My Fiver on WVU loss to Arizona last night in snowy Morgantown...
1. Arizona played a little game called "let's see if Eduardo Andre can beat us"...and it worked out fairly well for them. I really like and appreciate what Andre has brought to our team this season. But, we can't have him be our feature guy on offense - and Arizona forced us into that exact scenario on several occasions by completely backing off of him outside of four feet and then allowing him to try to score over their big at the rim, which often didn't go so well. It made me think...what the hell was Bill Self thinking?
2. Look, we can't keep losing players to injury, shorten the bench and not have nights like this. Our injury situation is borderline ridiculous with our best scorer out, our starting "5" hobbling, our sixth man has yet to play a minute, and now our backup PG is out. You add to that the fact that Darian DeVries wants to play a defense that calls for our guys to constantly be moving in and out of lanes, gaps and into help positions, and we're going to suffer lapses where our guys are simply gassed. Arizona was quicker, faster down the floor, and had more bounce to the ounce last night. We got big boy'd and we got out-hustled.
3. 50-45 Arizona, and WVU had a nice momentum swing with plenty of time left. We had a great defensive possession where we forced a loose ball situation off of a deflection and Arizona came up with it, swung the ball out to Dell'Orso, who drilled a dagger trey. That was such a huge sequence as we expended a ton of effort to get back into it and on that possession in particular. After that possession, AZ would go on a 9-2 run to essentially put the game away.
4. After our 46-17 first half outburst vs. Oklahoma State, our last three halves have all been losses where we have yet to eclipse 30 points: 23-31 (2nd half vs. OSU), 28-39 (1st half vs. AZ), 28-36 (2nd half vs. AZ). The fact that these three terrible awful halves have been at home is a bit of a concern as we head west to Boulder, then to Houston.
5. Hell of a week coming up - at Colorado Sunday, at Houston Wednesday, and vs. Iowa State Saturday. At this point, I do not expect to see Tucker DeVries until next year. But, I'm really hoping that we find a way to have Amani Hansberry, Tenner and Stone all back for this three game stretch. We are going to need all hands on deck, and Jevon Small needs help.
1. Arizona played a little game called "let's see if Eduardo Andre can beat us"...and it worked out fairly well for them. I really like and appreciate what Andre has brought to our team this season. But, we can't have him be our feature guy on offense - and Arizona forced us into that exact scenario on several occasions by completely backing off of him outside of four feet and then allowing him to try to score over their big at the rim, which often didn't go so well. It made me think...what the hell was Bill Self thinking?
2. Look, we can't keep losing players to injury, shorten the bench and not have nights like this. Our injury situation is borderline ridiculous with our best scorer out, our starting "5" hobbling, our sixth man has yet to play a minute, and now our backup PG is out. You add to that the fact that Darian DeVries wants to play a defense that calls for our guys to constantly be moving in and out of lanes, gaps and into help positions, and we're going to suffer lapses where our guys are simply gassed. Arizona was quicker, faster down the floor, and had more bounce to the ounce last night. We got big boy'd and we got out-hustled.
3. 50-45 Arizona, and WVU had a nice momentum swing with plenty of time left. We had a great defensive possession where we forced a loose ball situation off of a deflection and Arizona came up with it, swung the ball out to Dell'Orso, who drilled a dagger trey. That was such a huge sequence as we expended a ton of effort to get back into it and on that possession in particular. After that possession, AZ would go on a 9-2 run to essentially put the game away.
4. After our 46-17 first half outburst vs. Oklahoma State, our last three halves have all been losses where we have yet to eclipse 30 points: 23-31 (2nd half vs. OSU), 28-39 (1st half vs. AZ), 28-36 (2nd half vs. AZ). The fact that these three terrible awful halves have been at home is a bit of a concern as we head west to Boulder, then to Houston.
5. Hell of a week coming up - at Colorado Sunday, at Houston Wednesday, and vs. Iowa State Saturday. At this point, I do not expect to see Tucker DeVries until next year. But, I'm really hoping that we find a way to have Amani Hansberry, Tenner and Stone all back for this three game stretch. We are going to need all hands on deck, and Jevon Small needs help.
