MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — For the West Virginia men’s basketball team, there is no longer a rabbit to be pulled from the hat.
No more lineup changes. No more magical defenses that Bob Huggins can scheme up and draw on the chalkboard.
“Not that I can think of,” Huggins said after the 20th-ranked Mountaineers fell at home against Oklahoma on Saturday, 73-62. “We’ve tried to play 1-3-1. We’ve tried to play 3-2. We’ve tried to play 1-1-3. We’ve tried to play a lot of stuff.”
Big lineups have been tried. So have smaller and quicker lineups.
The Mountaineers (19-10, 7-9 Big 12) played the later stages of the second half without either Derek Culver or Oscar Tshiebwe — once thought to be the key to WVU’s success — on the floor.
“That might have created a little spark,” WVU guard Chase Harler said. “I don’t know if it made any difference. I think a lot of different things have been tried and that was just another one.”
Starting lineups have been adjusted to test different theories and suggestions.
The Mountaineers have tried full-court pressing. They’ve tried staying back in the halfcourt.
Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil have been given more playing time. Miles McBride was inserted as a starter at point guard and then Jordan McCabe was put back into the starting lineup.
Culver has both started and been brought off the bench.
In jest, Huggins said a couple of weeks ago that short of playing either Tshiebwe or Logan Routt at point guard, everything thing else was on the table.
Is that table full of ideas now empty?
“As far as trying different things, we’ve definitely done that,” WVU guard Jermaine Haley said. “Since I’ve been here, we’ve tried to guard ball screens differently.”
“We’ve probably tried everything,” added McBride. “At the end of the day, it’s about us taking pride in our defense and getting some stops.”
Maybe never before have statistics been more misleading to how the Mountaineers are actually playing.
Among Big 12 teams, West Virginia is first in 3-point defense and third in points allowed, but after dropping six of its last seven, WVU seems far from being a top defensive team.
If the Mountaineers’ struggles continue, they could fall as far as the No. 8 seed for the Big 12 tournament, which is not exactly where one would think the top defensive teams in the league reside.
“We just have to do it better,” Huggins said. “We have to find something. We’ve tried to guard ball screens every which way imaginable. (Oklahoma) started slipping them and our guys were supposed to go with them, and they didn’t go.
“You know, our coaching staff thought that switching would be the way to go. I didn’t want to switch, because I’ve never done it, but I thought, ‘What the heck?’ We haven’t been able to guard it any other way, and it wasn’t a very good idea.”
And then it wouldn’t hurt, Huggins said, if WVU players decided to make some shots on offense.
WVU hasn’t shot 50% in a game since Feb. 5, in a home victory against Iowa State. The Mountaineers are about to travel to Ames, Iowa on Tuesday for the rematch.
“That would sure help,” to make some shots, Huggins said. “That would help considerably. When you’ve missed as many shots as we’ve missed. We’ve got guys who are one for their last 27, something like that. It gets to you and then you don’t play as hard defensively.
“I look down at our bench and we’ve got a whole bunch of guys with their heads down. If I missed that may, I’d have my head down, too.”
Note
According to WVU officials, a play that was called into question by The Dominion Post in Saturday’s game was interpreted correctly and the official stats from Saturday’s loss against the Sooners were correct.
The play came in the final minutes on a tip-in attempt from Haley that was not counted as an official shot or rebound.
According to WVU sports information director Bryan Messerly, Haley’s attempt did not count as a shot or rebound, because it was deemed he did not have enough control of the ball by the statisticians.
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