MORGANTOWN — It was a moment that called for true celebration, yet Erik Stevenson didn’t step up to the microphone Saturday night wearing any party hats or blowing into a kazoo.
It was only a few days earlier when the WVU men’s basketball guard opened up about the lows of his season that seemingly came at the worse time.
“It’s really been taking a toll on me, because it’s my job to help the team in any way I can,” he said last week. “It’s been a long two, three weeks.”
Those lows came right at the start of Big 12 Conference play, a time when teams begin to separate themselves into either contenders or something else.
WVU lost its first five games in league play, a result of any number of things.
“We started out the conference season missing lay-up after lay-up, two-footer after two-footer,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “We had opportunities where we just needed one out of three (from the foul line). We made none. We had a chance to win the game at Oklahoma, and we barely hit the rim on two of them.”
None of this was directed at Stevenson, but all it takes is a simple search of his name on Twitter for one to see varying levels of blame thrown at him by those outside of the program for the team’s ills back then.
If the topic was his untimely technical fouls against Kansas State and Oklahoma State or his forced shot late that came up well short in a the first meeting against Oklahoma, Stevenson became an almost near outcast of sorts.
It was with those lows in mind, Stevenson said, that he wasn’t exactly in a celebrating mood after scoring a career-high 34 points, as the Mountaineers won the rematch with the Sooners in comfortable fashion, 93-61.
“I definitely have to improve on not getting too low when I’m in those slumps and not getting too high when I have nights like this,” he said. “That’s just another step in my personal development.
“I’ll enjoy it for sure, but the season’s not over. I’m not where I want to be yet. We’re not where we want to be yet.”
Stevenson’s 34 points was just one shy of the 35 points former standout Juwan Staten once scored against Kansas State, the highest total a WVU player has had in Big 12 play.
That wasn’t what exactly bothered him, though. As he tried to put his evening into words, Stevenson referred to himself as a psycho when it comes to evaluating his play.
It’s not the 13 shots and six 3-pointers that went in for him he’ll celebrate, but rather those 10 shots that didn’t go in.
“See, that’s what’s wrong with me. I had a career night, but I could have had 50,” he said. “I’m a perfectionist. I’ll go back and watch the tape and look at the ones I missed and say, ‘I could have made that one, too.’ You can ask my teammates, I’m crazy. I’m a psycho when it comes to shooting the ball and mastering what I’m doing.”
What Stevenson is doing is carrying the bulk of the load in keeping the Mountaineers in line for a berth into the NCAA tournament.
He got some help from teammate Kedrian Johnson (16 points), but the rest of the WVU starting lineup combined to shoot just 2 of 12 from the floor.
A week ago, when WVU knocked off then-No. 15 Auburn, Stevenson had 31 points and Jimmy Bell Jr. added 15 more, but the other starters combined for just 17.
With the win, WVU took over sole possession of eighth place in the Big 12 standings, usually not a spot worth bragging about, except the league’s strong standing in the computer rankings has all 10 schools in the top 70 in the NET.
That type of strength of schedule elevates the entire league, despite the number of conference wins. WVU was ranked No. 20 in the NET on Sunday, it’s highest spot since Christmas, when the Mountaineers were No. 11.
The NET is the ranking used by the NCAA selection committee to determine at-large teams and seeding for the NCAA tournament.
And, so far, the NET is in favor of including WVU in the tournament, yet there is still a long way to go.
The Mountaineers were in a similar situation last season, but folded. Huggins believes the situation is different a year later.
“We talked a great deal about what do you want to do? We’re going to have to win games,” he said. “We’re going to have to win games to get a decent seed in the conference tournament. We’re going to have to win games to continue to advance in terms of where our placement is going to be in the Big 12 for the postseason.
“I think they’re starting to realize that, and particularly, I think guys like Erik, this is it for him. This is it for Kedy (Johnson). I think they’re starting to realize they don’t want to go through what they went through a year ago.”
TWEET @bigjax3211
