West Virginia big Culver slows down to get started

The first was largely forgettable with the big man not making a single field goal and limited to only 9 minutes. He was 0-4 from the field and was frustrated by Eagles freshman Johni Broome. It was the first taste of NCAA Tournament basketball for Culver and his teammates, and it seemed like it at times as he was seemingly in his own head and sped himself up in the paint.

“Really was a matter of mechanics and he was going too fast. He was excited, he was excited to play in the NCAA Tournament, I think all of those guys were,” head coach Bob Huggins said.

The Mountaineers managed only 12 points in the paint in that opening half, none of which were from Culver as he managed only a pair of free throws. It was alarming to Huggins as West Virginia had to rely almost strictly on the perimeter, something that was not in the original game plan.

“I thought we could throw it close early and they did a good job, and we didn’t do a very good job,” Huggins said. “I was a little concerned about trying to score all the point from the perimeter.”

But things were very different in the second half. Culver controlled the paint, finishing with 10 points on 5-9 shooting while grabbing 5 rebounds and a steal. On the opposite end, Broome was largely a non-factor with only 2 points on 1-8 shooting as Culver asserted himself.

Those 10 points were part of 24 total points in the paint during that second fame as the Mountaineers were able to pull away from Morehead State.

“Derek got going and when Derek gets going, he’s pretty good,” Huggins said.

With the lead at 70-58, Culver scored back-to-back baskets to effectively put the game away and both were examples of him muscling the ball into the hole. It was the type of bounce back half that the Mountaineers needed to see out of their big man and one that inspires confidence moving forward.

With so much of the floor spread, it gives Culver the space to operate, and he took advantage of it.

“Helps a ton when you have a guy like Derek who one is able to create his own shot and two go rebound a missed shot,” sophomore Deuce McBride said. “It really makes a defense suck in which makes our job a lot easier. So, give a lot of credit to Derek and him doing his job.”

Culver has an important role to play on this team and when he is effective, this group is tough to stop. As long as he slows down and plays within himself that can happen.

“Really when we kind of got it going, Derek got it going,” Huggins said. “Derek scored close where at times he should be very effective when he started slowing down.”

The Mountaineers hope he can keep the same speed moving ahead as they prepare for No. 11 seed Syracuse for the right to move onto the Sweet 16.

----------

• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.

• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @JaredSerre

•Like us on Facebook