Bob Huggins: “We Haven’t Been as Physical as we Need to be and we Haven’t Guarded."
Lawrence, KS - The third-ranked Kansas Jayhawks went 9-19 from three-point range in the second half to bury the No. 7 West Virginia Mountaineers 79-65 inside “Phog” Allen Fieldhouse Tuesday night.
West Virginia came into the game as one of the top rebounding teams in the country, but Kansas made a living off long offensive rebounds and put up 25 second-chance points on the night.
“The surprise was, they shot it as well as they did from the perimeter and then when they missed, they rebounded the long rebounds, we didn’t,” said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins. “They were, for whatever reason, a lot quicker to the ball, I thought, than we were today.”
“We have to go rebound the ball,” added Huggins. “We didn’t go rebound the ball. We kind of stood around. They beat us to every loose ball.”
West Virginia guard Sean McNeil was on fire in the first half, going 7-7 from the field and 6-6 from three for 20 first half points and capping it off with a deep three to end the half to give the Mountaineers a 36-35 lead heading into the break, while Miles Deuce McBride chipped in nine and Derek Culver added six points.
“He shoots it like that in practice. I think what hurt us is he and Deuce are the only two that made shots. If you think back, Taz (Sherman) has carried us in some games, but he had a bad day shooting it, but he’s had a back week shooting it. And then we couldn’t throw it close to stop kind of stop the bleeding whenever we needed to throw it close. They did a good job with ball pressure, and they were really physical inside. We didn’t hand the physicality as well.”
The Mountaineer offense went completely stagnant in the second half, failing to take advantage of their size advantage. Mcneil cooled, going 0-4 from behind the arc as Kansas continued to collect offensive rebounds and hit from the outside, starting the second half 5-9 from behind the arc as the Jayhawks started to pull away.
West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins.
Evert Nelson - Kansas University Basketball
“We haven’t been as physical as we need to be, and we haven’t guarded, not even close to the way we need to guard, and those two things have to happen. The one thing I was taught growing up and through my career was, you’re not going to shoot it good every day; that’s just not going to happen. You’ll have days where you make everything, and you’re gonna have days that you don’t make anything, but defense ought to be consistent. That’s not a skill related or a muscular deal; that’s just having enough will and being able to move your feet well enough to stay between your man and the basket.”
Kansas continued to extend their lead and grabbed a 22-point lead following a Marcus Garrett three with just over four minutes remaining in the game for the final dagger, and the Jayhawks cruised to the 79-65 victory.
Although West Virginia is looking to replace Tuesday’s canceled game versus Buffalo, the Mountaineers are not scheduled to be back in action until January 2nd on the road versus Oklahoma. Tipoff and broadcast have yet to be announced.
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