My belated fiver on WVU's loss in Knoxville over the weekend...
1. Better team won. Fun little start got your attention, didn't it? Admit it, you even felt a slight twinge inside, somewhere down deep, that you hadn't felt since halftime of the WVU/Oklahoma State football game - called "hope"...maybe even "optimism". We were up 17-5 on #1. Chase Harler, Jordan McCabe, Lamont West and even Esa Ahmad were making it rain from three-point range. The crowd was silent, in shock. Dick Vitale was saying "WVU isn't supposed to be able to do this!". Rick Barnes called "time out" in exasperation. Then, the hot mic picked up Rick Barnes saying the scariest thing we could possibly hear him say to his top ranked Volunteer squad: "Guys, just play basketball! That's all you have to do. Just go play basketball!". So simple, yet so true. When you defend against our offense, and attack our defense, you really don't need to do anything overly complicated, artistic or even advanced. Just play hoops, man. You'll get some wide open looks, and you can rest assured that our offense will throw the ball right to you. Sure 'nuff. We were down ten at half, and UT dominated the rest of the contest, as they should've. We're not on their level right now, in many facets.
2. Jermaine Haley played the worst game I've seen a point guard play for WVU this season, and that's saying A LOT. 2 points and 5 turnovers in 15 horrific minutes. It may be time for Jermaine to take a breather. I don't even know who to play at point. I'll stop guessing now. @Thick could probably provide some numbers for our best guard combo. Honestly, I'm at the point where I just don't even know.
3. 24 turnovers. I mean, c'mon. We're supposed to be playing basketball at the highest level. This is absolutely not acceptable, and the product we're putting on the floor right now is pig vomit. Someone needs to be held accountable. We're a prideful bunch, and the folks who are part of Mountaineer Nation - in and out of the state - take a great deal of pride in our basketball program. And, we passed embarassing a while back, right around the time TCU pounded us in Ft. Worth. We are now at "sad".
4. Derek Culver gives me a glimmer of hope for the future. The kid is as good as advertised, and he has a bright future ahead of him. He's working hard, and I'm happy to see that. I hope he sticks with it and ignores the mess in front of him. What about the rest? Who gives you/us hope for the future? I still like Jordan McCabe. I think he can become a solid player at point. Recall that point guards such as JD Collins and Darris Nicholls were very rough around the edges as freshmen. He'll work at it. The two guys who I just can't figure out, for right now and for the future, are Wesley Harris and Lamont West. Harris, in particular, is maddening. He almost looks like he's checked out. He was playing with a lot of promise earlier, but now...he's just a foul machine and he's not even doing the dirty work anymore - 1 steal, 1 offensive rebound in 27 minutes to go with 5 fouls.
5. Hoping against hope that change will occur. "I'll fix this" worked one time before in pretty quick fashion. But, it wasn't as quick as folks seem to remember. We finished 2012 with a first round NCAA thumping by Gonzaga, 77-54, then went 10-19 in 2013, which was awful. 2014 was a bit better at 17-16, but still not good by our standards. That was the season ending NIT loss to Georgetown, where we had about three or four guys quit on the floor, basically. That was the loss that led to Press Virginia. In comes Jevon Carter, Dax Miles Jr., Tarik Phillip and Jaysean Paige, and we're off for a fun four year ride. This year, we're staring at another 10-19, then what? There's no Juwan Staten, Nate Adrian and Gary Browne coming back to steady the ship - this is what concerns me. We really could use a wholesale change in both personnel, and on our coaching staff - the assistants. My sincere hope is that Shane Lyons and Bob Huggins meet to discuss making these changes, and perhaps bringing in an ultra-successful coach with West Virginia ties Jim Crutchfield - to implement his unbelievably successful system as an assistant under Huggs, and he could help with recruiting players to match that system. Huggs freely admits that he used Kevin Mackey's system to turn around WVU the last time we had this swoon. How about implementing Jim Crutchfield's system, turning WVU into a scoring juggernaut - scoring 100+ per night using outstanding guard play, highly intelligent defensive schemes involving three-quarter court pressing dropping back to match-up zones, and using stretch forwards instead of powerful centers to help run and fill up the basket?
I'm a fan of great basketball. When great basketball is played, it's pure poetry in motion. The WVU/Villanova Big East semi-final game of 2005 is probably the best game I've ever witnessed in a pure basketball sense. And, what we are doing right now is extremely hard to watch. I get to a point where I need to turn the game off and stream it, because it's just so bad. I mean, we're running a flex offense, with a cutter going from the wing to the low block off of a pick, and Jermaine Haley is trying to throw a bounce pass to the cutter from five feet beyond the three-point line???? Did we think that spacing, or that play, was going to work from there? Of course it was a turnover. Anyway...I'm dreaming here, but I would love to see Crutchfield come here and help Huggs implement his system, and use Huggins's ties to recruit big talent. In my opinion, it's the obvious answer to the "I'll fix it problem" of 2018-'19. Because, from my vantagepoint, things don't look easily "fixable" right now.
