MORGANTOWN — We’re not exactly sure what WVU has done to tick off the basketball gods, but just when you think things can’t get worse for the Mountaineers, they find a way to prove you wrong.
To be honest, we’re not even sure where to begin with how confusing this game was.
Consider this: Oklahoma went the final six minutes and 12 seconds without a basket … and won.
The Mountaineers shot 64% in the second half … and lost.
Some of the reasons were obvious.
It starts with free throws, which is where it always seems to begin with the Mountaineers (10-7, 0-5 Big 12), who tied the 2018-19 squad for the worst start to Big 12 play.
Over the first five Big 12 losses, WVU has gone 60.8% (87 of 143) from the line. The Mountaineers were 8 of 16 from the charity stripe against the Sooners.
Joe Toussaint had two free throws with the game tied at 70. He missed both. Tre Mitchell had two free throws with WVU trailing by one. He only made one to tie the game.
He missed two technical-foul free throws earlier in the first half, which was immediately followed by Jimmy Bell Jr. missing two free throws.
WVU trailed by just three points at the time.
“I don’t know what to say,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said on his postgame radio show. “I don’t know what to do.”
The basketball gods dealt WVU a really bad hand with 48 seconds left — the game was tied at 70 then — when Oklahoma guard Grant Sherfield missed a jumper that came down to Kedrian Johnson.
Except Johnson was off balance and the ball came off his hand and headed toward the baseline. That’s where Toussaint tipped it to teammate Emmitt Matthews Jr.
Except Matthews was nearly out of bounds himself and he had to tip the ball back into play, which is where Oklahoma forward Jalen Hill corralled it.
Hill was eventually fouled and he made both free throws with 27 seconds left that gave the Sooners the lead for good.
That one single play may have summed up the Mountaineers’ season to this point.
Yet, it wasn’t over.
WVU had a timeout and Huggins drew up a play for guard Erik Stevenson, who spent a night in the hospital recently, mind you, to address a chest/respiratory issue.
It was drawn up as a 3-point shot. Huggins wanted to go for the win.
Stevenson’s shot was contested and the shot didn’t have a chance.
“I asked Erik where he wanted to turn coming off (the screen) and he said he wanted to turn that way,” Huggins said of the play. “That was not probably what we ought to have done.
“It was a forced shot. We didn’t need a forced shot. The deal was if he didn’t have a good shot to penetrate and pitch it.”
Forget for a moment the tough shot. Why was the ball leaving Stevenson’s hands with 18 seconds remaining in the game with the shot clock turned off at that point?
If it had somehow gone in, now Oklahoma has the ball with plenty of time to go for the win.
That’s the part I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t Huggins just have Toussaint or Johnson dribble off at least 10 to 12 seconds and then run a play for Stevenson or whoever?
The way the game played out, there was still enough time remaining that both teams combined for 10 free throws and Seth Wilson pumped in a three at the buzzer that accomplished nothing but either upset or overjoyed a lot of gamblers.
That’s six combined possessions that were absolutely unnecessary and never should have happened if that one possession had been ran the way 99% of college coaches would run that possession.
Yes, it was a bad shot from Stevenson, but he should have never had the ball in his hands at that moment to begin with.
And that part is coaching, not Stevenson.
The sad part of it all is this was the best WVU has played in a long time, especially when you consider the distraction the players faced with longtime assistant Larry Harrison getting fired two days before the game.
“We’re getting closer. We’re not by any stretch the worst team in the league,” Huggins said.
Maybe Huggins is right in saying that. Maybe it’s just words from a head coach who hasn’t won a Big 12 road game in 691 days and is trying to keep a team together.
In either case, Saturday’s loss to the Sooners was as confusing as they come, and it’s going to take more than just words to get things turned around.
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