MORGANTOWN, W, Va. — Beetle Bolden’s pre-game warm-up Saturday wasn’t about 3-pointers and lay-ups.
Instead, battling the flu, the West Virginia point guard was in the locker room with team trainer Randy Meador trying to do everything available to get him ready for the game.
“I could barely run without feeling dizzy,” said Bolden who finished with 12 points in the Mountaineers’ 65-64 upset of No. 7 Kansas. “The training staff did a terrific job of getting me ready. About 10 minutes before the start of the game, I knew I was ready.
“The trainers gave me an IV and some medicine and I was back out there.”
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins had Beetle penciled in as a starter, but changed his mind at the last second and went with Chase Harler instead.
“I knew he’d play,” Huggins said. “That’s Beetle. Beetle is going to play. Beetle said he’d sat on the bench enough. He’s going to play. I didn’t have any doubt he would play.”
Not only did Bolden play, he came up with the defensive play of the game, accoring to Kansas coach Bill Self.
“Beetle Bolden made the defensive play of the game that will go unnoticed,” Self said. “With 28 seconds left or whatever it was, we had about 20 seconds left on the shot clock and we threw the ball to Dedric [Lawson] and had Devon [Dotson] go back to get it and he never touched it.”
Bolden denied a passing lane with a close-man-to-man defense on Dotson and the Jayhawks instead went to senior Lageral Vick, who missed a 3-point shot with 28 seconds remaining.
“We end up having a bad possession and not getting a chance to score,” Self said. “I thought that was a really good play by Beetle in that regard. That was poor execution out of a timeout.”
Like Bolden, WVU forward Logan Routt was also battling the flu and did not play. Andrew Gordon started in Routt’s place, the first start of Gordon’s career.
No 3-pointers
Both Kansas and West Virginia failed to hit a 3-pointer in the first half.
Less than five minutes into the second half, both teams had combined for five. By the end of the game, each team had five threes.
“We were trying to prove our dominance inside,” West Virginia guard Chase Harler said. “We were looking for easy shots and we didn’t want to have to depend on 3-pointers early. Both teams were definitely trying to get to the rim. That kind of built things toward the second half.”
Few assists
At halftime, Kansas had been held to just one assist and 13 turnovers.
The Jayhawks finished with just six assists and 18 turnovers.
The six assists were the lowest total for Kansas since a 72-40 loss to Kentucky on Nov. 18, 2014. The Jayhawks had four assists in that loss to the Wildcats.
“People think that we’re not a good defensive team at all,” West Virginia forward derek Culver said. “I think today, was kind of a showcase for us. We made some adjustments on defense and I think we showed people that we’re for real on defense.”
Culver takes another step forward
In battling against Kansas forward Dedric Lawson, Culver knew he had his work cut out for him.
“He’s a very skilled player and he has a good fell for the game,” said Culver, who finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. “He always knows where he’s at on the floor. If you make a mistake, he’ll make you pay for it.”
Lawson, a transfer from Memphis, who sat out last season, finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
It was the 11th double-double of the season for the forward who will likely be in the running for Big 12 Player of the Year at the end of the season.
“It was nice playing against really high competition,” Culver said. “If I’m not mistaken, I think he’s high on the [NBA] draft board. That’s a good experience for me, kind of a feather in my cap to play well against him.”
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