MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Derek Culver committed the ultimate basketball sin Friday afternoon, and he knew it.
“I kind of know when I’m going to get chewed out by Huggs,” the WVU junior forward said. “I kind of figured today was going to be one of those days.”
It had nothing to do with missing a shot or missing a defensive assignment.
Huggins can sort of live with those. Over the span of a 40-minute game, it happens.
What shouldn’t happen, though, is a lack of hustle.
“I guess there were a couple of possessions he caught me walking back,” Culver said. “If you know anything about Huggs, his bigs or any of his players don’t get caught walking. His bigs really can’t walk, because they have to get back and protect the rim. He caught me walking on a couple of possessions.”
And so Culver was invited to sit on the bench, for a long time.
“I’m not going to lie, I didn’t think it was going to last the whole first half,” Culver said.
It did, and while the 11th-ranked Mountaineers came away with a 62-50 victory against North Texas, it was anything but easy.
With Culver sitting on the bench scoreless, the Mean Green were able to overcome its own problems of turning the ball over and once held a 10-point lead late in the first half.
Meanwhile, West Virginia’s play was nothing short of embarrassing.
The Mountaineers, outside of guard Sean McNeil, couldn’t make a shot. Their offense looked like it was being run in quicksand rather than a hardwood floor.
They were lazy, off-balanced and simply didn’t look like a team that cared very much.
“We just didn’t play hard,” Huggins said. “I can deal with missed shots and I can deal with missed free throws. I can not deal with not playing hard. We didn’t play hard. That was not my team out there.”
For the first half, that was not Derek Culver, either.
In the second, it would be a great story to say he came out and flourished and finished with 20 points and 20 rebounds.
Well, Culver got exactly half of that, his third double-double of the season.
It was anything but a sight to behold. In all honesty, that matters very little.
Rather win ugly than lose pretty, and that’s pretty much what Culver and the Mountaineers got against North Texas.
“We play to our competition a lot,” Culver said. “I really feel like that if we don’t cut that out now then it’s going to get us in the long run.
“I feel like if we had used the same intensity we had against Gonzaga and used that here, we would have blown this team out the water right out of the gate. We’re lowering our standards and not capitalizing on the things we should be capitalizing on.”
As for Culver, if the first six games of the season has proven anything, it’s that the Mountaineers (5-1) need him on the floor.
He may not be Wilt Chamberlain out there, but the Mountaineers simply play better with Culver on the floor.
That really can’t be argued, unless, of course, Huggins continues to find Culver not hustling, which would keep Culver on the bench.
“It was worth it,” Culver said of the benching. “I had to get back out there in the second half and help my teammates. I’ll say in the second half, after getting yelled at by Huggs, it woke me up a little bit.”
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