Wanted: Shot Makers
March 18, 2012 08:49 AM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia's inability to make shots was its undoing in Thursday night's disappointing NCAA tournament loss to Gonzaga.
Poor shooting has been a recurring theme for the Mountaineers during the latter part of the year as they lost nine of their final 13 games, including Thursday’s 23-point defeat to the Bulldogs - Coach Bob Huggins' second worst loss in 20 NCAA appearances.
"I've never got beat like that," said Huggins. "We were never really in the game."
Against Gonzaga West Virginia shot just 32.7 percent - the 10th time this season it failed to shoot at least 40 percent from the floor. The team’s inability to make shots consistently put pressure on all aspects of West Virginia's game this year.
"Everybody has tendencies and you try and take their tendencies away. The truth of the matter is this is kind a microcosm of our season," said Huggins. "This is the worst defensive team I've ever had in 30 years. We don't get to help, we don't get the loose balls; we just don't do the things we've done for years and years and years.
"A lot of it is because we are so inept offensively. They get breakouts. We throw the ball around; we throw the ball to them. That adds to it," said Huggins.
Because West Virginia did not have a reliable outside shooter that allowed Gonzaga to surround forward Kevin Jones in the paint and dare the Mountaineers to fire away. Bulldogs coach Mark Few studied the stat sheet and he clearly saw that West Virginia struggled to make 30 percent of its 3-point tries despite attempting nearly 600 for the season.
"We're trying to spread people and they're taking guys away from the ball," explained Huggins. "KJ had three guys on him. It's a smart thing to do. Finally at the end I said 'skip it, skip it skip it' and we skip it but we didn't make any. Why do you worry about guys if they're not going to make shots?"
Finding outside shooters has to be one of West Virginia's top priorities for next season. The coaching staff believes they may have found a good one in North Carolina guard Terry Henderson, signed last November. The Mountaineers also have two high-quality offensive players sitting out this year in transfers Juwan Staten and Aaric Murray.
But equally important to finding shooters and skilled offensive players is getting more guys in the program who understand how to play the game. Huggins touched on that very subject when asked what impressed him most about Gonzaga.
"Mark has done a great job of recruiting guys who know how to play basketball. I think sometimes you get caught up in guys who can run and jump and they have no clue how to play basketball," Huggins said. "(Gonzaga) knows how to play. It's hard when you can't make any adjustments. The adjustments they make defensively and on the offensive end are because he's got guys with high basketball IQs."
Huggins thought a key moment this season came against Pitt in Morgantown when freshman forward Kevin Noreen went down with a broken foot. It's hard to imagine a player who only averaged 2.2 points and 2.7 rebounds per game being a big loss, but Huggins thought Noreen's presence on the floor made all of his teammates better because of his great understanding of the game.
"You know, when we started losing games is when Kevin Noreen went down," Huggins explained. "Kevin is not a great athlete or a great leaper but he knows what he's doing. He screens, he guards and he passes the ball. We were so much better offensively when he was in the game because he knew how to play. And there is nothing you can do about that."
Or the fact that Huggins was forced to play so many freshmen - some of them clearly not ready for the level of basketball expected of Huggins' teams.
"We just had too many of them," said Huggins. "We lose a guy because of a medical condition. We lose another guy because of some issues. We lose a guy basically because his father was ill and he decided to go closer to home and all of a sudden you're looking at having two seniors and Deniz (Kilicli), and everybody else a freshman except for Dom (Rutledge), a junior college guy.
"We chose to go the freshman route and bring in those freshmen. I tell you guys all the time we want them to be better but Joe Mazzulla wasn't any good when he was a freshman. Alex Ruoff, when he was a freshman, you didn't want to put him into the game. They made themselves into very, very good players."
And you don't have to be in the game as long as Huggins to understand that a coach can't make a living off of a roster full of freshmen. Playing a bunch of freshmen at the same time is like drinking water from a fire hose.
"It's 18-year old kids playing against men in a lot of instances and very rarely do those guys fare well unless they are exceptional, exceptional players and obviously our guys are not exceptional players," Huggins said. "Now we hope the Jabarie Hinds' and the Gary Browne's do what those other guys did. But you've got to want to. I mean when Kevin Jones came in nobody thought Kevin Jones would be the player he is, but he turned himself into a good player and I've been fortunate through the years to have guys do that."
