LUBBOCK, Texas — West Virginia’s 89-81 loss to Texas Tech on Wednesday night in Lubbock is yet another step in a disturbing trend if you’re the Mountaineers.
Since the beginning of Big 12 play on Jan. 4, WVU (16-4, 4-3 Big 12) has played seven conference games and one other against Missouri in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. It’s played four games at the Coliseum and four on the road, and the home to road splits should raise quite a few eyebrows.
The Mountaineers are 4-0 on its home floor, and in the wins against Texas Tech, TCU, Texas and Missouri at the Coliseum, WVU’s average margin of victory was a whopping 26.3 points per game. It was merciless in how it took over games in the second half and easily appeared to be worthy of its No. 12 ranking and then some.
In those four games, opponents are also averaging just 53.3 points per game.
On the road? The Mountaineers are 1-3 as opponents are averaging 68.5 points against what many consider a vaunted WVU defense.
The Mountaineers earned a win at Oklahoma State on Jan. 6, but hasn’t been able to pick up wins in their other three attempts. They played well in the Big 12 opener at Allen Fieldhouse but the Jayhawks got the seven-point win.
At Kansas State and Texas Tech were not quite as competitive. Against the Wildcats, WVU trailed by as many as 24 before mustering a comeback to get within six, but still lost by 16. Against the Red Raiders, the Mountaineers kept it close in the first half before Tech’s lead ballooned to 15 in the second and they couldn’t mount the comeback.
Let’s not forget the only loss out of conference was against St. John’s at Madison Square Garden.
So, do the Mountaineers have a road problem? They demoralize teams at home with their style of play, but that emotion is tough to carry over on the road.
However, looking at the Kansas State and Texas Tech games, both teams shot lights out. The Wildcats shot 59% from the field and 50% from three, while the Red Raiders shot 54% from the field and an incredible 11 of 17 (65%) from three Wednesday night.
“They shot 65% from three… we shot 22%,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said in his postgame radio interview. “We gave them step-in shots. I told this group from Day 1 that we cannot allow step-in shots, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The Red Raiders are the only team West Virginia’s played home and away, and the differences are clear. In Morgantown — a 66-54 WVU win — Tech shot 28% from the floor and 21% from three. The Mountaineers also owned the rebounding battle 46-33.
In Lubbock, the Red Raiders outrebounded WVU 33-27, which a lot of that had to do with Tech’s ability to shoot lights out. Individually, Oscar Tshiebwe had 17 rebounds in the first meeting. He had just three on Wednesday.
“We got out-rebounded by a team that we should never get out-rebounded by,” Huggins said.
There are six games remaining at the Coliseum, including Saturday’s rematch vs. Kansas State, and five more on an opponent’s home floor. Of course, the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments won’t be played in Morgantown.
Great teams find ways to win on the road, and right now, the Mountaineers haven’t taken that next step.
“This was a game where we better be ready to play because we knew they’d be desperate,” Huggins said. “That’s what these guys haven’t learned yet. You watch the great teams, they post all the time. If they take an off day and aren’t quite as good, it’s at home against last place team. It’s not going to be coming into a place like this. We haven’t learned that, and you can say we’re young — we are — and we’ve played pretty well in good atmospheres before, but today, we didn’t.”
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