West Virginia could exhaust a shot clock listing all the troubles it has after 25 games this season ? the loss of form both individually and collectively, the postseason resume, the upcoming schedule, the shooting, the turnovers, the decipherable defense, so on and so forth ? but one stands out among the rest Monday.
Kansas is inside the Coliseum for Monday?s game on ESPN. The Jayhawks (21-4, 10-2 Big 12) were ranked No. 8 before the release of Monday?s poll, have won or shared the past 10 conference titles and are well on their way to another with a two-game lead in the standings. The Mountaineers (19-6, 7-5), who were ranked No. 21 last week, have lost three out of four games and five of 10 and had one day to get ready following Saturday?s 20-point loss at then-No. 14 Iowa State.
?I?d like about a month,? WVU coach Bob Huggins said.
There is no such luxury in the Big 12. Kansas is the fourth ranked opponent in the past five games for WVU, and the exception is a Kansas State team that Saturday beat then-No. 17 Oklahoma, which had won five straight league games to storm into second place.
The time crunch doesn?t allow for a lot of fixes, but the Mountaineers don?t need to spend very long identifying what?s gone wrong.
The problem, as well as the explanation that covers everything, is they are not getting better at a time where they have to be at their best. As tough as the recent stretch has been, Kansas is followed by four more ranked teams for the final five games, and the exception there is a Texas team that?s bullied WVU the last four times they?ve been together.
?It?s a matter of not continuing to make the same mistakes, not continuing to grab it and put your head down and dribble it and lose it, not dribbling into two defenders because you haven?t had a shot in a while, or whatever reason it is you do that,? Huggins said.
?We haven?t taken the next step to erase those errors. We are not a very good halfcourt defensive team, where I thought we were before. I knew we?d have some slippage because we have to play the way we play, but we?ve had way more slippage than what I wanted.?
The past four opponents have shot better than 50 percent against WVU, and each has made more than half of its shots in every half. Huggins doesn?t want to blame the press, and he?s right to point at what happens in halfcourt settings after watching teams whip the ball around and find open shooters on the perimeter or near the basket.
Yet the Mountaineers are who they are and where they are because of their press, and they say their press isn?t what it was. They?re not forcing as many turnovers as they were before, they?re getting fewer steals and they?re allowing a lot of easy and early baskets.
?Most teams try to get the ball out fast and go,? point guard Juwan Staten said. ?Any team that has a big man who can handle the ball tends to let him take it up the court. It?s harder to trap a big who can handle the ball because of his vision. With his height, he can see over the defense.?
Not everyone has a player like Georges Niang, Iowa State?s 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward who dribbled and backed the ball up the court Saturday, but Niang was also receiving bounce passes for dunks shortly after the Cyclones inbounded the ball.
?They?re coming at us quicker,? said forward Devin Williams, who has a good view and a better feel for the action as the player at the back of the press who?s often left to fend for himself around the basket. ?They?re throwing it over our guards? heads and putting pressure on our big back there. They?re getting a lot of 3-on-2s and 2-on-1s and capitalizing off of that.?
WVU is as big as it was earlier in the season and just as susceptible now as it was then to a forward who can break the press. What has changed is how teams mimic one another to get early offense against the Mountaineers, who are repeatedly left to chase the ball before they can set up their press and do what they can to create problems.
?Teams have an emphasis on beating us down the court to negate our pressure and we?re not really doing anything to stop it,? Staten said. ?That?s something we need to pay close attention to. It?s been the trend for us, especially in the games we lost. Our pressure hasn?t been as effective because they?ve been able to beat us down the court and get easy shots on us.?
Disarming the press is doubly destructive for WVU because it cuts into what was already a shrinking margin for error on offense. The Mountaineers are among the worst shooting teams in the country ? No. 277 in field goal percentage, No. 322 in 3-point percentage and No. 304 in free throw percentage ? but have spent a lot of time in the top 25 because of a few safety nets.
WVU leads the nation in turnovers created, steals, turnover margin and offensive rebounds. Maybe the team doesn?t shoot high percentages anywhere on the floor, but for a long time it would make the most of extra shots and possessions to do enough offensively to win the game.
That?s no longer true. WVU?s leads in those categories are shrinking because the production has dipped. When the Mountaineers were 18-3, they were creating 10 more turnovers per game than they were committing. In the past four, the ratio is even (65-65), and they?ve been outrebounded twice and plus-2 once.
