Missed opportunity: No. 14 West Virginia shoots blanks in loss against No. 3 Kansas

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The words coming from Bob Huggins tried to explain West Virginia’s shortcomings.

At one point, he shrugged and admitted that the answers behind the Mountaineers’ 58-49 loss on Wednesday against No. 3 Kansas were not always easy to find.

“I’m just trying to B.S. you, so you guys will write something down and I can leave,” he said, obviously trying to lighten up what has become a not-so-bright situation with the 14th-ranked Mountaineers. “I’m really being honest today.”

BOX SCORE

WVU point guard Jordan McCabe, too, was critically honest of his performance and that of his fellow point guards in Deuce McBride and Brandon Knapper, who combined for eight of West Virginia’s 19 turnovers and contributed no assists.

“Wins fall on the team and losses fall on the point guard,” said McCabe, who scored 10 points, but had four turnovers. “Myself, Deuce, Knapp, we all take full responsibility for not taking care of the ball. We knew we had to. Down the stretch, we gave them more possessions than we had. That’s how they win games.”

When it was all said and done, West Virginia’s turnovers were costly.

So, too, was a scoring drought that saw WVU (18-6, 6-5 Big 12) go without a basket over the final 5:59 and without a single point in the final 5:07.

All of it helped to erase what was a 41-32 Mountaineers’ lead with 13:30 remaining in the game.

From there?

“Kansas got the loose balls,” Huggins said. “Every ball that got tipped in the air on a rebound, they got. They beat us to the ball.”

A star-studden crowd of 14,212 inside the WVU Coliseum included Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was in town along with teammate Ryan Switzer, a Charleston native.

What Big Ben saw was plenty of big bodies on the floor he probably wouldn’t mind seeing at Heinz Field doubling as a tight end.

Two of them — WVU’s Oscar Tshiebwe and Kansas’ Udoka Azubuike — certainly had their moments.

Tshiebwe’s came early when Azubuike was in early foul trouble. Azubuike’s defensive presence made the difference in the final minutes, once Tshiebwe was in his own foul trouble.

“Well, Oscar was the best big guy, but I mean let’s call it like it is. Udoka didn’t play the first half,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said. “Then when he was in there, (Tshiebwe) wasn’t effective at all. I’m not saying Doke was the best for the half, but he was the best down the stretch.”

Down the stretch was when the Jayhawks’ 7-footer started swatting seemingly every shot attempt West Virginia put at the basket.

Azibuike finished with six points and seven rebounds, while Tshiebwe had 14 points and nine rebounds.

“When you have that rim protector in there, you’ve got to make him move,” said WVU guard Jermaine Haley, who had eight rebounds, but also had four turnovers. “We were too slow getting into our offense late. We were stagnant. Honestly, we were just looking around at each other at the end of the game and that’s supposed to be crunch time. That’s when you’re supposed to be locked in.”

Instead, the Mountaineers were locked out and missed out on a golden opportunity to make some kind of late-season statement to the rest of the Big 12 and the country.

Kansas (21-3, 10-1) became the first team this season to win inside the Coliseum this season.
In doing so, the Jayhawks held the Mountaineers to their lowest point total since January 2016 against Texas.

“We got 60 shots and made 19,” Huggins said. “We had, what, 76 the last game? It’s not like we’re not getting shots. We’re not making any.”

The 76 shots came in last week’s road loss against Oklahoma and now the Mountaineers are facing their first two-game losing streak of the season with No. 1 ranked Baylor up next on Saturday, in Waco, Texas.

Obviously a third consecutive loss sets up a critical situation for the Mountaineers in terms of not only Big 12 tournament seeding, but also their seed for the NCAA tournament.

That, Huggins did have a reply for, and it was, again, brutally honest.

“Hopefully it pisses them off,” Huggins said. “Hopefully, we come back with a lot of fire, hopefully.”