It wasn’t the way that West Virginia wanted to get a break due to COVID-19 protocols. Let’s just get that out of the way from the start.

But if there was ever a time that it was needed it was in the case of junior big man Derek Culver.

The Ohio native played all but nine minutes in the games against Oklahoma State and Texas, but was dealing with a number of issues which had slowed him down.

“Derek is beat up. I mean those guys have beat him up. He’s spent two or three days trying to get his back where he could bend over,” head coach Bob Huggins said. “He’s got some swelling I his knee. They’ve just pounded on him to no end.”

It didn’t stop his production as he finished with 36 points and 35 rebounds over those two games but was only 16-35 from the field. He had been a frequent visitor to the training room, something that was encouraged by his head coach in order to get on the mend.

“He doesn’t want to be in there. Actually, I’m making him go in there just so we can get it to where he can play,” he said. “What affected us the most wasn’t the flu it was Derek just not being Derek.”

Some of that comes with playing the position in the post where players are often banging together. That is especially true for Culver who is the target of many in the post.

Huggins believes that despite the impressive numbers they could have been even better had Culver not been dealing with a number of issues that had been plaguing him. And it was obvious to the trained eye when he was last on the court.

“He didn’t catch the ball in the paint. He was off-the-paint so much and that’s because he just gets tired of somebody having their knee up his rear end and pushing on him like they’re trying to push a truck up a hill,” Huggins said.

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