MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The 11th-ranked West Virginia men’s basketball team will take on North Texas today for the first time in school history, in what will serve as the Mountaineers’ home opener.
If you happened to download a schedule or picked up a schedule card at a gas station earlier this season and don’t see the game on there, don’t worry, you’re not going crazy.
It’s just the latest of what has already been and may continue to be a season unlike any other in terms of the Mountaineers solidifying a schedule and preparing for an opponent on short notice.
For those keeping score, North Texas (1-2) is actually the fifth different opponent the Mountaineers (4-1) have had added or had to add to their schedule and the season will be just six games old after today. Also included in that were the Texas A&M, Northern Iowa and South Dakota State changes in the Crossover Classic and then No. 1 Gonzaga filled a hole that was left after Youngstown State was forced to pause team operations after some positive tests within their program and now North Texas fills a void left by Robert Morris, which also is dealing with its own COVID-19 issues.
With all of these changes and with the current world we live in surrounded by a pandemic, the majority of Zoom calls the media has with Huggins touches on coronavirus issues, and much to the coach’s credit, he hasn’t shied away from sharing his opinions on controversial issues.
So, in the blog today, we decided to simply put some of his thoughts out there at a time when basketball is at a sort of crossroad. We begin with giving a ton of credit to the WVU players. While so many other programs have been shut down, WVU players went into a real hot spot and played a tournament in South Dakota and continued to test negative for the virus. They played a team in Gonzaga that was dealing with its own COVID-19 issues and have continued to test negative. They have made a real sacrifice in basically shutting themselves out from the rest of the world in order to stay healthy and able to play the game. WVU did have five players and one staff member test positive over the summer, which forced a two-week shutdown of workouts and activities.
“When they shut down the university (over the summer) and sent our guys home, it’s the worse thing I ever could have done,” Huggins said. “That’s when we had all the positives. We ended virtually every workout since with, ‘This is up to you guys. If you guys want to play, you can’t put yourself in a bad spot.’ I understand, it’s hard. If your girlfriend goes home, you can’t have her over to your place the day she gets back. You can’t do that. That’s a way this thing can spread and end it for all of you.
“They’ve been great. They’ve been fantastic, actually, in trying to do the right thing and take care of themselves. Is it a sacrifice for them? Absolutely, but our guys have been great. I can’t say enough about how much they want to play games and they know they have to do the right thing to play games.”
Huggins was asked for a reaction on the Gonzaga situation, in which a Zags player and staff member had tested positive the week before playing against the Mountaineers and yet the Bulldogs still played WVU, only to shut down their operations the following week.
“We can only control what we can control,” Huggins said. “I can talk to our guys about it. I can’t go lecture anybody else about it. Everybody is doing what they think is right and, hopefully, they’re doing the right thing.”
Recently, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said college basketball should “reassess” it’s position on playing games during a pandemic and take into account the mental and physical health of the players. The WVU football team paused team activities on Thursday and canceled it’s game against Oklahoma. Huggins was asked his thoughts on continuing to navigate on through a pandemic.
“I don’t think we shut down the country,” he said. “My fear is not what you’re trying to ask me. My fear is the alternative. The alternative is we close all the restaurants, we close all the bars, we close everything and they don’t open back up, and then we’ve got a whole bunch of downtowns that have absolutely nothing but vacant buildings. And it’s happened before. We we went through that with the Great Depression. We’ve got to keep America moving, and I understand we have to do that safely. I’m not saying be reckless about it, but I think you can overdo everything, and I think sometimes this has been a little overdone.
“When you talk about people shutting down and all the cases and all that, the majority of it is contact tracing. You have one guy who tests positive and he’s on a bus with everybody else, and if he comes within six feet of anybody on that bus, then contact tracing says they’ve got to sit. It’s like 14 days they’ve got to quarantine. It sounds at times worse than what it is, I guess.”
And finally, Huggins was asked why it was so important to try and get all 27 regular-season games in?
“We owe it to the kids,” Huggins said. “In my mind, we owe it to the fans, as well, but we owe it to the kids for sure.”
With all of that said, we now move on to basketball. Here’s what you need to know:
TV: ESPN+ (online subscription needed) for the 3 p.m. tip-off. Betting line: WVU is favored by 12 points.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF TAZ SHERMAN
A West Virginia team in desperate need of shooting — the Mountaineers are shooting 40.4% as a team, which is last in the Big 12 — has a senior guard in Sherman, whose numbers simply jump off the page.
He’s shooting 47.6% from the field and 60% (9 of 15) from 3-point range, yet has come off the bench in all five games. Huggins has always liked having at least one impact player coming off the bench. As a freshman, Kevin Jones played that role. During the 2015-16 season, Jaysean Paige led WVU in scoring, but rarely started that season.
Sherman has insisted he’s fine with coming off the bench and looks forward to playing any role necessary, but if he continues to be consistent, would Huggins be curious at all in putting Sherman into the starting lineup?
“I think Taz is comfortable coming off the bench and I think Taz would be comfortable starting,” Huggins said. “It’s a matter of trying to get everybody going. We haven’t played a game where we had everybody going. Once Sean (McNeil) starts making shots and I’m pretty happy with what Emmitt (Matthews) has given us and Deuce (McBride) had one bad game, which just happened to be against Gonzaga, but Deuce has shot the ball pretty well. I thought Jordan (McCabe) was really good in the Georgetown game, but we’ve just to get hopefully where we’re all a little more consistent. If they could all shoot 50% or better, we’ve got a heck of a team, man. I think we’re capable of having multiple guys shoot 50% or better.”
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS
WEST VIRGINIA (4-1)
F–Derek Culver, 6-10, jr., 15.4 ppg, 10.8 rpg
F–Oscar Tshiebwe, 6-9, soph., 9.2 ppg, 8.2 rpg
F–Emmitt Matthews Jr., 6-7, jr., 7.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg
G–Deuce McBride, 6-2, soph., 15.2 ppg, 4.4 apg
G–Sean McNeil, 6-3, jr., 10.2 ppg, 2.4 rpg
NORTH TEXAS (1-2)
F–Thomas Bell, 6-6, sr., 7.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg
F–Zachary Simmons, 6-10, sr., 12.3 ppg, 8.7 rpg
G–Javion Hamlet, 6-4, sr., 9.3 ppg, 1.7 rpg
G–James Reese, 6-4, sr., 11.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg
G–Mardrez McBride, 6-2, jr., 11.3 ppg, 3.0 rpg
PREDICTION TIME
The Mean Green have already traveled to two Power Five Conference teams in Arkansas and Mississippi State and lost both games by an average of 10.5 points, so the 12-point spread is right in line there. I do believe WVU is better than those two teams and the Mountaineers are finally playing their first home game of the season. North Texas does have an experienced starting lineup with four seniors. Normally, this would be a game I’d stay away from, because North Texas does play good defense and hasn’t allowed more than 69 points in a game. For some reason I like WVU to win and cover, 84-69.
Justin’s season picks against the spread: 2-2.
