COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN — If the time ever came for Bob Huggins to grab a pen rather than a clipboard and become an author rather than a basketball coach, I’ve already got the title to the book:
“Never frickin’ panic.”
We take you back to the start of 2021, a time when every West Virginia men’s basketball fan was either living on the edge or close to it.
Oscar Tshiebwe had just left town, and with it, his credentials as a former McDonald’s All-American and a five-star recruit.
Isaiah Cottrell was preparing for surgery on a torn Achilles tendon and was already out for the rest of the season.
Think Cottrell’s loss wasn’t much? Think again. He is a 6-foot-10, 4-star recruit, deemed to be a big part of the future of the program.
A difficult Big 12 schedule was on the immediate horizon and Huggins’ season game plan was now out the window.
He wanted a big and physical style of play, but that was really no longer available with Tshiebwe gone.
He is asked: Coach, what are you going to do now?
“What are we going to do?” Huggins quickly replied. “We’re going to win more games.”
Sure, coach. OK, win more games. Tell the people what they want to hear, or so we thought.
How prophetic is that response today?
In a game the No. 14 Mountaineers had every reason to lose, they instead overcame several obstacles in pulling off a rare road win in Lubbock, Tex. with a 82-71 victory against No. 7 Texas Tech.
WVU’s last win in the United Supermarkets Arena came on Jan 23, 2016.
Never panic? Think about this for a moment. Huggins had just got his team rolling again. The Mountaineers had just rolled Kansas and Taz Sherman was a big part of that win with a career-high 25 points.
Now, Sherman had injured his groin while jumping in practice on Monday and was out for this game.
The fact that Sean McNeil came back into the starting lineup and had the kind of shooting night he did — 26 points on 8 of 11 from the floor — was a testament to the kind of confidence he’s playing with right now.
“When he hits his first five shots like he did tonight, we know it’s going to be a long night for the guy guarding him,” WVU guard Deuce McBride said.
That was only half of this story.
Imagine now losing McBride, who picked up two fouls midway through the second half and had to sit for much of the half.
Then, you take your two power forwards in Derek Culver and Gabe Osabuohien and hand them their fourth fouls with lots of time left in the second half in basically a two-point game.
It’s at this point, if Huggins had waved a white flag, you couldn’t blame him.
Except Huggins is Cool Hand Luke.
When others doubted, Huggins believed. When others said McNeil wasn’t going to cut it or Jalen Bridges or Emmitt Matthews Jr. wasn’t showing enough, Huggins stayed the course.
And when the defense began to give up points without ever seeming to care a whole lot about it, Huggins changed the course.
“What are we going to do? We’re going to win more games.”
This team has overcome more adversity than most teams should ever be asked to overcome.
“I think this team is tired of hearing about everything,” Huggins said. “This is their team. It’s been motivating for them.”
That motivation has the Mountaineers (14-5, 7-3 Big 12) sitting alone in second place in the Big 12 and pushing to get back into the top 10 of the national polls.
At the start of 2021, very few would have thought this was possible, not with everything that had happened.
Huggins tried to tell us things would be different.
Maybe we should have listened.
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