?If you looked at the offensive numbers, you?d say, ?God, how do they win any games??? Huggins said. ?But that?s how we won. That?s not happening now. That?s not happening because, yes, the competition is better, but we?re just not getting it done.?
Kansas is inside the Coliseum for Monday?s game on ESPN. The Jayhawks (21-4, 10-2 Big 12) were ranked No. 8 before the release of Monday?s poll, have won or shared the past 10 conference titles and are well on their way to another with a two-game lead in the standings. The Mountaineers (19-6, 7-5), who were ranked No. 21 last week, have lost three out of four games and five of 10 and had one day to get ready following Saturday?s 20-point loss at then-No. 14 Iowa State.
?I?d like about a month,? WVU coach Bob Huggins said.
There is no such luxury in the Big 12. Kansas is the fourth ranked opponent in the past five games for WVU, and the exception is a Kansas State team that Saturday beat then-No. 17 Oklahoma, which had won five straight league games to storm into second place.
The time crunch doesn?t allow for a lot of fixes, but the Mountaineers don?t need to spend very long identifying what?s gone wrong.
The problem, as well as the explanation that covers everything, is they are not getting better at a time where they have to be at their best. As tough as the recent stretch has been, Kansas is followed by four more ranked teams for the final five games, and the exception there is a Texas team that?s bullied WVU the last four times they?ve been together.
?It?s a matter of not continuing to make the same mistakes, not continuing to grab it and put your head down and dribble it and lose it, not dribbling into two defenders because you haven?t had a shot in a while, or whatever reason it is you do that,? Huggins said.
?We haven?t taken the next step to erase those errors. We are not a very good halfcourt defensive team, where I thought we were before. I knew we?d have some slippage because we have to play the way we play, but we?ve had way more slippage than what I wanted.?
The past four opponents have shot better than 50 percent against WVU, and each has made more than half of its shots in every half. Huggins doesn?t want to blame the press, and he?s right to point at what happens in halfcourt settings after watching teams whip the ball around and find open shooters on the perimeter or near the basket.
Yet the Mountaineers are who they are and where they are because of their press, and they say their press isn?t what it was. They?re not forcing as many turnovers as they were before, they?re getting fewer steals and they?re allowing a lot of easy and early baskets.
?Most teams try to get the ball out fast and go,? point guard Juwan Staten said. ?Any team that has a big man who can handle the ball tends to let him take it up the court. It?s harder to trap a big who can handle the ball because of his vision. With his height, he can see over the defense.?
Not everyone has a player like Georges Niang, Iowa State?s 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward who dribbled and backed the ball up the court Saturday, but Niang was also receiving bounce passes for dunks shortly after the Cyclones inbounded the ball.
?They?re coming at us quicker,? said forward Devin Williams, who has a good view and a better feel for the action as the player at the back of the press who?s often left to fend for himself around the basket. ?They?re throwing it over our guards? heads and putting pressure on our big back there. They?re getting a lot of 3-on-2s and 2-on-1s and capitalizing off of that.?
WVU is as big as it was earlier in the season and just as susceptible now as it was then to a forward who can break the press. What has changed is how teams mimic one another to get early offense against the Mountaineers, who are repeatedly left to chase the ball before they can set up their press and do what they can to create problems.
?Teams have an emphasis on beating us down the court to negate our pressure and we?re not really doing anything to stop it,? Staten said. ?That?s something we need to pay close attention to. It?s been the trend for us, especially in the games we lost. Our pressure hasn?t been as effective because they?ve been able to beat us down the court and get easy shots on us.?
Disarming the press is doubly destructive for WVU because it cuts into what was already a shrinking margin for error on offense. The Mountaineers are among the worst shooting teams in the country ? No. 277 in field goal percentage, No. 322 in 3-point percentage and No. 304 in free throw percentage ? but have spent a lot of time in the top 25 because of a few safety nets.
WVU leads the nation in turnovers created, steals, turnover margin and offensive rebounds. Maybe the team doesn?t shoot high percentages anywhere on the floor, but for a long time it would make the most of extra shots and possessions to do enough offensively to win the game.
That?s no longer true. WVU?s leads in those categories are shrinking because the production has dipped. When the Mountaineers were 18-3, they were creating 10 more turnovers per game than they were committing. In the past four, the ratio is even (65-65), and they?ve been outrebounded twice and plus-2 once.
?If you looked at the offensive numbers, you?d say, ?God, how do they win any games??? Huggins said. ?But that?s how we won. That?s not happening now. That?s not happening because, yes, the competition is better, but we?re just not getting it done.?
