Taz Sherman: 'We're Going to Shock the World'

The losing streak is over and the Mountaineers are feeling good again.

After piling up seven straight losses, the West Virginia Mountaineers finally were able to smile on Tuesday night after defeating the Iowa State Cyclones, 79-63.

The game saw the return of leading scorer, Taz Sherman, who had been in the concussion protocol after receiving a blow to the head in last Monday's road trip to Baylor. Sherman picked up right where he left off notching 16 points, dishing out six assists, and recorded a new personal-best eight rebounds.

"I think it was a huge shot in the arm for everybody," head coach Bob Huggins said in regards to Sherman's return. "We didn't really do a lot with his cardio and that was a concern. I thought he gave it a lot. And he was smart enough when he was tired to say, 'get me out, I need out for a while'. If we can get his cardio back to where it was, then we should be alright again."

Getting back in the win column was a huge sigh of relief for the Mountaineers and you could see the joy in the players faces when they were answering questions at the table. As Malik Curry stated, no one on this team has ever been through a stretch of games like that in their career, so it was foreign territory for all. 

Now that WVU put an end to the losing skid, will they be able to turn things around and make a run to get into the NCAA Tournament? According to Taz Sherman, it's going to happen, no questions asked.

"Once we do turn this around, I feel like it's going to shock a whole lot of people. It's going to shock everyone," Sherman said. "Even though we know what we can do, the coaching staff knows what we can do, some of the fans and some of West Virginia know what we can do but in terms of the world...we're going to shock the world when we do."

The Mountaineers will now head to Stillwater for a clash with Oklahoma State before heading to Kansas State on Monday. Both games are very winnable and if they can sweep the two-game road swing, they'll return home with a 16-9 record ahead of a primetime matchup with Kansas on Saturday, February 19th.

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