Back to Basics for Huggins’ Mountaineers

Thursday, November 15

Conway, S.C.

7:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

Monmouth

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Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

November 14, 2018 05:10 PM | Men's Basketball

Monmouth Game Notes

By: John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Huggins has spent the last five days trying to get his young basketball team to understand why it lost its season-opening game to Buffalo last Friday night.

He cited to them their unwillingness to block out rebounders, their inability to run the floor the way they need to and their ineffectiveness in throwing the basketball to open teammates.

The tape he showed them after Saturday's football game against TCU revealed all of those things.

Then, he mentioned some stats director of basketball operations Josh Eilert came up with to illustrate his No. 1 complaint with them right now – they shoot the basketball way too fast.

What he's trying to get them to understand is a good shot is not necessarily the first open shot you get.

"We were 2-of-5 (field goal attempts) when we didn't make a pass. Those two were layups," he began. "We were 2-for-11 when we shot it off the first pass. We were 8-for-15 when we passed it twice. We were 5-for-10 when we passed it three times, and we were 2-for-3 when we passed it four times."

As a result, these quick shots are making it impossible to defend on the other end of the floor.

"The reality is the teams with great defensive numbers control the game with their offense," Huggins explained. "They don't control it with their defense.

"We've been harping and harping at them about not shooting it so quick," he added. "Make them defend the whole floor. It's what people do to us."

West Virginia's two most recent losses - the charity exhibition game that didn't count to Penn State and the one that counted against Buffalo - showed us a West Virginia team with the talent to win, but also a team that doesn't quite yet understand how to win.

There were plenty of opportunities for the Mountaineers to win last Friday night's game against the Bulls, and it appeared West Virginia had things well in hand until guard James "Beetle" Bolden had to be helped off the floor with full-body cramping.

Bolden's career-high 21 points had the Mountaineers ahead by double digits when he departed with 4:43 remaining.

He didn't return, and West Virginia's lead soon left with him.

"Beetle was pretty good," Huggins admitted. "At the end we really didn't have Beetle or (Sagaba Konate), and at this point in the season, that's probably our two best returning guys."

Bolden, taped up from head to toe against Buffalo as he continues to deal with a variety of ailments, will have his health put to the test again this weekend.

Konate also continues to be slowed by a nagging knee injury that has limited his time on the court.

"The two guys that were hurt are the two guys that haven't practiced," Huggins noted. "That's why practice is so important – one of the many reasons why practice is so important."

West Virginia (0-1) will play three games in a span of four days down Myrtle Beach beginning with Thursday night's game against Monmouth, now 0-3 following opening season losses to St. Joseph's, Colgate and Lehigh.

The Hawks were really good two years ago when they won 27 games under eighth-year coach King Rice, a former point guard for Dean Smith at North Carolina, but they have fallen on hard times of late.

Last year, Monmouth won just 11 while battling through injuries, and this year it's been more of the same.

Therefore, Thursday night's game is more about West Virginia getting its house in order - something Huggins will eventually get accomplished. He's won with inexperienced basketball teams before, and he will teach this one how to win as well.

"We have to get more fundamental," he explained. "The guy with the ball has got to make a lot of decisions. It comes down to, I think, sometimes guys have the ball that shouldn't have the ball, and certainly shouldn't have it at times when you need to make a play."

Thursday night's contest will be played at sold-out HTC Center on the campus of Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.

A 7 p.m. tip time has been assigned to accommodate ESPNU national television coverage (Rich Hollenberg and Debbie Antonelli).

The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's radio coverage begins at 6 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.

Sirius XM satellite radio will also carry the Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG broadcast on channel 98.

This will be West Virginia's second-ever meeting against the Hawks, the first taking place four years ago on Nov. 14, 2014, when the Mountaineers won 64-54.

Briefly:

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* With last Friday night's loss to now 25^th-ranked Buffalo, West Virginia dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time since 2015, ending a streak of 55 consecutive weeks in the rankings, which was one shy of a school record established in 1960 during Jerry West's senior season.

"I tried to use the fact that if we stayed in the top 25 for two more weeks we would have set the school record," Huggins said. "We would have broken a record that happened in (1960). To me that's kind of neat. When you finish your career you can say 'I was a part of a team that did this' instead of 'I was part of a team that won 15 games and people didn't show up to watch us play – and shouldn't have.'"

* When asked what is different about fixing things after the season-opening loss to Buffalo compared to last year when West Virginia opened the season with a 23-point loss to Texas A&M, Huggins was succinct, "J.C. and Dax," he said. Of course, he's referring to his top two backcourt players last year, All-America Jevon Carter and 1,000-point scorer Daxter Miles Jr.

"We have got to have some people step up and do a better job of leading," Huggins added. "I think Beetle will and I think Sags will, but it's hard to listen to guys that haven't been in practice."

* According to Huggins, the Myrtle Beach Invitational came about when Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico last year and the island is still trying to recover.

"They had to move it out of Puerto Rico and they tried to take it to a spot that is attractive for people to go to," Huggins said. "I knew we had a bunch of fans in Myrtle Beach, but I didn't realize we have the amount of people in Myrtle Beach that we do have."

Many of them will be in the HTC Center Thursday night.

Huggins said the same tournament promoters who run the Myrtle Beach Invitational also have tournaments on the West Coast and Hawaii, but he felt the Myrtle Beach Invitational would be better suited for Mountaineer fans.

That played a role when director of athletics Shane Lyons and Huggins ultimately picked this tournament instead of others.

"I try and listen to our boosters and our fans for the places they like to go," Huggins said. "I don't want to go to Hawaii because we travel so much, and I just think that would be a detriment to us so we try to play a little closer.

"We're a very sought-after team for these tournaments," Huggins added, "but I just think we have to be very careful about how much travel we add on to what we are already required to make."

* Huggins said it was his decision not to play freshman forward Derek Culver in last Friday night's loss to Buffalo. "Derek has got to do what he's supposed to do," he said, adding, "I don't think having him out there would have made much of a difference."

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