Mountaineers Know It's Time to Get Defensive
Just when the West Virginia men’s basketball team was starting to have a little bit of swagger, two losses in three games to end the regular season knocked Bob Huggins’ guys back to earth.
That, in some sense, could make the Mountaineers a little hungrier heading into the Big 12 Tournament and then on to the NCAA Tournament.
But the Mountaineers don’t need swagger. They don’t need to muster up some kind of perceived hunger.
Huggins and Co. know it’s going to take defense.
The lack of defense that has plagued West Virginia in spurts this season was in full view in Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma State. But the West Virginia players know it’s been lingering.
“It’s kind of been like that the whole season, honestly. We’ve all said once our defense gets together, it’s gonna work out,” sophomore guard Miles McBride said. “(Saturday) when we didn't shoot it well, you've got to rely on your defense. And we haven't done that the whole year.”
Senior guard Taz Sherman said things like not staying in front of the ball, guarding the ball, helping the helper in second rotations and boxing out have been thorns in the side of this team when defensive woes strike.
Those aspects of the game have led to “easy buckets,” as Sherman put it, for opposing teams as well as padded rebounding numbers for opposing big men.
As far as the guards go, letting the guy across from you find open driving lanes is a big no-no. But it’s been something that happens far too often for the Mountaineers.
“That’s something we’re going to continue to work on. It’s not like we don’t work on those things in practice,” Sherman said. “Sometimes you get in the game and your footwork gets bad, you open up and give somebody a straight-line drive instead of forcing them to the baseline.”
McBride’s answer to a similar question was on track with Sherman’s, too.
“It’s just been something we haven't been good at all year. I really can’t tell you why. I think our help defense has obviously been our weak point,” he said. “Everybody’s gonna get beat — it’s D1 players on the other side, just like we are. We’re gonna beat them, they're gonna beat us. I think the difference is help defense.”
It’s two-fold, too. If the driving guard gets past the first level of defense, West Virginia’s big men then have to be there to force tough shots inside.
"Am I telling our guards to jump up and try to block a shot? No. I don’t want to give up 3’s. We’re supposed to help and recover. It’s hard to help straight-line drives,” Huggins said. “We don’t have a shot blocker. Why would you tell someone to foul somebody? Derek (Culver) and Gabe (Osabuohien) are in foul trouble enough. We’re constantly trying to keep those guys on the floor, and they’re in foul trouble. We tried to place (freshman forward) Seny (N'diaye) in there. He’s a better shot blocker than either one of them. He didn’t block a shot, either. He tried. We don’t have shot blockers. That’s a different game if Sags (Sagaba Konate) is in there, but Sags isn’t here. We don’t have shot blockers.”
The Mountaineers have admitted that this type of defensive effort going forward will be unacceptable and could very well lead to the end of their season.
“We’ve just got to find a way to shake back and be the team we know we can be. The game is over with, it’s in the past. We can’t change the outcome of that, but we can look forward to the future, fix the things we need to fix and keep doing the things we do great,” Sherman said. “It’s time to get prepared for the Big 12 Tournament, hopefully a deep run and on to the NCAA Tournament.”
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