1. Better team won. Fun little start got your attention, didn't it? Admit it, you even felt a slight twinge inside, somewhere down deep, that you hadn't felt since halftime of the WVU/Oklahoma State football game - called "hope"...maybe even "optimism". We were up 17-5 on #1. Chase Harler, Jordan McCabe, Lamont West and even Esa Ahmad were making it rain from three-point range. The crowd was silent, in shock. Dick Vitale was saying "WVU isn't supposed to be able to do this!". Rick Barnes called "time out" in exasperation. Then, the hot mic picked up Rick Barnes saying the scariest thing we could possibly hear him say to his top ranked Volunteer squad: "Guys, just play basketball! That's all you have to do. Just go play basketball!". So simple, yet so true. When you defend against our offense, and attack our defense, you really don't need to do anything overly complicated, artistic or even advanced. Just play hoops, man. You'll get some wide open looks, and you can rest assured that our offense will throw the ball right to you. Sure 'nuff. We were down ten at half, and UT dominated the rest of the contest, as they should've. We're not on their level right now, in many facets.
2. Jermaine Haley played the worst game I've seen a point guard play for WVU this season, and that's saying A LOT. 2 points and 5 turnovers in 15 horrific minutes. It may be time for Jermaine to take a breather. I don't even know who to play at point. I'll stop guessing now. @Thick could probably provide some numbers for our best guard combo. Honestly, I'm at the point where I just don't even know.
3. 24 turnovers. I mean, c'mon. We're supposed to be playing basketball at the highest level. This is absolutely not acceptable, and the product we're putting on the floor right now is pig vomit. Someone needs to be held accountable. We're a prideful bunch, and the folks who are part of Mountaineer Nation - in and out of the state - take a great deal of pride in our basketball program. And, we passed embarassing a while back, right around the time TCU pounded us in Ft. Worth. We are now at "sad".
4. Derek Culver gives me a glimmer of hope for the future. The kid is as good as advertised, and he has a bright future ahead of him. He's working hard, and I'm happy to see that. I hope he sticks with it and ignores the mess in front of him. What about the rest? Who gives you/us hope for the future? I still like Jordan McCabe. I think he can become a solid player at point. Recall that point guards such as JD Collins and Darris Nicholls were very rough around the edges as freshmen. He'll work at it. The two guys who I just can't figure out, for right now and for the future, are Wesley Harris and Lamont West. Harris, in particular, is maddening. He almost looks like he's checked out. He was playing with a lot of promise earlier, but now...he's just a foul machine and he's not even doing the dirty work anymore - 1 steal, 1 offensive rebound in 27 minutes to go with 5 fouls.
5. Hoping against hope that change will occur. "I'll fix this" worked one time before in pretty quick fashion. But, it wasn't as quick as folks seem to remember. We finished 2012 with a first round NCAA thumping by Gonzaga, 77-54, then went 10-19 in 2013, which was awful. 2014 was a bit better at 17-16, but still not good by our standards. That was the season ending NIT loss to Georgetown, where we had about three or four guys quit on the floor, basically. That was the loss that led to Press Virginia. In comes Jevon Carter, Dax Miles Jr., Tarik Phillip and Jaysean Paige, and we're off for a fun four year ride. This year, we're staring at another 10-19, then what? There's no Juwan Staten, Nate Adrian and Gary Browne coming back to steady the ship - this is what concerns me. We really could use a wholesale change in both personnel, and on our coaching staff - the assistants. My sincere hope is that Shane Lyons and Bob Huggins meet to discuss making these changes, and perhaps bringing in an ultra-successful coach with West Virginia ties Jim Crutchfield - to implement his unbelievably successful system as an assistant under Huggs, and he could help with recruiting players to match that system. Huggs freely admits that he used Kevin Mackey's system to turn around WVU the last time we had this swoon. How about implementing Jim Crutchfield's system, turning WVU into a scoring juggernaut - scoring 100+ per night using outstanding guard play, highly intelligent defensive schemes involving three-quarter court pressing dropping back to match-up zones, and using stretch forwards instead of powerful centers to help run and fill up the basket?
I'm a fan of great basketball. When great basketball is played, it's pure poetry in motion. The WVU/Villanova Big East semi-final game of 2005 is probably the best game I've ever witnessed in a pure basketball sense. And, what we are doing right now is extremely hard to watch. I get to a point where I need to turn the game off and stream it, because it's just so bad. I mean, we're running a flex offense, with a cutter going from the wing to the low block off of a pick, and Jermaine Haley is trying to throw a bounce pass to the cutter from five feet beyond the three-point line???? Did we think that spacing, or that play, was going to work from there? Of course it was a turnover. Anyway...I'm dreaming here, but I would love to see Crutchfield come here and help Huggs implement his system, and use Huggins's ties to recruit big talent. In my opinion, it's the obvious answer to the "I'll fix it problem" of 2018-'19. Because, from my vantagepoint, things don't look easily "fixable" right now.
Last edited:
