West Virginia will try to rebound against guard-heavy Texas

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The missed shots. The turnovers. All of them, West Virginia men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins said, have become the hump the Mountaineers could continually get over this season.

“I’m getting used to the turnovers. We average 20 a game,” he said. “Kind of getting used to seeing us throw it away.”

It was the toughness issue and the mental aspect that goes along with it that made the world of difference in Saturday’s 84-68 loss against Kansas State.

“Not good enough,” WVU forward Gabe Osabuohien said. “That wasn’t a West Virginia team you’re used to seeing.”

Or as Huggins simply out it, “We weren’t ready to play and they just dominated us.”

When the Mountaineers were challenged early by a team begging to get its first conference win of the season, WVU (14-3, 3-2 Big 12) did not respond like the 12th-ranked team in the country.

“If we were shocked then they didn’t listen to what I told them,” Huggins said. “I mean, who didn’t know they were going to be desperate?”

When WVU had an opportunity to pull off a 24-point comeback — the Mountaineers got as close as six points — they relented and the Wildcats ended up with a 16-point win.

“I don’t think they did anything specifically. It was on us,” Osabuohien said. “We weren’t mentally ready to play.”

There is little doubt the Mountaineers are down. Whether or not they’re out could be decided at 7 p.m. Monday, when WVU hosts Texas (12-5, 2-3) at the Coliseum.

The Longhorns have struggled against Big 12 teams in the upper half of the league standings and are coming off a 66-57 home loss against Kansas that saw the Jayhawks hold a 40-29 rebounding edge, while holding Texas to just 6 of 20 (30%) from 3-point range.

Texas has won the last three meetings against the Mountaineers, including last season’s 75-53 blowout win at the Coliseum.

“After you lose, you want to get back out there and kind of make up for the game,” WVU guard Chase Harler said. “We’ll put in a game plan for Texas and try to forget about this.”

Forgetting about the K-State loss will take getting over a mental hump, Huggins said.

“I’ve done this for 38 years, but I can’t read minds,” Huggins said. “I’ve got a guy who comes out and says he was tired from (Friday’s) practice. He shouldn’t have came. Why come and not really want to play and hurt your teammates? It makes no sense to me.

“The mental part of it, you’ve got to get yourself ready to go.”

Like West Virginia, Texas is a team that wins on defense and forcing teams into bad situations and bad shots.

The Longhorns allow just 61.2 points per game and only five opponents this season have scored 70 or more.

Texas’ guard-heavy lineup has four players averaging double figures in points, including sophomore Andrew Jones (10.4 ppg), who is back after overcoming leukemia in 2017.

For West Virginia, it’s an opportunity to right the ship, although Huggins would rather see his players have a better frame of mind than simply wanting to go back to the drawing board.

“It’s frustrating as heck when we keep saying that. We keep saying, ‘Let’s get it turned around. Let’s get back on track,’ ” Huggins said. “Why do we have to do that? For the life of me, I can’t understand why we have to do that.”

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