--West Virginia had a golden chance to get a game in Kansas City and then take a swing at Houston just by beating the No. 16 seed in the league after you had already done it earlier in the year on their home floor, but somebody forgot to tell them that in the second half. The Mountaineers were outscored 44-31 in the second half after leading by six at halftime and really played some poor basketball. There was a stretch where West Virginia led 46-39 with just over nine minutes left had seven straight possessions when they turned the basketball over without even getting a shot up. By the end of that stretch, the Mountaineers were down 52-46 and was never able to rally to get the lead back. This started going south when West Virginia led 27-14 and Colorado used a 9-2 run to cut the lead to just six at halftime and then after it appeared the team settled in they allowed that giant Colorado run where they took control of the game. The Mountaineers had zero answers in the post and they struggled to put the ball in the basket and as mentioned before even to get shots up for a stretch in this game. They picked a bad time to play some really bad basketball.
--West Virginia couldn't get stops in the second half as Colorado shot 61-percent from the floor. This team has to rely on their defense when the offense isn't humming and they just couldn't stop the Buffaloes from scoring especially at the rim.
--Javon Small finished with 23 points on 7-15 shooting but until late wasn't a factor in the second half at all. West Virginia needs him to be more aggressive at times and he needed to be taking more shots late in this game when this thing was teetering. It's hard to complain about Small at all considering what he means to this team but not having a reliable second scoring option really hurt them all around again. It's a story that's been the story on offense far too many times.
--West Virginia had 15 turnovers and that led directly to 17 points for Colorado. Things started pretty well there, but with just 4 in the first half but the second half was a nightmare as Colorado had 15 of their points off turnovers in those 20-minutes.
--Amani Hansberry had been on a roll for West Virginia over the past six averaging 12.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game but this just wasn't close to that. He dealt with foul trouble but was 0-5 from the field, struggled on defense and finished with just 2 points and 6 boards. Do think Eduardo Andre gave West Virginia some solid minutes at times and they found something with him offensively in the second half but Colorado won the battle in the post clearly.
--West Virginia had moved the ball well of late even when they weren't hitting shots but I felt things really bogged down at times in this one. Offensively, this just wasn't a good effort and it just felt like a slow bleed from the time the Mountaineers led 27-14. West Virginia was at .968 points per possession. Yuck.
--The Colorado bench had 38 points in this game and was +26 compared to what the Mountaineers got out of their bench.
--And now we wait. West Virginia is now 19-13 on the season and finished 10-10 in the league with six quadrant one wins. Even this game was a quadrant two loss even though it feels a lot worse. As of today, the Mountaineers were safely into the field in all the projected brackets as the last nine seed, but now there is at least some doubt as to what happens next. Again, this wasn't a resume killing loss by any means as it makes them 4-3 in quadrant two games with no losses in quadrant three or four. But there's no question this one just feels bad because of the opportunity that was there to rubber stamp a 20-win season. We'll see how the committee evaluates it in a few days.
--West Virginia couldn't get stops in the second half as Colorado shot 61-percent from the floor. This team has to rely on their defense when the offense isn't humming and they just couldn't stop the Buffaloes from scoring especially at the rim.
--Javon Small finished with 23 points on 7-15 shooting but until late wasn't a factor in the second half at all. West Virginia needs him to be more aggressive at times and he needed to be taking more shots late in this game when this thing was teetering. It's hard to complain about Small at all considering what he means to this team but not having a reliable second scoring option really hurt them all around again. It's a story that's been the story on offense far too many times.
--West Virginia had 15 turnovers and that led directly to 17 points for Colorado. Things started pretty well there, but with just 4 in the first half but the second half was a nightmare as Colorado had 15 of their points off turnovers in those 20-minutes.
--Amani Hansberry had been on a roll for West Virginia over the past six averaging 12.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game but this just wasn't close to that. He dealt with foul trouble but was 0-5 from the field, struggled on defense and finished with just 2 points and 6 boards. Do think Eduardo Andre gave West Virginia some solid minutes at times and they found something with him offensively in the second half but Colorado won the battle in the post clearly.
--West Virginia had moved the ball well of late even when they weren't hitting shots but I felt things really bogged down at times in this one. Offensively, this just wasn't a good effort and it just felt like a slow bleed from the time the Mountaineers led 27-14. West Virginia was at .968 points per possession. Yuck.
--The Colorado bench had 38 points in this game and was +26 compared to what the Mountaineers got out of their bench.
--And now we wait. West Virginia is now 19-13 on the season and finished 10-10 in the league with six quadrant one wins. Even this game was a quadrant two loss even though it feels a lot worse. As of today, the Mountaineers were safely into the field in all the projected brackets as the last nine seed, but now there is at least some doubt as to what happens next. Again, this wasn't a resume killing loss by any means as it makes them 4-3 in quadrant two games with no losses in quadrant three or four. But there's no question this one just feels bad because of the opportunity that was there to rubber stamp a 20-win season. We'll see how the committee evaluates it in a few days.
