West Virginia must recharge, refocus ahead of Selection Sunday
West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins didn’t have to look too hard to see the major issue in his team’s 78-61 quarterfinal loss to Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament.
That’s because it was a concern from the time the game started.
“We just didn’t have that bounce. We had no bounce in our step at all,” he said.
The Mountaineers looked like a team that was coming off only 18-hours rest from their opening win over Texas Tech as Jayhawks were able to beat them to loose balls and certainly had more fire.
Kansas, who could easily be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, doesn’t need any additional help but there’s no question that the Mountaineers didn’t help themselves.
That was especially noticeable on the defensive end where West Virginia allowed the Jayhawks to shoot 52-percent from the field and score 52 of their 78 points in the paint. Kansas also continued to have plenty of success using their trademark pick and roll to get easy baskets at the rim.
It’s not that Kansas necessarily did anything different from what they expected, the Jayhawks just simply executed better and more efficiently than the Mountaineers to sweep the season series 3-0.
Huggins said that his team hasn’t done anything strenuous over the last week and essentially walked through what to expect and film study. So understanding why that was the case isn’t simple.
“This wasn’t the team I had all year. We came out with absolutely no enthusiasm, no pep in our step it was a bad game from where I was just trying to watch it,” Huggins said. “We just didn’t play.”
Despite the setback, West Virginia has won four of their last six games and both of those have come at the hands of the Jayhawks. Considering a possible NCAA Tournament berth wouldn’t have the two teams playing until a very deep run, the focus is now on moving forward.
“It’s the number one team in the country. To be honest with you. It doesn’t affect confidence; we didn’t match their intensity that’s what it is,” guard Joe Toussaint said.
West Virginia did gain some more experience playing on a neutral site with a win over Texas Tech in the previous game and will need to continue to build off that moving forward.
Now, West Virginia will wait to see their fate on what happens with the NCAA Tournament Field and where the program can eventually end up.
The Mountaineers are projected into the field in every available bracket for the time being at 19-13 but it remains to be seen their overall seed and opponent.
West Virginia will now turn their attention to resting up in the coming days and preparing for what lies ahead.
“I’m proud of our team we dug ourselves out of a huge hole in this league to start and we’re going to hear our names called on Sunday it’s just a matter of when and where and who we play,” guard Erik Stevenson said.
Because from this point forward it’s a one-game season no matter where the team ends up and there won't be a chance for a do-over.
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