--West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said that Texas Tech has won some games and is playing with a lot more confidence. Mark Adams is a good coach and they’re doing some different things than they were and really driving the ball.
--When you win some games you are a little more motivated than you were before. At Iowa State, Texas Tech was very good and put a lot of pressure on the rim.
--Texas Tech will overload a side and are really going to stack the ball side to try to stop penetration and try to shoot the ball over top of them. As long as you can recover on the reversals that is a very sound way to play defense.
--Darris Nichols had a great perception as to what was going on and what was supposed to go on when he played and a great feel. He understood the game. John Beilein did a great job with him. Joe Mazzulla got better and better and he realized his future wasn’t as a player. It’s like Johnny West. Mazzulla wanted to be a coach but he didn’t really want to be a college coach, he always had his sight on the NBA and he did a great job working his way up to that.
--Huggins said that his dad was going to be the Walsh College job until he saw the pay and then he said you better call my son and they did.
--The focus is to try to win the rest of the games here and move up in the league standings and move up where they are seeded in the NCAA Tournament. They haven’t really talked at all about the conference tournament because they need to win games.
--Yesterday might have been as good of a practice as they’ve had in a long time but every day is a new day.
--There’s no bottom in this league. The Big East had great teams and was a great league but it had a bottom. The coaching was really good in the Big East but they didn’t have good enough players, here they’ve got both top to bottom.
--West Virginia has had opportunities they could have seven or eight league wins, but they didn’t. Huggins said his team has been right there in most of them they just haven’t finished games not counting Texas and Kansas.
--Huggins thinks the athletic directors made a conscious effort that they were going to get really good basketball coaches and when you have that you’ll have a much better team. Basketball in general got better in those states out there and they did a good job of recruiting everywhere but when there are players in your surroundings it really helps you. If you think back about it, it’s always been a good conference.
--Players will make the league pretty good.
--As the season goes on Huggins said you don’t practice near as long or as hard. You spend a lot more time watching film looking at the things you do well, you don’t do well. It seems like you’re playing every one or two days but the travel is just brutal and the other teams don’t have to worry about that.
--Texas Tech big man Aimaaq Fardaws is another quality big that is skilled. West Virginia looked at him but there’s a lot of things that goes on in the portal.
--Jose Perez likes it here and people have been good to him. You’re going to play in the best league in the country and he doesn’t think there is any doubt he returns next year.
--Huggins believes Texas Tech has played better since they played West Virginia. The reason you scrimmage early in the season is to play against somebody else to get better so after you’ve played as many games as West Virginia has you should get better.
--Emmitt Matthews has had some talks with Huggins. He wanted to come back here and finish here. The team isn’t like what they normally have here with the portal and transfers. Matthews wants to do all the right things and sometimes the right things aren’t the right things to do. He has no problem taking a back seat if he thinks they’re capable of doing some things, but now he’s to the point where he isn’t going to go out this way and he’s been a lot more aggressive at both ends.
--When you win some games you are a little more motivated than you were before. At Iowa State, Texas Tech was very good and put a lot of pressure on the rim.
--Texas Tech will overload a side and are really going to stack the ball side to try to stop penetration and try to shoot the ball over top of them. As long as you can recover on the reversals that is a very sound way to play defense.
--Darris Nichols had a great perception as to what was going on and what was supposed to go on when he played and a great feel. He understood the game. John Beilein did a great job with him. Joe Mazzulla got better and better and he realized his future wasn’t as a player. It’s like Johnny West. Mazzulla wanted to be a coach but he didn’t really want to be a college coach, he always had his sight on the NBA and he did a great job working his way up to that.
--Huggins said that his dad was going to be the Walsh College job until he saw the pay and then he said you better call my son and they did.
--The focus is to try to win the rest of the games here and move up in the league standings and move up where they are seeded in the NCAA Tournament. They haven’t really talked at all about the conference tournament because they need to win games.
--Yesterday might have been as good of a practice as they’ve had in a long time but every day is a new day.
--There’s no bottom in this league. The Big East had great teams and was a great league but it had a bottom. The coaching was really good in the Big East but they didn’t have good enough players, here they’ve got both top to bottom.
--West Virginia has had opportunities they could have seven or eight league wins, but they didn’t. Huggins said his team has been right there in most of them they just haven’t finished games not counting Texas and Kansas.
--Huggins thinks the athletic directors made a conscious effort that they were going to get really good basketball coaches and when you have that you’ll have a much better team. Basketball in general got better in those states out there and they did a good job of recruiting everywhere but when there are players in your surroundings it really helps you. If you think back about it, it’s always been a good conference.
--Players will make the league pretty good.
--As the season goes on Huggins said you don’t practice near as long or as hard. You spend a lot more time watching film looking at the things you do well, you don’t do well. It seems like you’re playing every one or two days but the travel is just brutal and the other teams don’t have to worry about that.
--Texas Tech big man Aimaaq Fardaws is another quality big that is skilled. West Virginia looked at him but there’s a lot of things that goes on in the portal.
--Jose Perez likes it here and people have been good to him. You’re going to play in the best league in the country and he doesn’t think there is any doubt he returns next year.
--Huggins believes Texas Tech has played better since they played West Virginia. The reason you scrimmage early in the season is to play against somebody else to get better so after you’ve played as many games as West Virginia has you should get better.
--Emmitt Matthews has had some talks with Huggins. He wanted to come back here and finish here. The team isn’t like what they normally have here with the portal and transfers. Matthews wants to do all the right things and sometimes the right things aren’t the right things to do. He has no problem taking a back seat if he thinks they’re capable of doing some things, but now he’s to the point where he isn’t going to go out this way and he’s been a lot more aggressive at both ends.
