Issues plague West Virginia in lost road opportunity
West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins was blunt when asked about what his team needed to improve upon after dropping their first Big 12 Conference game of the season.
“Winning. It started at Stony Brook. We played Stony Brook and won by 11, supposed to win by 40,” Huggins said. “That’s not a knock on them, it’s a knock on us. It started there.”
The Mountaineers led by as many as 14 in the first half but squandered that lead early in the second half and couldn’t resize it in overtime falling 82-76 on the road at Kansas State. West Virginia turned the ball over 20 times and connected on only 20-38 free throws in the narrow defeat.
The offense also struggled to finish around the rim connecting on only 12-26 shots at the basket.
Those are numbers that will get you beat anywhere, but especially on the road in the Big 12.
“We’ve gotten into conversations about how we excessively turn it over and do stupid things,” Huggins said. “We did some stupid things today which turned the game around.”
The turnovers were largely unforced as the Mountaineers struggled with awareness and holding onto the ball allowing the Wildcats to turn their fortunes around quickly.
“Just out there just moving around not paying attention just being careless for the most part,” senior guard Kedrian Johnson said.
The program fell to 10-3 on the season and after entering the top 25 now needs a quick reset with another conference road game on deck against Oklahoma State Jan. 2.
It’s hard to win on the road in the Big 12, but even harder when the Mountaineers make it more difficult on themselves which has been a trend of late. The program has struggled for stretches over the past three games but was able to finish against teams that didn’t possess the fire power of Kansas State.
On the defensive end, Kansas State was held to 21 points and 29-percent shooting in the first half before erupting for 45-points and 49-percent shooting in the second half. Much of that was simply too easy and continues a problem for the Mountaineers on that end of the floor.
“We did some really stupid things that enabled them to cut the lead to get back in the game to make it a situation where they were a couple possessions away from trying the score, taking the lead,” Huggins said. “I don’t know how you consistently miss one-footers which we did. I don’t know how you consistently miss free throws when they’re asked to make 100 before they leave practice. No, take, make which obviously they cheated on. It catches up with you.”
The head coach is disappointed that his team didn’t embrace the game but there’s no time to go back in the past. Oklahoma State lies ahead and another difficult league road game before coming back home to take on both Kansas and Baylor. It’s a schedule that reflects just how challenging the Big 12 can be.
Which means identifying and correcting the issues that West Virginia can control.
“You can’t go back in time and change what we did wrong. It’s in the past for a reason just move on and stay positive,” Johnson said.
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