--West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins believes that his team is better on defense. Kedrian Johnson has been consistently good except when he’s banged up but they’re getting a lot better defensively and they are playing harder.
--Huggins said that he would have played Joe Toussaint and Kedrian Johnson together all along if he wasn’t worried about not having a point guard left. You have to be careful because inside they put their hands on people, they push people and on the perimeter you can’t hardly touch anybody so he didn’t want both of them in foul trouble at the same time.
--Iowa State on offense they run good stuff so they don’t put themselves in bad positions defensively in transition. They are a really good transition defensive team so everybody has to play against their set defense and they have good shot blockers. Huggins thinks they are harder to score around the goal and drive it on because of their shot blockers but they’re also as good as anybody at fortifying the lane.
--The Cyclones take really good shots when they shoot and because they overload it they want you to shoot shots over top of you. Their stats are good because the guy has done a heck of a job coaching them.
--Huggins thinks that West Virginia wouldn’t be in the shape they are in if they just made two-footers and free throws. All they had to do was make those and they would have won more games. They shot themselves in the foot because they missed extremely makable shots.
--Huggins thinks Iowa State would double team the post and you got to kick it out to open people.
--Erik Stevenson only had one hot hand. He’s going to get an emphasis on guarding him and they will switch everything and take him to the loaded side of the floor where they can get help there faster. When West Virginia really made the run the other day, Stevenson got them started but they had other people that are very capable of scoring. That has been the problem with them not having that at times.
--The challenge shouldn’t be to get them to repeat what they did Saturday. West Virginia has to guard better and they have been doing that. Their approach has been better and the fact of the matter is if everybody plays to their potential they’re really good, but everybody hasn’t. Tre Mitchell carried them for a while but now he is struggling a bit. They’re doing a better job scoring it close, James Okonkwo has gotten exponentially better. They’re not like the team that they were, they’re better. Seth Wilson is capable of doing what Erik Stevenson did the other day.
--Huggins said Stevenson had to calm down and play under more control. It’s one thing to be assertive and aggressive but you can take it too far. He put him on the phone with Mike Gansey and he talked to him. If you’ve been around sports basically any athletics, you get tired of hearing the same voice. That’s common in sports that you’re together so much and you’re in situations that are uncomfortable so you’ve got to calm it down and figure a way to slow it down a little bit and he has. He has been in the last four or five games has been a great teammate.
-- Mohamed Wague can go far as he wants to go. The weight room is going to be critical for him particularly lower body, but he’s long, he’s athletic, he’s got great feet. It’s all out there for him it’s just is he going to put the time and the effort in to make it come to fruition because he is talented enough. The same can be said for James Okonkwo.
--It’s exciting to see those two bigs continue to grow and mature but they didn’t come over here because they liked Huggins. Those two weren’t taught to play anyways. You have to think Okonkwo has really good hand-eye coordination or he wouldn’t have been able to play tennis. Wague was a soccer player and has great feet. They certainly have some advantages that maybe some other guys that came in here didn’t have. It’s what you make of it. That’s what they continually try to get guys to understand it just doesn’t happen. Some guys are way more athletically gifted but that doesn’t mean they are better basketball players. That’s the challenge to get them to work at their craft.
--The three bigs go at each other pretty good and Jimmy Bell generally wins, but they go after each other. Bell has been great because they are learning they have to use their lower body. In the post, the lower body is more important and after he’s knocked them out of the paint you learn you need to get a better base.
--Huggins doesn’t know if Iowa State is a different team home or away, but he hopes so. Iowa State is a really hard place to play and their fans are terrific. They are really good at home for as long as he can remember. Huggins said that you never know, who would have thought what happened the other day against Oklahoma would happen? Look what happened to West Virginia against TCU.
--It’s very rare when somebody in this league does play bad, West Virginia did at TCU but they’ve been in the other games.
--Huggins said the decision to let Stevenson talk to Gansey is if you get a chance to talk to a general manager of a team you’re pretty excited about it. Gansey has a calming effect on people he is not loud, he is straight to the point and you look at here’s a guy that didn’t get recruited out of high school. The only time everybody really looked at Gansey in high school was dunk line but he was playing with a lot of really good players and he continued to get better and better now he is where he is.
