Huggins: WVU will understand how good they are
West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins didn’t need to watch much film of opening NCAA opponent Murray State to see just what type of team the Racers are.
Now it’s about getting his team to understand it, something he doesn’t think will prove too difficult.
“I think when our guys watch film they’ll understand how good they are,” Huggins said. “I don’t think that’ll be an issue with this group. We’ve talked about it and they seem pretty engaged.”
Being engaged was an issue two-years ago when the then No. 3 seed Mountaineers were ousted in their opening game by No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin 70-56 as the Lumberjacks controlled the game.
Huggins said leading up to the game that the practices were bad, and that carried over into the contest.
He doesn’t expect that to be an issue this time around against Murray State. It’s something he has discussed with the team, while senior leaders Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles have played their roles as well when it comes to getting the team ready to play.
“I don’t think we’ll have the issue we had with Stephen F. Austin,” Huggins said.
The Racers, 26-5, are both the regular season and tournament champions of the Ohio Valley Conference and Huggins sees a lot of things that make them a touch match up.
“They’ve got great size and they really shoot the ball. Their bigs can step out and make shots, their guards are good and their guards can rebound. They’re a really good team,” he said.
While OVC player of the year Jonathan Stark receives the bulk of the attention and rightfully so as the senior guard averages close to 22 points per game, there is plenty of other firepower as well.
Freshman guard Ja Morant serves as the point guard and is third on the team scoring over a dozen a game with half a dozen assists per contest making an interesting matchup against the press.
“That kind of depends on how good the freshman is and I watched a bunch of film last night and he’s good. He’s really good for a freshman I think,” Huggins said.
The Big 12 Conference secured seven spots in the NCAA Tournament but the fact it wasn’t eight surprised Huggins as he believed Oklahoma State should have made the field. The Cowboys had two wins over Kansas as well as several non-conference victories.
“I thought they were a lock to get in with what they had done,” he said.
As for the conference as a whole, after being in the mix for the best league nationally this year the NCAA Tournament will be a good litmus test for how the league fares under the spotlight.
After disappointing getting three teams to the Elite 8 over the past four years and only one to the Final Four, this edition of the tournament could serve as a proving ground to reinforce the performance of the league in the non-conference portion of the schedule.
“During the NCAA Tournament I think everyone is just focused on that,” he said. “Anytime you win in the NCAA Tournament it brings attention to you.”
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