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WVU to Meet No. 2 Jayhawks Tuesday
January 23, 2017 03:01 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Now two days removed from Saturday’s 79-75 loss at Kansas State, No. 18 West Virginia turns its attention to the other major Sunflower State hoops team - No. 2 Kansas, which makes its annual trek to Morgantown for a Tuesday night clash on ESPN.
West Virginia is looking to snap a two-game losing streak, which saw the Mountaineers unable to make critical plays down the stretch to close out games.
Against Oklahoma last Wednesday night, West Virginia played beautifully for a five-minute stretch midway through the second half when it built a 15-point lead.
But then West Virginia had a couple of empty offensive possessions and Oklahoma made a run and got back into the game. Still, the Mountaineers had opportunities at the foul line in overtime to close out the Sooners but were unable to do so.
Against Kansas State, West Virginia made its free throws - 21 of 24 - but this time it was 23 turnovers - several in live-ball situations - that were WVU’s undoing.
It was the first time this year West Virginia has struggled to this degree handling the basketball.
“The first thing I told them (Sunday) when we went back and practiced was, ‘When we met in April after the season, two things have got to change - we can’t turn the ball over and we’ve got to make free throws,’” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “If we do that then we’re going to be one of the better teams in the country. As long as we did that we were. Everybody got excited about the Virginia game. Well, we didn’t turn the ball over and we made free throws.”
The alarming part regarding Saturday’s performance was many of the turnovers that led to Kansas State baskets were unforced.
“We just got into a hurry,” Huggins explained.
The critical turnover happened with 26 seconds remaining and West Virginia trailing, 76-73. Here Esa Ahmad simply made an errant throw that led to Barry Brown’s steal and game-deciding layup with 23 seconds left.
“It was almost like he tried to get it back after he threw it. He knew it was a bad decision,” Huggins said. “Then we missed two layups. They were hard layups. They were contested but they were layups both of those guys had made earlier in the game.”
The two misses occurred with 4:38 left and WVU leading, 68-67, and with 32 seconds to go and the Mountaineers trailing by three.
Those are winning plays West Virginia was making earlier this season.
Huggins is also concerned about the way his team is defending right now. He believes there is not enough ball pressure being applied and that is leading to a number of different issues - namely open looks for 3s and lobs to the basket for dunks.
“Our ball pressure is not what it was and I’m not sure why,” he said. “Maybe we’re playing guys too many minutes but then it’s hard when you put a guy in and he gives up a straight-line drive to the basket for a layup. That’s hard to keep him in the game.”
Huggins said his guys are going to have to do a better job of making the ball handlers more uncomfortable.
That was the formula to West Virginia’s success earlier this year.
“Any time you have numbers and you can stand and look around you’re going to find an open guy. That’s part of it. Our whole game is about trying to create numbers,” he said. “What you try and do is not let them stand and look around.
“You don’t give them looks. You put them in an uncomfortable position where they’re more worried about you than they are about where they’re going to throw the ball,” he added.
As for defending the lobs that have led to several easy baskets the last couple of games, Huggins said it’s a matter of the players better executing the things they are being coached to do in practice.
“You can’t help up,” he explained. “I learned that years ago playing Louisville. Every time we helped up they dunked it on us. We worked on it for two days we just didn’t execute it very well.
“We haven’t done a good enough job of getting back in tandem,” he said. “When you get back in tandem you have a better chance.”
Still, despite some of the issues that have popped up in the last two games, despite missing some critical free throws down the stretch against Oklahoma, and despite committing 23 turnovers last Saturday against Kansas State, West Virginia had a chance to win both games.
There is clearly a message the players can take out of that.
“The message is we’re pretty good,” Huggins noted. “We haven’t finished games for really a multitude of reasons.”
Briefly:
* Kansas is not No. 1 in the AP poll this week, but the Jayhawks are No. 1 in the Coaches’ poll, making Tuesday night the third time in the last two years college basketball’s No. 1-ranked team is coming to Morgantown.
Kansas is once again off to an undefeated start in conference play and is beginning to get separation from the rest of the league, particularly teams three through 10.
The Jayhawks don’t lose at home and they continue to win the tough, grind-it-out games on the road, too: by six at TCU, by 11 at Oklahoma and by four at Iowa State.
But in Morgantown, KU is just 1-3 since West Virginia joined the Big 12 in 2012 - the lone victory coming in 2013 when West Virginia was suffering through a 13-19 season.
Since then, the Jayhawks have lost 92-86 in 2014, 62-61 in 2015 and 74-63 last year.
West Virginia can expect a determined and focused Kansas team on Tuesday night, that’s for sure.
“They’re terrific in transition,” Huggins said. “They’ve got multiple guys that can push the ball. They’ve got great speed; they’re great finishers. I haven’t seen anybody near as good in transition as they are.”
Of course, the most recognizable players are senior point guard Frank Mason III, who is averaging a team-best 20.1 points per game, 6-foot-8 freshman guard Josh Jackson, second on the team averaging 15.1 points per game and junior guard Devonte’ Graham, whose outside shooting hurt the Mountaineers in last year’s Big 12 tournament championship game.
But the guy Huggins believes makes those other players operate more efficiently is 6-foot-10-inch, 250-pound senior center Landen Lucas.
Lucas doesn’t score a whole lot (7.6 ppg.), he doesn’t lead the country in rebounding (7.9 rpg.) and he doesn’t block a high number of shots, but he does everything just well enough to cover up for his teammates.
His unselfish play is what makes Kansas one of the best basketball teams in the country, in Huggins’ opinion.
“In my mind, unquestionably, he’s the most valuable big guy in the league for what he does,” he said. “He defends the rim for them. They can take chances because he can defend the rim. When they need somebody to really rebound the ball he’ll get 18 rebounds. When he needs to score he can score. When he doesn’t need to score he’s really happy just rebounding the ball, (throwing outlet passes) and watching those other guys run.
“One, he’s the ultimate team guy and really he’s the most valuable guy on their team. Without Landen Lucas they’re not near as good.”’
Having said that, Huggins will still have to focus a lot of attention on Mason because he’s so lethal with the basketball in his hands.
“I think the old adage you cut off the head to kill the monster is still probably apropos,” he said. “Especially after watching the Steelers (against the Patriots) the other day.”
* West Virginia dropped 11 spots to No. 18 in both polls on Monday after its losses last week to Oklahoma and Kansas State. This is the lowest the Mountaineers have dropped since falling to No. 25 following their 81-77 loss to Temple in Brooklyn, New York back on November 25.
* Tuesday night’s game was announced a sellout four days ago - one of three sellouts for the Mountaineers in league play so far this season. The attendance for Kansas’ four prior games in Morgantown have been strong with one exception: the Monday, February 16, 2015 meeting when just 7,033 fans showed up.
Last year on a Tuesday night, 12,097 came out to see WVU upset the No. 1 Jayhawks, and three years ago, 14,038 were at the Coliseum on a Saturday afternoon to see an entertaining, 92-86 Mountaineer victory over the eighth-rated Jayhawks.
KU’s first game at the Coliseum on Monday, January 28, 2013 drew 12,042 fans. Kansas was ranked No. 2 that year.
* The late switch from ESPN2 to ESPN means fans will get to see ESPN’s top weeknight crew Jon Sciambi, Dick Vitale and Andy Katz call the game.
This will be Dickie V’s first appearance in Morgantown since March 7, 2009, when the Mountaineers dropped a 62-59 decision to sixth-ranked Louisville.
Tipoff on Tuesday will be 7 p.m.
College Basketball Crown Recap
Thursday, April 16
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
