Huggins Blames Lack of Energy, Enthusiasm for Loss to Kansas

Handing away games in the regular season is gut-wrenching, especially when you play in the Big 12 Conference. A game here or there is the difference from the postseason situation WVU had versus avoiding it and perhaps having a better chance to stick around in Kansas City.

Finishing the league year with seven wins positioned West Virginia as the No. 8 seed in the conference tournament and with a win in the first round, it pitted them up against No 1. Kansas. Had they finished with eight, nine, or maybe even ten wins, the Mountaineers would have avoided either playing Kansas in the quarterfinals, playing on the first day of the tournament, or perhaps both had they reached 9-9 or better.

During their 78-62 win over Texas Tech on day one, WVU looked like a fresh team that was ready to do some damage. Unfortunately, they had to turn around the very next day and take on what may be not only the best team in the Big 12, but the best team in the country, Kansas, not even a full 24 hours later. The offense failed to find a rhythm and defensively, things fell apart in the second half. It was a team that looked deprived of rest and head coach Bob Huggins was concerned about it from the very beginning.

"I would hope that next week or whenever it is that we get in the NCAA Tournament that we forget about this. Because this wasn't the team that I had all year. I mean, we came out with absolutely no enthusiasm. No pep in our step. It was a bad game. It was a bad game from where I was watching. We just didn't play. I don't know the whys."

Hearing that could be alarming for WVU fans. Why would this team lack energy or enthusiasm when playing in a tournament? In my opinion, the Big 12 did the winner of that first round matchup between Tech/WVU wrong. So, they play at 7 p.m. on day one and turn around as the second game on day two? Why couldn't Kansas State and TCU, who had day one off, play in the second time slot? This would have moved WVU/Kansas to 7 p.m., giving them the same start time as the previous day. The same thing could be said about Oklahoma State, who should have played in the final time slot on day two. Now, would it have made a difference in the end result? No, probably not. But it sure didn't help.

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