Marcus Carr had seemingly spent the first 26 minutes in no-man’s land Saturday night.
What he did over the final 14 minutes handed No. 7 Texas a 69-61 victory over WVU in front of 14,141 fans inside the Coliseum.
“They started the game double teaming him right off the bat,” Texas interim coach Rodney Terry said. “Marcus made a lot of simple plays in the first half and found his teammates.”
Texas’ leading scorer had nine points with 14 minutes remaining in a game that was tied at 40.
Over the final 14 minutes, Carr scored 14 points and took the game over.
“All year long Marcus has let the game come to him,” Terry continued. “He didn’t have to come out and force it. Once he sees that basketball go through the basket, it opens up a lot for him.”
WVU head coach Bob Huggins stressed his players didn’t do enough to make Carr uncomfortable down the stretch.
“We did a bad job,” Huggins said. “He’s a right-handed guy who loves to go right. We let him go right.
“He’s a guy you want to force to the baseline so that you can kind of swallow him up with size. We let him go where he wanted. We did everything pretty much opposite what we drilled to do.”
Carr finished with 23 points on 8 of 14 shooting.
DerMarr’s take
In his first week as a WVU assistant coach, it didn’t take long for DerMarr Johnson to familiarize himself with the Big 12.
His take on the league is like so many others, it’s hard.
“It’s brutal,” Johnson said. “I was looking at the schedule and they throw Auburn in the middle of the Big 12 schedule. I was preparing for (East Carolina) last week (when he was at Cincinnati) and now I come over here and it’s juggernauts every night, but I like the competition.”
Johnson worked under Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller as the school’s director of player development since 2021, which was his reintroduction to the college game.
“Most of my career was NBA basketball and the college game is very different,” Johnson said. “I’ve learned a lot (at Cincinnati), and these guys all want to get where I’ve been, so they all listen to me and take to me pretty well.”
News and notes
WVU is now 120 of 187 from the foul line (64%) since the start of Big 12 play this season. The Mountaineers went 13 of 18 against Texas.
Texas has won its last three games at the Coliseum by a combined 11 points.
Since joining the Big 12 in 2012, WVU’s league record is 91-95 in regular-season play.
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