MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — A season after being the poorest defensive team in the Big 12, Bob Huggins knows any improvements at West Virginia has to start on that side of the court.
How’s that going so far?
“I thought we were atrocious,” Huggins said after the Mountaineers’ 94-84 victory against Akron last week. “We didn’t guard. We didn’t guard the bounce and we didn’t guard the ball screen. We didn’t do what we practiced to do.”
WVU senior guard Jermaine Haley took that thought to another level.
“It was tragic from the start to the finish,” Haley said. “At halftime, all I could think about is what coach was going to say at the next film meeting. Personally, I think I had a terrible defensive game.”
Breakdowns on the perimeter were the culprit last season and then not having forward Sagaba Konate around as a rim protector to help erase those mistakes didn’t help.
Konate — the school’s all-time leader in blocked shots — played in only seven games last season because of an injured knee.
A year later, players said there were still too many breakdowns, many of them coming from having guys out of position or simply not communicating.
“We didn’t talk well on defense,” WVU guard Chase Harler said. “Guys were not getting to the help-side as much as we needed them to and things like that.”
Not all of the fingers can be pointed at the guards and not all of them can be pointed at WVU trying to get used to having two big guys down low in Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe.
And that may be the point. While Tshiebwe’s presence is certainly a spark to a program that finished 15-21 last season, the Mountaineers are a different style of team with him and Culver on the floor together.
It never happened last season, because Culver was suspended while Konate was healthy and then Konate was injured while Culver was eligible.
On paper, it looks great having the two big guys in the game, but only if the Mountaineers can use them to their advantage.
Against Akron, WVU out-rebounded the Zips by a slim 37-36 margin.
“We can’t just out-rebound someone by one and expect we’re going to win many games,” Huggins said. “We’ve got to dominate the glass and we should. We should especially when we have Derek and Oscar and Emmitt (Matthews) in. That’s a pretty big and athletic front line. They should rebound it.”
Akron countered, as will likely many of the Mountaineers’ opponents this season, with a smaller lineup that forces either Tshiebwe or Culver away from the rim.
“Oscar has never defended on the perimeter in his life, so it’s going to take him some time,” Huggins said. “We’ll continue to work with him, but we’re not going to lose having him out there when he’s not ready to be out there.”
Huggins called it growing pains, something he expected to see from his young team.
Still, he said his expectations are for Culver to be the best rebounder in the Big 12 and for Tshiebwe to be right there with him.
He needs his guards to be in a better position to slow down drives to the basket and they also have to realize that both Culver and Tshiebwe may not always be around the rim.
“When you’re playing a team that spreads you and tries to drive it, that’s obviously not their forte,” Huggins said. “I was hoping we would have a better presence around the rim than we had.”
Haley said his defensive performance was lackluster, because he didn’t play with enough intensity. he said that was not the type of example he wants to set in the future.
“It has to start with the older guys,” Haley said. “If the younger guys see that the older ones are bringing intensity on defense then it will be more of a group effort.”
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