West Virginia Is Throwing At The Dirt
For West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins, the biggest takeaway from Wednesday’s 87-82 loss against No. 1 Gonzaga is that the Mountaineers need to increase their ball movement.
“Part of our problem is that we haven’t passed the ball very well. Look at how many times we’ve turned the ball over” Huggins said in Friday’s press conference. “We’ve turned the ball over at an alarming rate.”
In Wednesday’s game, West Virginia made 36 field goal attempts after passing the ball three times or less. Of these, only 15 shots were successful. The Mountaineers’ field goal percentage increased to 60% when they passed four or more times. However, they only did this five times throughout the entire game.
“That’s alarming,” Huggins said. “We’ve got to pass the ball. We’ve missed open guys. We hold the ball too much. Obviously, we dribble the ball too much.”
Huggins has warned his team that they need to eliminate the costly turnovers resulting from their lack of ball movement. Forward Gabe Osabuohien provides a strong example for the kind of passing Huggins wants his team to emulate. However, if more players do not begin to follow suit, Huggins will not hesitate to replace them with players who do.
“I don’t want to destroy their confidence in what they do, but at the same time, they’ve got to do what it takes to win games,” said Huggins. “They’ve been told and told and told to pass the ball more. Either they’re going to pass the ball or they’re going to be in a position not to have the ball so that we won’t have to worry about them passing it.”
Not only do the Mountaineers need to pass the ball more—they need to pass it more accurately, too.
“We don’t deliver the ball,” Huggins said of his offense. “We don’t deliver the ball on time and we don’t deliver the ball in the area where you can shoot it. A lot of being a good shooter is getting a good pass.”
Huggins noted that his players are tending to throw passes too low, forcing the receiver to have to turn their hands over before taking a shot.
“If they were pitchers, they’d be throwing them in the dirt,” Huggins said.
Huggins compared his bigs trying to catch low passes to catchers attempting to secure a pitch with their glove turned down: it just does not work.
You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the page's top righthand corner. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook & Twitter:
Facebook - @WVUonSI
Twitter - @SI_WVU and Lauren Withrow at @lolowithrow_WVU
