Intensity, focus needed with WVU
After a turning in a dominating performance over No. 2 Kansas this past Tuesday, it looked as if West Virginia had finally turned the corner and was beginning to make strides in weaknesses such as free throws and maintaining a large lead.
Saturday’s narrow win against Texas A&M proved otherwise for a team that ranks second in the nation in scoring margin.
The Mountaineers led by as much as 20 points against the Aggies early in the second half but failed to keep its foot on the gas pedal.
“I’ve seen too many leads disappear,” head coach Bob Huggins said. “We came out the second half and we didn’t play with any intensity.”
The Aggies stormed back and came within six points of West Virginia but the Mountaineers extended its lead to 10 with just over a minute remaining.
Free throws and a couple of three-pointers helped the Aggies to cut their deficit to just two points with just 14 seconds remaining.
Though free throws ultimately helped seal the win for West Virginia, the game may have given fans flashbacks to past games this season in which the Mountaineers struggled from the free throw line, the Oklahoma game in particular.
Free throws were the deciding factor against the Sooners, a game in which West Virginia blew a 15-point lead only to come out on the losing end in overtime.
The ongoing free throw struggles nearly cost the Mountaineers another game. Against Texas A&M, West Virginia shot just 52 percent from the free throw line after shooting over 80% the past two games against Kansas State and Kansas.
If you put the free throws and Texas A&M’s late rally aside, there is one positive thing that stands out from the game. That being that the Mountaineers have the ability to overcome adversity and still come out on top.
The only problem with that is that no matter what a team’s record might be, each college basketball team has its high level players that can take over a game in a matter of moments and make teams pay for critical mistakes such as turnovers and missed free throws which make way for a team to rally when down, which is what happened against the Aggies.
“Everybody that we play in big-five conferences has high level players,” Huggins said. “You can’t let them get started and we let them get started.”
Saturday’s win against the Aggies was proof that the Mountaineers still have some work to do when it comes to free throws and playing with intensity, which are key in not seeing those large leads vanish.
The key still for West Virginia is to develop consistency in their weaknesses such as free throw shooting and keeping the intensity up.
When this consistency is developed, it will play a key part in helping the Mountaineers not let up in the second half and instead keep building a lead to end all hopes of a comeback for the opposition.
If the Mountaineers, hope to accomplish and improve, they will have to make it a priority coming down the stretch of Big 12 play or else they could find themselves making another early exit in the NCAA Tournament.