My fiver on our fifth Sweet Sixteen game in the past ten years...
1. Sometimes in life you get your as$ kicked. It's part of life. Happens to the best of them. The mighty New England Patriots got humiliated by the Chiefs on Monday Night Football before winning the Super Bowl. That being said, the only thing you can take away from something like this is...what are you going to do about it? After UNLV pummeled Duke by 30 in 1991, Duke used that public humiliation as a motivational force. They came back the next season on a mission. They won it all, and beat that UNLV team on the way. In 2013, I watched our football team show up in Waco, Texas completely unprepared to play Baylor. It was just awful to watch our proud program get embarrassed in that fashion. However, this past year, I watched with pride as Tony Gibson, Dana & Company came back with a plan. They were driven by that beatdown. And, we took the fight to Baylor. We avenged that loss, the same we did to Maryland. We can take away from this that we have a young team, and Esa Ahmad appears to be a very important missing piece of the puzzle for WVU. Someone, maybe Devin Williams, needs to step up and be a leader for these guys. They need to use this game as a motivational force. They need to come back next year on a mission. And, they will. You mark my word. At some point next March, we're going to be talking about this game...and how it was the crucible through which this newly configured WVU team formed.
2. Now that I've watched WVU play this Kentucky team...my feeling is that we should've come out in pure run & gun, and abandon the press. I would've started our best shooters with Staten, so go with Staten, Daxter, Jevon at the guards, with Holton and Williams. I would've advised to simply have the first guy with a look launch a three, and then Holton and Williams crash the boards. On defense, fall back into a matchup 2-3 zone, and just dare UK to beat us from the outside. Hindsight 20/20, I know. But, we just can't press these guys & we can't score off our motion offense because they can overplay man outside and their rim protectors are just too much.
3. Devin Williams. In certain situations, Devin gets a little too over-excited and it gets him off his game. Last night, he was off-balance on his mid-range game, and he was shooting from a bit too far out. It actually appeared in a few cases that he was shooting two-point jumpers with his foot on the three-point line. That is the worst shot in basketball. He is at his best when he squares up, follows through on his shot in rhythm, and is somewhere in the 15-foot range. You could tell he was overexcited last night, and he just was a bit off. Again, a learning lesson for the big guy. He's really coming on, and he's going to have a big, big season next year.
4. I watched the Wisconsin/UNC game last night, and it was a great game. It is such a luxury to have a 7-foot rim protector who can handle the ball and has good offensive skills. UK seems to have a few of those. But, they do not grow on trees. They are few and far between. My thought is that Huggs would've landed one by now if he could.
5. Great season! What a great season by these Mountaineers. From Staten's layup vs. Kansas, to beating Texas at home, to winning the Puerto Rico Tournament vs. UConn and Boatwright, to beating NC State at the Garden, to pummeling Oklahoma in the Coliseum...we have tons of great memories to take away. Heck, I thought the VMI game was the most fun game to watch of the entire season! Just think about it...if we were the five seed in the South bracket, we would've beaten Georgetown in the 2nd round and would be facing a beatable Duke team tonight. Or, if we were the five seed in the East region and got by Louisville, we'd be playing NC State to go to the Elite Eight. We got a bad draw last night, tough matchup, and down we went.
But, we'll be back. And, back to my first point, I have a feeling that this may be the best offseason we'll ever have, in terms of growth and palpable improvement, due to the motivation taken away from this game. Next season when we roll out this squad...and add Esa Ahmad and a JUCO prolific scorer from the outside...it's going to be a fun ride.
1. Sometimes in life you get your as$ kicked. It's part of life. Happens to the best of them. The mighty New England Patriots got humiliated by the Chiefs on Monday Night Football before winning the Super Bowl. That being said, the only thing you can take away from something like this is...what are you going to do about it? After UNLV pummeled Duke by 30 in 1991, Duke used that public humiliation as a motivational force. They came back the next season on a mission. They won it all, and beat that UNLV team on the way. In 2013, I watched our football team show up in Waco, Texas completely unprepared to play Baylor. It was just awful to watch our proud program get embarrassed in that fashion. However, this past year, I watched with pride as Tony Gibson, Dana & Company came back with a plan. They were driven by that beatdown. And, we took the fight to Baylor. We avenged that loss, the same we did to Maryland. We can take away from this that we have a young team, and Esa Ahmad appears to be a very important missing piece of the puzzle for WVU. Someone, maybe Devin Williams, needs to step up and be a leader for these guys. They need to use this game as a motivational force. They need to come back next year on a mission. And, they will. You mark my word. At some point next March, we're going to be talking about this game...and how it was the crucible through which this newly configured WVU team formed.
2. Now that I've watched WVU play this Kentucky team...my feeling is that we should've come out in pure run & gun, and abandon the press. I would've started our best shooters with Staten, so go with Staten, Daxter, Jevon at the guards, with Holton and Williams. I would've advised to simply have the first guy with a look launch a three, and then Holton and Williams crash the boards. On defense, fall back into a matchup 2-3 zone, and just dare UK to beat us from the outside. Hindsight 20/20, I know. But, we just can't press these guys & we can't score off our motion offense because they can overplay man outside and their rim protectors are just too much.
3. Devin Williams. In certain situations, Devin gets a little too over-excited and it gets him off his game. Last night, he was off-balance on his mid-range game, and he was shooting from a bit too far out. It actually appeared in a few cases that he was shooting two-point jumpers with his foot on the three-point line. That is the worst shot in basketball. He is at his best when he squares up, follows through on his shot in rhythm, and is somewhere in the 15-foot range. You could tell he was overexcited last night, and he just was a bit off. Again, a learning lesson for the big guy. He's really coming on, and he's going to have a big, big season next year.
4. I watched the Wisconsin/UNC game last night, and it was a great game. It is such a luxury to have a 7-foot rim protector who can handle the ball and has good offensive skills. UK seems to have a few of those. But, they do not grow on trees. They are few and far between. My thought is that Huggs would've landed one by now if he could.
5. Great season! What a great season by these Mountaineers. From Staten's layup vs. Kansas, to beating Texas at home, to winning the Puerto Rico Tournament vs. UConn and Boatwright, to beating NC State at the Garden, to pummeling Oklahoma in the Coliseum...we have tons of great memories to take away. Heck, I thought the VMI game was the most fun game to watch of the entire season! Just think about it...if we were the five seed in the South bracket, we would've beaten Georgetown in the 2nd round and would be facing a beatable Duke team tonight. Or, if we were the five seed in the East region and got by Louisville, we'd be playing NC State to go to the Elite Eight. We got a bad draw last night, tough matchup, and down we went.
But, we'll be back. And, back to my first point, I have a feeling that this may be the best offseason we'll ever have, in terms of growth and palpable improvement, due to the motivation taken away from this game. Next season when we roll out this squad...and add Esa Ahmad and a JUCO prolific scorer from the outside...it's going to be a fun ride.