--Huggins said that he would have played Joe Toussaint and Kedrian Johnson together all along if he wasn’t worried about not having a point guard left. You have to be careful because inside they put their hands on people, they push people and on the perimeter you can’t hardly touch anybody so he didn’t want both of them in foul trouble at the same time.
--Iowa State on offense they run good stuff so they don’t put themselves in bad positions defensively in transition. They are a really good transition defensive team so everybody has to play against their set defense and they have good shot blockers. Huggins thinks they are harder to score around the goal and drive it on because of their shot blockers but they’re also as good as anybody at fortifying the lane.
--The Cyclones take really good shots when they shoot and because they overload it they want you to shoot shots over top of you. Their stats are good because the guy has done a heck of a job coaching them.
--Huggins thinks that West Virginia wouldn’t be in the shape they are in if they just made two-footers and free throws. All they had to do was make those and they would have won more games. They shot themselves in the foot because they missed extremely makable shots.
--Huggins thinks Iowa State would double team the post and you got to kick it out to open people.
--Erik Stevenson only had one hot hand. He’s going to get an emphasis on guarding him and they will switch everything and take him to the loaded side of the floor where they can get help there faster. When West Virginia really made the run the other day, Stevenson got them started but they had other people that are very capable of scoring. That has been the problem with them not having that at times.
--The challenge shouldn’t be to get them to repeat what they did Saturday. West Virginia has to guard better and they have been doing that. Their approach has been better and the fact of the matter is if everybody plays to their potential they’re really good, but everybody hasn’t. Tre Mitchell carried them for a while but now he is struggling a bit. They’re doing a better job scoring it close, James Okonkwo has gotten exponentially better. They’re not like the team that they were, they’re better. Seth Wilson is capable of doing what Erik Stevenson did the other day.
--Huggins said Stevenson had to calm down and play under more control. It’s one thing to be assertive and aggressive but you can take it too far. He put him on the phone with Mike Gansey and he talked to him. If you’ve been around sports basically any athletics, you get tired of hearing the same voice. That’s common in sports that you’re together so much and you’re in situations that are uncomfortable so you’ve got to calm it down and figure a way to slow it down a little bit and he has. He has been in the last four or five games has been a great teammate.
-- Mohamed Wague can go far as he wants to go. The weight room is going to be critical for him particularly lower body, but he’s long, he’s athletic, he’s got great feet. It’s all out there for him it’s just is he going to put the time and the effort in to make it come to fruition because he is talented enough. The same can be said for James Okonkwo.
--It’s exciting to see those two bigs continue to grow and mature but they didn’t come over here because they liked Huggins. Those two weren’t taught to play anyways. You have to think Okonkwo has really good hand-eye coordination or he wouldn’t have been able to play tennis. Wague was a soccer player and has great feet. They certainly have some advantages that maybe some other guys that came in here didn’t have. It’s what you make of it. That’s what they continually try to get guys to understand it just doesn’t happen. Some guys are way more athletically gifted but that doesn’t mean they are better basketball players. That’s the challenge to get them to work at their craft.
--The three bigs go at each other pretty good and Jimmy Bell generally wins, but they go after each other. Bell has been great because they are learning they have to use their lower body. In the post, the lower body is more important and after he’s knocked them out of the paint you learn you need to get a better base.
--Huggins doesn’t know if Iowa State is a different team home or away, but he hopes so. Iowa State is a really hard place to play and their fans are terrific. They are really good at home for as long as he can remember. Huggins said that you never know, who would have thought what happened the other day against Oklahoma would happen? Look what happened to West Virginia against TCU.
--It’s very rare when somebody in this league does play bad, West Virginia did at TCU but they’ve been in the other games.
--Huggins said the decision to let Stevenson talk to Gansey is if you get a chance to talk to a general manager of a team you’re pretty excited about it. Gansey has a calming effect on people he is not loud, he is straight to the point and you look at here’s a guy that didn’t get recruited out of high school. The only time everybody really looked at Gansey in high school was dunk line but he was playing with a lot of really good players and he continued to get better and better now he is where he is.
