Losing streak ends at 3

[bbwvfan]

There is still the ESPN+ streak to worry about...

However... we are officially on a winning streak now...

An ugly game. A terrible first half of play with Okie St hitting over 60% of their shots. WVU shot better from the floor in the 2nd half... blocked a ton of Okie St shots at the rim... and opened up a comfortable lead on the Pokes as they could do nothing offensively. What did they score... 14 pts in the half?

Huggs went with a new starting lineup. McCabe played very little the entire game... none in the 2nd half. Knapper didn’t play at all... nor did Routt. Basically an 8 man rotation. Culver started the 2nd half and played better on defense.

Huggs tied Dean Smith in victories. That’s kind of a big deal...

 

[GoldRusher]

Fun fact:

No Bob Huggins tournament team has ever had a 4 game losing streak...

Also, Huggs tied Dean Smith with that W.
Now, on to the weasel, Roy Williams.

 

[Anotherwvufan]

He will catch and pass Roy this year. Who would have thought that a Wv coach passes a coach from mighty North Carolina. Hope I didn’t jinx him.

I liked the smaller rotation. If we can get our guards to make shots at a reasonable rate, this team is capable of going far. McNeil Taz or Deuce need to step up more. We need someone who puts up 20 or more routinely.

Haley’s buzzer beater at the end of the half is big for the teams confidence.

 

[GoldRusher]

He will catch and pass Roy this year. Who would have thought that a Wv coach passes a coach from mighty North Carolina. Hope I didn’t jinx him.

I liked the smaller rotation. If we can get our guards to make shots at a reasonable rate, this team is capable of going far. McNeil Taz or Deuce need to step up more. We need someone who puts up 20 or more routinely.

Haley’s buzzer beater at the end of the half is big for the teams confidence.

Been saying it all season, we get one of the guards to get it figured out & put up 20 per for the month of March we MIGHT just win it all..

 

[bbwvfan]

Been saying it all season, we get one of the guards to get it figured out & put up 20 per for the month of March we MIGHT just win it all..

Our guards have to be on the court in order to score... in order to help this team. Huggs had a plan to rotate our guards this season... to platoon them... in order to keep fresh legs on the court. This has lead to the following minutes/gm numbers for our guards...

McBride - 22.2
Haley - 23.8
Harler - 17.1
McNeil - 13.7
McCabe - 13.7
Sherman - 12.4
Knapper - 9.2

As we all know, Huggs puts a priority on defense. One thing I have never understood, how is someone expected to get better at anything if they're sitting on the bench? Our best scorers... Taz and Sean... may be riding the bench.

Look at the best teams in the country today and compare their guards' playing time...

BU... Butler - 29.7, Teague - 32.8, Mitchell - 31.6
Gonzaga... Gilder - 25.3, Ayayi - 29.1, Woolridge - 32.2
KU... Dotson - 34.8, Agbaji - 33.6, Garrett - 32.0

 

[GoldRusher]

Our guards have to be on the court in order to score... in order to help this team. Huggs had a plan to rotate our guards this season... to platoon them... in order to keep fresh legs on the court. This has lead to the following minutes/gm numbers for our guards...

McBride - 22.2
Haley - 23.8
Harler - 17.1
McNeil - 13.7
McCabe - 13.7
Sherman - 12.4
Knapper - 9.2

As we all know, Huggs puts a priority on defense. One thing I have never understood, how is someone expected to get better at anything if they're sitting on the bench? Our best scorers... Taz and Sean... may be riding the bench.

Look at the best teams in the country today and compare their guards' playing time...

BU... Butler - 29.7, Teague - 32.8, Mitchell - 31.6
Gonzaga... Gilder - 25.3, Ayayi - 29.1, Woolridge - 32.2
KU... Dotson - 34.8, Agbaji - 33.6, Garrett - 32.0

Good point(s), Huggs needs to let it ride at times and just let guys play through it so to speak, especially the shooters, sometimes those are the kind of guys that just have to shoot til they get hot and it may take a few misses to get there.

 

[bbwvfan]

Huggs wanted to wear teams down this year with the depth of his team. He loves to rehash old sayings/cliches...

Our starting 5 might not be better than your starting 5, but our best 10 might be better than your best 10.

There really should be no question that Taz and Sean can shoot the rock. Are they the best defenders? Huggs wants to win with defense. So... his scorers ride the bench.

You ain’t gonna generate outside shooting when you constantly pound the ball inside to Culver. He can’t pass it out of double teams. We run no offense to get guys like Taz or Sean step in shots. Taz has been scoring by creating space. Deuce is a great pull up jump shooting guard. But, both Taz and Deuce are doing things in ISO.

 

[Mac_Bridger]

I really don't understand the unwillingness to play Taz either. While he's not the best defender, he's not a liability either. He does hustle and play defense. I certainly think playing Taz is a net gain for us.

 

[Anotherwvufan]

Taz will get more time as he continues to improve on both ends of the floor. McNeil can be really soft defensively but has great hustle and a great shot. I see both of these guys having a big chance to contribute.

