. That’s probably a good one, that works,” he said to describe the effort.

After leading 53-22 at halftime and forcing 21 turnovers, the Mountaineers came out of the break sloppy and disinterested.

A reoccurring theme for this team against out-matched opponents, West Virginia essentially went through the motions with a convincing lead.

Missed layups, missed free throws, dropped passes and a lack of defensive effort resulted in numbers dropping across the board. After shooting 58.8-percent in the first half, West Virginia hit only 38.7-percent in the second frame while making only 5-14 from the free throw line.

Huggins has been consistent that while his team can be successful in the non-conference portion of the slate with only one half of effort, that won’t work with the schedule set to get much more difficult in a few weeks when the Mountaineers open Big 12 play. Things will get tougher in a hurry.

“We have 19 hard, hard games to go,” Huggins said.

Huggins said he made it a goal in the non-conference to get his freshmen time on the floor because they will need them in the games ahead. But he wants to see more consistency from the rest.

“You want your other guys to be constant,” he said.

After the game, Huggins held his team in the locker room much longer than usual delivering a clear message to his players. Effort half the time is not going to cut it and he needs to be able to trust those players he puts on the floor.

While he has seen some positives, this team has not been able to build on its successes and add even more to its repertoire for opponents to prepare for moving ahead.

That’s a concern.

But even more concerning is the way this team has had mental lapses during entire halves. The Temple game is one players can look to as an example of what can happen in those situations but even then the group has not learned from the past.

And when you don’t do that, you’re doomed to repeat it.

“I ask them all the time why do you spend 12-months a year getting ready to play these games and not embracing the games when you put all that work into it?” Huggins said.

In post-game, players seemed to get the message loud and clear and the locker room wasn’t the jovial type of place you’d expect after a nearly 30-point win.

The phrase “working on us,” was used constantly from the various players and the mood was one of moving forward.

“We know that coming into Big 12 play we can’t let off at any time. We have to keep our foot on the throttle for 40-minutes,” sophomore forward Esa Ahmad said.

Because soon, playing hard the entire game will be a necessity if the success is to continue.