MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — On the outside of West Virginia’s men’s basketball program, the changes Bob Huggins made during Tuesday’s 65-47 victory against Oklahoma State at the WVU Coliseum seemed like a big deal.
New starters. Some guys are going to sit, while others are going to play more.
It created headlines and conversation, and for fans who love shaking things up for the simple matter of shaking things up, this was going to be a defining moment to the Mountaineers’ season.
It was going to teach lessons to those players who needed to be dealt a dose of reality. It was going to reward those who worked hard all season, but just couldn’t seem to get enough of an opportunity.
Funny thing, though, inside the WVU program, there was no defining moment.
No big speeches. No yelling and screaming from Huggins.
No pomp and circumstance whatsoever.
“Coach said a few things, but not much,” said WVU guard Taz Sherman, who moved into the starting lineup for just the second time this season Tuesday, where he joined teammate Deuce McBride, who started for the first time this season. “In practice, the starters wear a blue jersey and the other guys wear a gray one. He basically just told me and Deuce to put on a blue jersey and that was about it.”
You’d expect something different from what looked to everyone else as a critical move during a critical part of the season.
“I could see where maybe some coaches would try to justify changes to all of the players and make a big deal out of it,” said WVU forward Derek Culver, who came off the bench in the first half after the two changes in the starting lineup. “That’s not Huggs, though. He’s not making anything bigger than it has to be. Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal to any of us.”
Early on, the change to McBride and Sherman got off to a rocky start.
They combined to go 0 for 7 shooting and weren’t playing the greatest of defense.
Neither panicked.
“It happened, but my focus was on not letting it happen again,” said Sherman, who finished with nine points. “I had to get better defensively. There wasn’t a shot I took that I didn’t think I was going to make. I thought I was going to make every single shot. That’s how scorers have to think. You can fix it. You can’t get mentally down on yourself.”
After seeing how the changes worked or didn’t work, Huggins said his hindsight view was maybe they were changes that weren’t exactly necessary.
That’s no knock on McBride’s or Sherman’s performance.
It’s more about matching up defensively, or in this case, putting a lineup on the floor that the opposition can’t match-up with.
That’s what Huggins ultimately wants out of a WVU lineup with both Culver, who is 6-foot-10, and 6-foot-9 Oscar Tshiebwe in it.
“We started small and that probably wasn’t the right thing to do in hindsight,” Huggins said. “We were struggling so bad to score while playing that bigger lineup. I thought the big lineup in the second half really saved us. Derek and Oscar and Gabe (Osabuohien) all were good defensively.”
WVU has five games remaining, with two road games coming up at TCU and Texas that could very well truly define this season.
Chances are, Huggins will go back to a bigger lineup, which could put Sherman back on the bench.
“Starting a game is fun, but it’s not the most important thing,” Sherman said. “To me, it’s about the total minutes. You could start a game and only play five minutes. Coming off the bench is no problem.”
Maybe Jordan McCabe goes back in at point guard or maybe McBride remains as the starter for now.
More importantly, those decisions will not be looked at as a life-and-death situation by WVU players.
“I don’t think anyone is really going to worry about starting or not. I don’t think any of us really put that much thought into it,” Culver said. “Honestly, I kind of like coming off the bench, because it allows you to see the game from a different view. You can see how guys are reacting defensively. Plus, they’re tired once you get in there.”
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