MORGANTOWN —
The words that were coming out of Bob Huggins’ mouth in his post-game discussions of West Virginia University’s 20-point loss to Baylor, 80-60, on Wednesday were startling if for no other reason than it showed how miserably the Hall of Fame coach-to-be had failed to get this year’s team to improve.
Oh, a recent three-game winning streak against the lower ladder of the Big 12 had shown improvement in shooting and defense, maybe, but when it comes to playing the game … well, it just wasn’t happening.
Here the team was 24 games into the season and it was doing things … well, it was doing things that Huggins couldn’t even recognize.
Honest … and it came early, before there were excuses about fouls putting players on the bench or trying to improvise in desperation.
It started with the game’s second possession by WVU, a time when guard Gary Browne, already a mess with a black eye that came from an elbow in practice during the week, was trying to inbound the ball under his own basket.
He tried to arch a touch pass to the invisible man, or so it seemed, only to have Pierre Jackson, wearing the opponent’s jersey, snatch it away and go unopposed for a basket at the other end of the court.
“I don’t know what they ran when we threw them the ball the first time,” Huggins said. “I have no idea. I’ve never seen that out of bounds play. We’ve never lined up like that. I’ve never seen it. I don’t know what the hell they were doing.”
That’s one of those “good news, bad news” things.
The bad news, quite obviously, is that Huggins, as he said, “didn’t know what the hell they were doing.”
The good news was that at least Baylor had never seen it before and didn’t have it in its scouting report.
This is something a coach might expect early in the season, especially with a team whose guards are freshmen and sophomores, but this is not early in the season.
“It’s happened all year long,” Huggins said. “You can’t drill everything every day. As it is, we go three hours and everybody thinks I’m insane. We go three hours, but you can’t drill everything every day. At some point, you have to be a basketball player.”
That is the key to it all.
“At some point, you have to be a basketball player.”
A basketball player isn’t just someone running around with a number on his jersey wearing baggy shorts and $200 gym shoes. He isn’t just someone who can dunk or run fast or jump high.
He is someone who knows how to play the game, who doesn’t throw it away 18 times in the 24th game of the season.
Do it on the road at Gonzaga in the first game, as WVU did with 20 turnovers in that opener, fine. It happens, but it’s supposed to be part of the learning process.
Becoming a basketball player includes learning what to do and what not to do.
This year’s group seems to be slowly learning what to do but not what not to do, making many of the same mistakes that cost them so dearly earlier in the season when it was all getting away from them.
Now it’s true that in this game the officials made life difficult for WVU as its players committed what was deemed foul after foul, but the idea is to learn how the officials are calling the game and stay away from doing things they are sure to call on you.
Aaric Murray, who is maybe the most talented player on the team, managed somehow to get two fouls in 15 seconds, add a third moments after he was brought back in the game. He wound up with only 12 minutes of playing time.
It is hard to be a basketball player when you are on the bench for 28 minutes and on the floor for just 12.
Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @bhertzel.
WVU Sports
WVU progressing at a snail’s pace
- WVU Sports
-
-
WVU wins regular-season finale
The West Virginia University baseball team guaranteed itself a Top 4 finish in the Big 12 Conference standings with a 5-4 victory at No. 16 Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Irvin’s dreads are gone now he must rebuild reputation
A couple of days back Bruce Irvin sat down in a barber’s chair — stylist’s chair, if you prefer — and made a dramatic and what had to be traumatic move.
He had his dreadlocks removed. -
FURFARI COLUMN: Harrick greatest WVU two-sport coach
The late Steve Harrick was the longest-serving, most-successful two-sport head coach in West Virginia University’s athletic history.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Flying WV logo draws attention outside country
Sometimes you hit a nerve, as we did a while back when we wrote about the wide reach of West Virginia University’s flying WV logo.
It has meant a lot to a lot of people. -
Seahawks’ Bruce Irvin suspended four games
Bruce Irvin, one of only two West Virginia University defensive linemen ever to be selected in the first round of the NFL draft, will miss the first four games of the 2014 National Football League season because of a failed test for performance-enhancing drugs.
-
WVU falls to Oklahoma State, 5-0
The West Virginia University baseball dropped its fifth consecutive game with a 5-0 loss to No. 16 Oklahoma State on Friday evening at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.
-
Reaves rejoins Carey as an assistant coach
Mike Carey has run through a lot of assistant basketball coaches during his time at West Virginia University, so it comes as no surprise that he has started repeating assistants.
Carey announced on Friday that Sharrona Reaves has returned as an assistant on his West Virginia staff. -
HERTZEL COLUMN: Opportunity to see birth of greatness
Sometimes things happen and the significance of them isn’t fully grasped immediately. So it is with the approval of the TIFF financing for a baseball stadium just off I-79 here in Morgantown.
Obviously, this a boon for the West Virginia University baseball program of Randy Mazey, which gains instant creditability. -
Musgrave ranks among top pitchers in college baseball
West Virginia University’s redshirt sophomore left-hander Harrison Musgrave’s spectacular season has reached the pinnacle of the heights a collegiate pitcher can attain as he has been named a finalist for the College Baseball Hall of Fame Pitcher of the Year Award.
-
FURFARI COLUMN: Crutchfield ‘miracle man’ at West Liberty
Jim Crutchfield, who learned the value of “aggressive defense” in basketball as a player at the old Roosevelt-Wilson High School in Clarksburg, continues to parlay that play phase with others to lead the nation in scoring as well as achieve smashing success as an NCAA Division II head coach.
- More WVU Sports Headlines
-
WVU wins regular-season finale
