West Virginia basketball set for North Texas
The West Virginia basketball team wasn’t expecting to play North Texas as early as Tuesday this past week, but that’s where the Mountaineers find themselves given adjustments to the schedule.
Robert Morris was originally on the slate for Wednesday night, but the program found out Tuesday that the Colonials were not going to be able to play due to COVID-19 protocols in their program.
That forced some quick adjustments but by Wednesday afternoon, it seemed all but sure that North Texas would be filling that slot after testing was completed. The Mean Green had actually proposed the idea to try to schedule the game the following day but couldn’t get a flight to Morgantown booked.
Still, the game is now set for 3 p.m. and gives the Mountaineers an interesting challenge. The Mean Green have won 20 games in three-consecutive seasons and won the regular season Conference USA Championship last year going 14-4 in the league. That puts Bob Huggins and his team on a quick turnaround, to prepare for the game but it’s something they’ve gotten accustomed to this year.
“I think go back to the Bad Boy Mowers tournament, we had four scouts before they finally settled on who we played first. I think our young guys got indoctrinated fast,” Huggins said. “I don’t know. We still walk through it, play live through it, watch film, we’ll talk about it and send out a scouting report for them to read. Trying to figure out whatever means are best for them.”
You won’t reinvent the wheel for such a short turnaround, but you do what you do and get ready and put an emphasis on the fundamentals of the game.
“It’s much easier to make adjustments when you know the fundamentals of it,” he said.
Eric Martin will have the scout for the Mean Green, while Ron Everhart will take the responsibility of that against Richmond. But on the surface, Huggins sees challenges that North Texas will bring.
“They’re athletic. They run,” Huggins said.
North Texas has started the season 1-2 with a convincing win over Mississippi Valley State before back-to-back road losses at Arkansas and at Mississippi State. Three players average in double figures for the Mean Green led by forward Zachary Simmons at 12.3 points to go along with 8.7 rebounds, while guard James Reese (11.3 points) and guard Mardrez McBride (11.3 points) are also there.
The Mean Green have shot 43.5 percent from three and average right around 78 points per contest. The nature of this game could force the Mountaineers to lax on trying to get some of their younger players experience due to simply trying to win the game.
There also is the issue of the quick turnaround against a very experienced Richmond team Sunday. The timing of this game certainly isn’t ideal, but in order to try to get in all 27-games this made the most sense to go ahead and get North Texas on the schedule instead of waiting until later.
“We wanted to play Robert Morris on that day to give us a little more time to prepare but they couldn’t make it work,” Huggins said. “…Basketball is still being played.”
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