Advertisement
basketball Edit

Huggins: 'That puts more pressure on everybody and everything'

Huggins believes West Virginia has several issues to correct.
Huggins believes West Virginia has several issues to correct.

DISCUSS: Visit the Blue Lot to discuss West Virginia all year long

When you lose four out of five games, the natural question becomes what’s wrong?

Well for head coach Bob Huggins it’s hard to pinpoint just one thing of late.

Sure it’s coincided with the return of junior forward Esa Ahmad and the rumblings really started before he ever saw the floor about potential issues with how it could affect the chemistry of the team. But for a veteran head coach like Huggins, it really isn’t that simple.

“He comes back even though he plays well, people started “our chemistry,” “why would you let him come back those other guys are playing so well and all of that,” Huggins said.

When the truth has been Ahmad simply hasn’t played well in the past few games because he’s basically in a situation where he is starting over after missing the first 16-games.

But he isn’t the only one.

Being able to score in the paint was one of his concerns heading into the season and that has been proven true but not for the issues he initially believed.

Sophomore Sagaba Konate has developed in the paint to become a real threat to score on a good clip, but the problem lies in the fact that the other Mountaineers have struggled to pass him the ball. That becomes problematic when you have a team that is struggling to score in general.

West Virginia raced off a 15-game winning streak to reach as high as No. 2 nationally in large part, for as cliché as it sounds at this point, players were hitting shots. Among those players were senior guard Daxter Miles, redshirt sophomore Lamont West and freshman Teddy Allen.

“Teddy has gone 1-10 in field goal attempts, Lamont is 23-percent from three in the last five games, Dax is shooting 15-percent,” he said. “It wasn’t just Esa.”

That has resulted in some struggles on the offensive end which has added to the pressure.

“That puts more pressure on everybody and everything,” he said. “And I just named three of the four guys we depended on to score the ball for us.”

But it doesn’t just stop there either. West Virginia has turned the ball over more, while it simply hasn’t rebounded or been nearly as effective on the defensive end in the half court or the press.

Some of the issues on defense can be pinpointed in the fact that the Mountaineers haven’t been able to constantly guard and some of that can be attributed to being concerned about what the opponent is doing instead of what they need to do on that end.

It also could be related to the time of the year as well.

“With our travel schedule I try not to go as long. When we were really good early in the year, we were really hitting the fundamental things hard. We were breaking things down and I think as you get later in the season the tendency is to do more team things so you team guard more,” he said.

But regardless what combination is causing the issues, the goal is to fix it. That’s what West Virginia will try to do Wednesday night in Ames at Iowa State to help wash the taste of yet another blown second half lead out of their collective mouths.

“The bottom line is there is a right hand column and a left hand column and you want as many in the left as you can possibly get,” he said. “To kind of have them there for the taking, it stings a little harder.”

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest in Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

Advertisement