MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — West Virginia’s storyline has grown tiresome to those who remain.
To the point that when questions are now posed to players with the preface of the adversity the Mountaineers’ roster has undergone, they simply nod their head as a way to fast forward the moment.
“When you put any energy at all into off-the-court things, your on-the-court [focus] is not going to be where it needs to be,” West Virginia point guard Jordan McCabe said. “That’s with any team dynamic. If you’re not 100 percent focused on how can we get ourselves to click the right way on the floor, especially at this level and in this conference, it’s just a recipe for disaster.
“We saw that earlier this year, but I think there is a lot of good that we can take from that as we move forward.”
The changes have been well documented for the Mountaineers (12-18, 4-13 Big 12) in a season where the phrase, “WVU has lost four starters this season,” really doesn’t begin to cover everything that has happened to this team.
“You have no idea how hard a year it’s been,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “Guys are playing and then guys come back. Then, they’re not playing and you don’t really know who to count on. You don’t know who your teammates are.”
Maybe now, at the end — the Mountaineers will try to win their first road game of the season at 4 p.m. Saturday, when they travel to Oklahoma State (11-19, 4-13) in the final game of the regular season — WVU players do have the necessary understanding of who and what they are.
“At the start of the season, we were all like, ‘We’re about to get going,’ and then we plateau,” West Virginia forward Derek Culver said. “Then we get going and flatline. I don’t want to say I’m the first person who has jumped on board, but things look promising now.”
Promising even after the dismissals of forwards Esa Ahmad and Wes Harris and after forward Sagaba Konate was lost to the year to a knee injury and guard Beetle Bolden was lost to a number of different injuries. Bolden announced Thursday he was transferring.
At stake for WVU is an opportunity to finish as the No. 9 seed in next week’s Big 12 tournament in Kansas City and to enter the tournament with the momentum of a two-game winning streak.
The Cowboys, too, could say the same thing after going on the road Wednesday and knocking off Baylor, 67-64, behind 23 points from freshman guard Isaac Likekele.
Much like WVU, Oklahoma State has faced its own adversity. Head coach Mike Boynton dismissed three players on Jan. 1 and graduate transfer Mike Cunningham left the team at the end of the first semester, leaving the Cowboys with seven scholarship players for the rest of the season.
“I’m really proud of our kids for fighting the way they did against a really good team on the road,” Boynton said after the Baylor win. “It shows a bit of our character. We have had a tough season for our guys.”
The Mountaineers would like nothing more than to take their tough season and finish it with some positives to build toward next season.
“I’ve never really been through anything like this before,” West Virginia guard Jermaine Haley said. “I don’t think too many of us have experienced anything like this, but I like that we continued to stay together and kept working to turn it around. We’ve stayed focused as a group.”
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