West Virginia lets opportunity pass on road at TCU
West Virginia had a golden opportunity on the road in a league that doesn’t provide many.
The Mountaineers traveled to take on TCU, a team that they had just beaten at full strength Jan. 18, but this time would catch the Horned Frogs dinged up.
Out for TCU would be leading scorer and mid-season all-American Mike Miles due to a hyperextended knee while the best interior player Eddie Lampkin would be limited at best with an ankle injury.
West Virginia had won three of four games and positioned themselves back into the NCAA Tournament field despite some of the early season struggles. No game is a gimmie in a league as tough as the Big 12, but this was a chance for the Mountaineers to build further on their recent results.
Somebody clearly didn’t give the Mountaineers the memo. That opportunity was lost as West Virginia fell 76-72 in a contest where the defensive end was a struggle to say the least.
The Horned Frogs were able to consistently get the ball to the basket either off the dribble, passing or basic cuts and 23 of their 30 total baskets were either layups or dunks. The home team held a 48-30 edge when it came to points in the paint and shot 56-percent from two.
The Horned Frogs only made two threes in the game, but didn’t really need to with how dominant they were right at the rim over and over against the Mountaineers.
“Which is absurd for the guy that we have,” head coach Bob Huggins said.
The Mountaineers were constantly back cut in the half court and allowed the Horned Frogs to run in transition to get easy baskets as well. It is a recipe for allowing that team to have success.
“We worked on that, we talked about that, we showed that on film and we just didn’t adjust do it,” Huggins said. “We didn’t do it.”
The veteran coach didn’t make excuses for his team and instead placed the blame on how the Mountaineers came out of the gates with little to no enthusiasm. Huggins attempted to talk to his team at halftime about the issue, but the damage was already done.
West Virginia was in an early hole and everything then became way more important in an attempt to try to comeback on the road against a team hungry for revenge.
“I was extremely upset with us the first ten minutes of the game. Just our lack of energy, our lack of competitiveness,” Huggins said.
The Mountaineers have now dropped to 13-9 and 2-7 in the Big 12 but are still projected into the tournament field by essentially all major metrics. But Huggins wants to see his team respond better moving forward especially with some of what unfolded against the Horned Frogs.
“What happened is you have guys making excuses and that kind of thing and the guys that are supposed to be our leaders did not lead. So, we’ve got to, we may need to find ourselves some new leaders. You can’t have your leaders pouting because they made mistakes. It’s their fault it’s not anybody else’s fault and that’s guys that have been here for a long time,” Huggins said.
West Virginia will return home to play Oklahoma with tipoff set for 8 p.m. Saturday. Still, a frustrated Huggins understands the feelings of the fan base at the moment.
“A great crowd would be helpful but understandable if it’s not a sold-out deal. Because we should be going home high instead of going home with our head in our hands,” he said.
You don’t get many opportunities in the Big 12, West Virginia lost their chance at one.
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