Coaches often say a player being a year older doesn't necessarily make them better - it only makes them older.
Getting better is up to them.
Poor shooting has been a recurring theme for the Mountaineers during the latter part of the year as they lost nine of their final 13 games, including Thursday’s 23-point defeat to the Bulldogs - Coach Bob Huggins' second worst loss in 20 NCAA appearances.
"I've never got beat like that," said Huggins. "We were never really in the game."
Against Gonzaga West Virginia shot just 32.7 percent - the 10th time this season it failed to shoot at least 40 percent from the floor. The team’s inability to make shots consistently put pressure on all aspects of West Virginia's game this year.
"Everybody has tendencies and you try and take their tendencies away. The truth of the matter is this is kind a microcosm of our season," said Huggins. "This is the worst defensive team I've ever had in 30 years. We don't get to help, we don't get the loose balls; we just don't do the things we've done for years and years and years.
"A lot of it is because we are so inept offensively. They get breakouts. We throw the ball around; we throw the ball to them. That adds to it," said Huggins.
Because West Virginia did not have a reliable outside shooter that allowed Gonzaga to surround forward Kevin Jones in the paint and dare the Mountaineers to fire away. Bulldogs coach Mark Few studied the stat sheet and he clearly saw that West Virginia struggled to make 30 percent of its 3-point tries despite attempting nearly 600 for the season.
"We're trying to spread people and they're taking guys away from the ball," explained Huggins. "KJ had three guys on him. It's a smart thing to do. Finally at the end I said 'skip it, skip it skip it' and we skip it but we didn't make any. Why do you worry about guys if they're not going to make shots?"
Finding outside shooters has to be one of West Virginia's top priorities for next season. The coaching staff believes they may have found a good one in North Carolina guard Terry Henderson, signed last November. The Mountaineers also have two high-quality offensive players sitting out this year in transfers Juwan Staten and Aaric Murray.
But equally important to finding shooters and skilled offensive players is getting more guys in the program who understand how to play the game. Huggins touched on that very subject when asked what impressed him most about Gonzaga.
"Mark has done a great job of recruiting guys who know how to play basketball. I think sometimes you get caught up in guys who can run and jump and they have no clue how to play basketball," Huggins said. "(Gonzaga) knows how to play. It's hard when you can't make any adjustments. The adjustments they make defensively and on the offensive end are because he's got guys with high basketball IQs."
Huggins thought a key moment this season came against Pitt in Morgantown when freshman forward Kevin Noreen went down with a broken foot. It's hard to imagine a player who only averaged 2.2 points and 2.7 rebounds per game being a big loss, but Huggins thought Noreen's presence on the floor made all of his teammates better because of his great understanding of the game.
"You know, when we started losing games is when Kevin Noreen went down," Huggins explained. "Kevin is not a great athlete or a great leaper but he knows what he's doing. He screens, he guards and he passes the ball. We were so much better offensively when he was in the game because he knew how to play. And there is nothing you can do about that."
Or the fact that Huggins was forced to play so many freshmen - some of them clearly not ready for the level of basketball expected of Huggins' teams.
"We just had too many of them," said Huggins. "We lose a guy because of a medical condition. We lose another guy because of some issues. We lose a guy basically because his father was ill and he decided to go closer to home and all of a sudden you're looking at having two seniors and Deniz (Kilicli), and everybody else a freshman except for Dom (Rutledge), a junior college guy.
"We chose to go the freshman route and bring in those freshmen. I tell you guys all the time we want them to be better but Joe Mazzulla wasn't any good when he was a freshman. Alex Ruoff, when he was a freshman, you didn't want to put him into the game. They made themselves into very, very good players."
And you don't have to be in the game as long as Huggins to understand that a coach can't make a living off of a roster full of freshmen. Playing a bunch of freshmen at the same time is like drinking water from a fire hose.
"It's 18-year old kids playing against men in a lot of instances and very rarely do those guys fare well unless they are exceptional, exceptional players and obviously our guys are not exceptional players," Huggins said. "Now we hope the Jabarie Hinds' and the Gary Browne's do what those other guys did. But you've got to want to. I mean when Kevin Jones came in nobody thought Kevin Jones would be the player he is, but he turned himself into a good player and I've been fortunate through the years to have guys do that."
Coaches often say a player being a year older doesn't necessarily make them better - it only makes them older.
Getting better is up to them.
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