Huggins-Main-31916.jpg
Campus Connection: Plenty of Motivation in '17
March 20, 2016 01:07 PM | Men's Basketball
BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Just like that, West Virginia’s outstanding 2016 men’s basketball season is over.
And it happened in a New York minute.
Stephen F. Austin proved that bigger is not always better on Friday night when the undersized Lumberjacks played like they were 10 feet tall in defeating the third-seeded Mountaineers, 70-56.
Stephen F. Austin turned ugly into pretty by forcing 22 West Virginia turnovers and out-shooting the Mountaineers 30.9 percent to 30.8 percent (a whopping 0.1 percent), the Lumberjacks eventually making a couple of clutch threes down the stretch and demonstrating once again that guard play and experience are major factors in which teams advance in the NCAA tournament.
The Lumberjacks start three seniors in the backcourt – Thomas Walkup, Demetrious Floyd and Trey Pinkney, and they brought a senior forward off the bench, Trey Geffrard - so it’s not surprising those four players were big contributors in Friday’s stunning upset victory.
These guys did it once before in 2014, beating VCU’s press and advancing to the NCAA tournament second round. They almost did it last year, trailing Utah by two with a minute to go before losing by five, and they certainly did it on Friday night in Brooklyn, New York, against West Virginia.
Walkup scored 33 points, getting 19 of those from the free throw line, Geffrard contributed 14 points and eight rebounds, and Floyd added nine points, two assists and four steals. After the game, SFA coach Brad Underwood declared Walkup the best player on the floor and it’s really hard to argue with that – at least on Friday night.
West Virginia, which had accomplished so much this season, did so little in its most important game of the year. Virtually everything West Virginia did to get to the Big Dance was missing on Friday night.
The Mountaineers took pride in turning teams over, but Stephen F. Austin had no trouble against West Virginia’s press, committing just seven turnovers by relying on five different players to bring the ball up the court.
The Mountaineers took pride in getting more shots than their opponents, but Stephen F. Austin had three more shot attempts than West Virginia did on Friday night.
The Mountaineers’ mantra all season was your five may be better than our five, but our 10 is better than your 10, but Stephen F. Austin’s bench stuck close to West Virginia’s, the Mountaineer reserves only outscoring the Lumberjack reserves by five points.
Then there were the areas where West Virginia has struggled all season – specifically, scoring in transition, making open shots, passing the basketball, and, fouling.
West Virginia had numerous opportunities to score in transition on Friday and failed to do so; time after time open looks turned into defensive rebounds for Stephen F. Austin, and, WVU fouled and fouled and fouled and fouled - 27 of them in all - leading to 39 free throw attempts for Stephen F. Austin.
There were also two technicals, one called on Nathan Adrian in the first half when he got tangled up with C.J. Williams underneath the basket after Floyd made a jump shot to pull Stephen F. Austin to within one, 26-25. Walkup made both free throws to give Stephen F. Austin its first lead since the start of the game.
The other occurred with 5:15 left in the game and the Mountaineers trailing by 11 with the basketball. Instead of scoring two points to reduce the Lumberjacks’ lead to nine, Walkup walked back to the line where he made two more charities to make it a 13-point game.
At that point West Virginia’s fate was sealed.
It was a disappointing ending to what otherwise was a terrific season for coach Bob Huggins’ Mountaineers. West Virginia won 24 regular season games - the most since the Final Four season in 2010 - and its 26 victories in 2016 are tied for the fifth-most-ever in school history.
WVU ended the regular season ranked No. 8 in the country and had its best regular season and postseason-tournament finish since joining the Big 12, a league all hoop experts agreed was the best in the country this year.
Many knowledgeable people thought West Virginia was geared for a long NCAA tournament run because of its unique, pressing style of play. Instead, a disappointing 40 minutes were all WVU could muster.
“They worked so hard to make a run at this deal, and I feel bad for them,” said Huggins. “I feel bad I didn’t do a good enough job getting them ready to go.”
West Virginia’s players had committed the mortal basketball sin of underestimating its opponent.
“We just didn’t take it serious,” admitted junior forward Devin Williams. “When you don’t prepare the right way, not individually, but as a team - if we’re not dialed in as a team, that’s what happens. That’s pretty much it.”
So, where does WVU go from here?
With the exception of seniors Jaysean Paige and Jonathan Holton, the nucleus of this year’s team is returning for 2017. There are experienced, proven players coming back in Jevon Carter, Daxter Miles Jr., Nathan Adrian, Tarik Phillip and Elijah Macon.
Williams told reporters in the team locker room after Friday’s loss that he is returning for 2017, and if that happens, Huggins should have the personnel to continue to play the way he played this year.
There are two bigs, 6-foot-8 forward Sagaba Konate and 6-foot-10 Maciej Bender, and two guards, 6-foot-1 Brandon Knapper and 6-foot-3 Chase Harler, in this year’s signing class, plus, the availability of point guard James Bolden, who sat out this year because of a knee injury.
The word is Bolden’s skills passing the basketball and making plays in the open court will aid WVU greatly next season. The biggest question mark with Bolden will be his ability to guard other Big 12 guards, especially the bigger guards in the league.
A healthier Brandon Watkins could be a factor next year as a rim protector, something WVU sorely needed in 2016. It will be interesting to see if athletic Lamont West improves enough to be an option next season, possibly as Holton’s replacement, or, if 7-footer Logan Routt is capable of giving WVU some minutes in the paint as some close to the program think is possible.
Can Teyvon Myers finally make the transition from being a high-scoring junior college guard to a reliable offensive threat in the Big 12, and, can Esa Ahmad take the next step in his basketball career?
Ahmad’s performance on Friday night against Stephen F. Austin gave us yet another glimpse of what we saw all season from the freshman – 10 points, three rebounds, two blocks and an assist – this coming in just a tantalizing 18 minutes of court time.
Can Ahmad become a marquee player for the Mountaineers in 2017 as he was in high school as Ohio’s two-time player of the year?
Indeed, the possibilities for Huggins’ group next season are intriguing, not to mention the players now have plenty of motivation heading into the offseason following last Friday’s performance.
It’s one thing for the year to end in disappointing fashion as was the case in 2015 when West Virginia lost the way it did to Kentucky. But that occurred in the Sweet 16, and the Wildcats were clearly the far superior basketball team.
But was 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin from the Southland Conference 14 points better than West Virginia?
The returning players will have plenty of time to mull that one over.
Ross Hodge, Honor Huff & Brenen Lorient | Oklahoma Postgame
Sunday, April 05
Ross Hodge, Treysen Eaglestaff & Brenen Lorient | Creighton Postgame
Saturday, April 04
Ross Hodge & Honor Huff | Stanford Postgame
Thursday, April 02
Ross Hodge | College Basketball Crown Preview
Monday, March 30
