CLEVELAND — Derek Culver simply smiled at the thought that would have taken the greatest foresight by any coach in order to predict what happened to West Virginia on Sunday during its 67-59 signature victory against No. 2 Ohio State.
For three days the No. 22 Mountaineers practiced within the confines of the WVU Coliseum.
At no point did WVU head coach Bob Huggins say, “Let’s go ahead and take myself and Oscar out of the lineup and let it go,” Culver said shaking his head. “No, that didn’t happen.”
That was exactly the odds facing the Mountaineers (11-1) in front of 16,781 fans inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse against the second-ranked Buckeyes.
Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe, long thought to be the keys to the Mountaineers’ season because of their size and strength inside, were straddled to the bench in foul trouble.
Tshiebwe picked up two fouls before either team scored. He picked up his fourth foul just 19 seconds into the second half.
Culver had three fouls by halftime and didn’t start in the second half.
“That’s supposed to spell disaster for us,” WVU guard Chase Harler said.
It didn’t. Quite the opposite, actually.
Rather than fold shop, the Mountaineers adjusted.
Instead of missing out on an opportunity to make a national statement, WVU opened the door of opportunity to freshman Miles McBride.
“We were struggling a little bit to score and we weren’t sure what we were going to do inside because of foul trouble,” Huggins said. “I thought maybe we could flatten them out a little bit and let (McBride) play.”
An admitted Ohio State football fan growing up as a kid in Cincinnati, McBride stepped up and turned what was already a nightmarish weekend for the Buckeyes — Ohio State fell to Clemson a day earlier in the college football playoffs — into a complete disaster.
It started with three straight shots — two 3-pointers and then another shot from the top of the key — that kept the Buckeyes (11-2) from running away with it in the first half.
“You practice for these moments,” McBride said afterward, as cool and calmly as he played minutes earlier on the floor.
McBride has indeed been here before, leading his Moeller High School to two consecutive Division I state titles, ironically both won on Ohio State’s campus.
“He did that in Cancun for us, too,” Huggins said about the time McBride stepped up again with 18 points to lead WVU past Northern Iowa during the Cancun Challenge last month.
But this was no Cancun. The sunshine and beaches have long since been in the Mountaineers’ rearview mirror.
This was something completely different, and so Huggins found his hot hand in McBride, sprinkled in some timely shots from Harler and Sean McNeil and then got forward Gabe Osabuohien to come up with some of the team’s top defensive plays thus far to pull out the victory.
A great adjustment on Huggins’ part? Maybe. Or maybe it was simply a matter of guys simply making some plays when adversity struck.
“It’s a combination of both,” Huggins said. “We thought coming into the season that we were going to be a really good perimeter-shooting team. We’ve struggled a little bit there.”
To be sure, this game had its struggles, too. WVU finished just 15 of 25 from the foul line and the Buckeyes came away with a 41-34 rebounding advantage.
Somehow, McBride’s play — a career-high 21 points in all — wiped that slate clear.
He connected on another three and then on a jumper from the foul line that gave the Mountaineers a 41-40 advantage.
He threw in the dagger when he pump-faked Ohio State big man Kaleb Wesson and somehow got off a shot while leaning underneath the 270-pound Ohio State forward.
It gave WVU a 59-54 lead with 1:16 remaining. Ohio State never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
“I knew the shot clock was low and I was going to just my regular pull-up jumper,” McBride said of the play. “He stepped up and made a great play and I just went up under him.
“The opportunity came and I took advantage of it. Hopefully opportunities like that come in the next couple of games.”
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