Spreading the minutes with this group is justified. We are not wearing out these guys legs during the regular season. Each of our guards have come in at some point of the season and been hot. It does not seem to be the same one game to game. I can see the spread in playing time as none our guards have stood out as being better than the rest. Down the line, you can make a good argument to make any of the seven to be tarters.

McCabe is a leader in the gym and works a hard as anyone.
Hailey is the most consistent performer.
Deuce can dominate but is hot and cold
Harler knows the offense and defense best
Knapper has the skills to start
Taz can be a dominant scorer, plays good defense
McNeil has the best outside shot of the group

All of these guys are good and deserve playing time. Those minutes may keep one from transferring out.

 

[bbwvfan]

Spreading the minutes amongst our guards is justified?

Haley has the 3rd most TO's on the team... behind our two big men Culver and Oscar. He has the most TO's of the guards. As a 2G, he is averaging 2 TO/gm in conference play. As a perimeter player, he is zero threat from the perimeter. Again... using conference stats... he's taken 9 3PA.

During our 3 game losing streak, we had the following FG%...

OU - 31.6%
KU - 31.7%
BU - 34.5%

We've proven we cannot win with our defense. We've proven the current strategy of spreading the minutes between our guards is not an advantage. Come on... we scored 49 pts at home against KU... 19 pts in the 2nd half of the game.

We have 3 guards who can score buckets for us if given the opportunity. IMO... if we're going to turn this year into something special... they need to play so we can utilize their talent... increase their confidence... allow them to be in rhythm.

 

[Mac_Bridger]

From the way we've played on the road, I can't see this year being anything more than one and done.

 

[bbwvfan]

From the way we've played on the road, I can't see this year being anything more than one and done.

Today’s loss was terrible. TCU had lost 7 of their last 8... 11 of their last 13 before today. Not a good team at all.

We now are on a losing streak...

 

[Mac_Bridger]

This team is incapable of winning on the road...

 

[bbwvfan]

This team is incapable of winning on the road...

Fucking bizarre really.

As I'm watching the first half of the game, I'm actually feeling pretty confident as the team's lead stretched to 10 pts. Taz was a marksman... Emmitt was playing with a lot of energy... getting offensive rebounds and scoring inside.

Then... for some strange reason... he puts Knapper into the game late. Both Jordan and Deuce had been benched for not making good entry passes to the post... and we don't score for the last 3:31 of the half.

To start the 2nd half, Huggs changes his lineup again... going with both DC and OT. OT was having a terrible game, but he wasn't allowed to play through it at all. Taz hardly gets any shot attempts in the 2nd half... I don't think he did much until the last shot attempt of the game... hardly anything in OT.

Now... they get to play Texas tomorrow night in front of no one. It will be a weird scene. How will our kids react?

After what I saw yesterday, I'm not very optimistic...

 

[Anotherwvufan]

This team cannot make a shot when they need to. Taz missed the shot to win. McNeil starts OT with an airball.

What happened to Oscar?

Here is my thought on the lineup Start Culver Matthews, Haley, McCabe, and Harler. If they do not produce,pull all 5 and put in Oscar, Gabe, McBride, Taz and McNeil.

I really had high expectations for this team but they have disappeared. This is still a big improvement from last year and we have a great recruiting class coming in . Losing Haley and Harler will give us a shorter more solid rotation at guard and we will have a logjam at forward. The core of this team is young. If they stay together for the next two years, they could be very special.

Who knows, shooters get hot and we could always make a run.

 

[bbwvfan]

Wow...

I’m feeling like Huggs lost another team.

While I’ll keep watching them play every second of every minute of every game... I’ve lost all hope that this season could be special in any way...

 

[GoldRusher]

Time for Huggs to fix it.....

 

[DCWV4life]

Here are WVU’s team stats and national rankings out of 353 teams:

Offensive rebounding – #1
Total Rebounding – 10
Free throws attempted – 10
Steals – 58
Blocks – 115
Scoring – 208
Assists – 232
Points per shot - 241
FG% - 250
Assist to Turnover ratio – 296
FT% - 334
3pt made - 337
3pt% - 338

 

[Slaton10]

Here are WVU’s team stats and national rankings out of 353 teams:

Offensive rebounding – #1
Total Rebounding – 10
Free throws attempted – 10
Steals – 58
Blocks – 115
Scoring – 208
Assists – 232
Points per shot - 241
FG% - 250
Assist to Turnover ratio – 296
FT% - 334
3pt made - 337
3pt% - 338

You would think if they just closed their eyes and channel their best Mr Miagi they would visualize just a couple more in ...

 

[GoldRusher]

Not a good look at all right now.

One side of me says “its just a young team” wait til next year” ect.

But then another side says “Huggs has lost another team and his offensive philosophy is the problem yet he wont change it up” or

“well there goes another group out the door at the end of this year that might actually be good next year but the transfer rules ect. Have done away with any patience at all on everybody’s part”

Its a mess right now for sure.