An honest look at WVU’s basketball status with eight games to go
Maybe it was the extra touch Basketball Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams added as a spectator to Tuesday’s WVU home game against Iowa State.
After all, the man has three national championships from his days coaching North Carolina.
“Roy’s my guy,” said Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins. “Roy always tells the story that we were paired as co-coaches at a Michael Jordan Fantasy Camp. He gave me a look and I said, ‘Roy don’t worry about it. I can’t recruit the guys you get, and you don’t want the ones I recruit, so we’re going to get along fine.’ Since that day we’ve gotten along admirably.”
Maybe it was the return of WVU shooter Taz Sherman, who came back from concussion protocol.
“That was a huge shot in the arm for everybody,” Huggins said.
Maybe it was simply West Virginia’s favorable matchup with Iowa State that led to the 79-63 Mountaineer win.
Or maybe, just maybe, WVU’s players gave extra effort because they knew their standings. Before the game, they were in last place in the Big 12 standings. And when it comes to NCAA tournament projections, they were in quicksand with an arm extended.
“I think it hit them that the situation without a few more wins here is pretty dire,” Huggins said.
Indeed, before Tuesday, it was seven straight games and seven straight losses.
“I don’t think anybody on our team has ever lost seven games [in a row] before,” said WVU guard Malik Curry.
Somewhere in that time frame I texted Huggins to ask how he’s doing. The entirety of his reply? “Awful.”
Finally, though, he was smiling after a game. His players were laughing and joking at a postgame press conference.
And once again, yes, I’m sayin’ WVU has a chance.
In his updated bracket projection, CBS College Hoops analyst Jerry Palm has WVU as the first one out of the NCAA tournament with a NET ranking of 57.
“West Virginia stopped a seven-game losing streak with a 79-63 win over Iowa State,” Palm wrote. “The Mountaineers moved to 14-9 with the win, which is important because teams with records that are fewer than four games above .500 only get into the NCAA tournament as at-large teams under extraordinary circumstances.”
And now? Look at the remaining WVU regular season and you’ll see the Mountaineers playing at Oklahoma State (NET ranking of No. 58) on Saturday and at Kansas State (No. 63) on Monday. West Virginia then hosts Kansas (No. 7), visits TCU (No. 55) and Iowa State (No. 36) and finishes with two home games (No. 15 Texas on Feb. 26 and No. 55 TCU on March 5) and one away (No. 48 Oklahoma on March 1).
There are certainly opportunities there for the Mountaineers. They’ll just have to make some hay on the road.
The problem is WVU hasn’t really shown it can win on the road. The Mountaineers are 1-5 away from Morgantown, only winning by six at UAB.
That will have to turn around. The effort will have to turn around, as it did Tuesday.
“They know we didn’t give the effort we have to give,” Huggins said.
He mentioned reaching for loose, 50-50 balls rather than diving. They did the latter against Iowa State.
That led to Sherman uncorking this gem:
“Once we do turn this around, I feel like it’s going to shock a whole lot of people… We’re going to shock the world when we do.”
Huggins smiled.
“I wish I shared that exuberance,” he said with a chuckle.
Time will tell.
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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.
