YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Nearly every time Oscar Tshiebwe or Derek Culver caught the ball inside the paint Saturday, the two West Virginia forwards were quickly surrounded by a double team.
That much is a credit to Youngstown State head coach Jerrod Calhoun, a former WVU assistant, who learned a thing, or two, about defensive strategy coaching next to Bob Huggins.
What happened next will be the key to the Mountaineers’ season the rest of the way.
Culver finished with a career-high seven assists in the Mountaineers’ 75-64 victory against the Penguins.
In truth, it could have been closer to 10. Probably should have been, because whenever he passed out of the double team, it was generally to a wide open guard.
Those guards did not knock down many open shots against the Penguins, and to get further into the point, it’s hard to say they’ve knocked down open shots against many opponents this season.
“Guys were brought in this season to hit those shots,” WVU guard Jermaine Haley said. “I have no doubt they will. Shooting the ball has been kind of a struggle to this point, but guys have been working to get comfortable and find their roles. They’ll start to hit those shots.”
If they do, then the 25th-ranked Mountaineers (10-1) have an opportunity to be a contender in the Big 12 and for a high seed in the NCAA tournament this season.
If they don’t, well, Saturday’s struggle against an outmanned Youngstown State team will seem like a highlight of the season when it should be anything but.
“Derek is such a good passer and you know he’s going to find you,” said WVU guard Taz Sherman, who finished with 10 points on 4 of 10 shooting. “My job is to make that pass as easy for him as possible and my job is to make that shot.
“Him and Oscar are going to be doubled all year. We’ve got to make teams pay for that. We’ve got to be better at doing that.”
So far, it hasn’t exactly happened as well as Huggins and the Mountaineers would have liked.
WVU has 60 3-pointers in 11 games. That is last in the Big 12, which isn’t exactly THE problem. The fact that WVU is only shooting a smidge over 30 percent from behind the arc is of much greater concern.
“It’s a mind set,” Huggins said. “You can’t come in with a lackadaisical mind set and be what you need to be. It’s too hard of a game. There’s too many things going on.”
Emmitt Matthews Jr. was held scoreless in this game until he canned a free throw with 52 seconds left in the game.
He was 0 for 3 from the floor. That isn’t to further drag down what was a bad day for him, but it does show how much WVU can struggle offensively if Matthews is struggling.
The sophomore from Tacoma, Wash. is — by far — the most versatile player on the WVU roster and he can’t have too many games like this the rest of the way. That starts next week, when the Mountaineers travel to Cleveland to face No. 5 Ohio State.
Sean McNeil was 0 for 4 shooting against Youngstown. Jordan McCabe was 1 for 5. For the most part, they did not take shots that were heavily contested.
Taz Sherman was 4 for 10 and finished with 10 points, his second solid game after going through his own shooting slump earlier this month.
“Taz has been really into getting his deal back on track and he’s the guy who made shots for us,” Huggins said.
But you can’t have one guy playing solid and another three or four shooters having an off day.
That works against Youngstown State. It will not work against Ohio State or Kansas or Texas Tech or pretty much anyone else on the schedule.
Otherwise Culver and Tshiebwe might as well be invisible, because it won’t matter if they catch the ball in the paint or not.
They’ll be surrounded by guys just as big and athletic as them when they do and be rendered nearly incapable of helping offensively.
And that would pretty much put a sour bow on this season.
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