MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Forget for a moment that it took a near-Herculean effort from Derek Culver and then an offensive foul against TCU guard Desmond Bane that gets called once every few years, or so, that got the game to overtime in the first place.
Forget for a moment that No. 17 West Virginia cruised out to a 10-point lead with 3:30 remaining in the first half and then nearly lost it all before halftime.
Even forget that the Mountaineers, who fell hard on their own faces Saturday in a 67-60 overtime loss against TCU at the Schollmaier Arena, are just a completely different team when not inside the WVU Coliseum.
More disturbing than any of those facts were the small moments in time that did not go the Mountaineers way against the Horned Frogs (15-12, 6-8 Big 12).
The wide open 14-footer from Taz Sherman in the final seconds of regulation is a shot that gets knocked down by good teams.
In overtime, Sean McNeil’s 3-point attempt with WVU down three completely sailed over the rim.
That doesn’t happen to good teams, either.
The real killer: When the moment in overtime came for the one absolute got-to have-it rebound, the Big 12’s top rebounding team — at least that’s what the stats say about the Mountaineers, anyway — did not secure the rebound.
That came with 32 seconds left and with the Mountaineers trailing, 63-60.
It was not the 6-foot-10 Culver or the 6-9 Oscar Tshiebwe who came up with that rebound. It was not the 6-7 Jermaine Haley or a hustling Sherman or McNeil.
Instead it was TCU guard Jaire Grayer, a graduate transfer from George Mason playing big-time basketball for the first time in his career.
And he came away with a big-time play in that moment, securing the offensive rebound and then lobbing it to teammate Kevin Samuel for the basket that was officially the dagger that put the Mountaineers out of their misery.
The loss will likely drop the Mountaineers (19-8, 7-7) from the national rankings.
That is the least of the Mountaineers’ problems at the moment.
Way above that list of concerns is there seems to be no answers as to how WVU can pull itself out of this funk.
It is a funk that was paused very briefly with a win against a struggling Oklahoma State team at home last Tuesday.
Other than that, WVU has been anything but one of the top 25 teams in the country since mid-January.
“I don’t have any insight, I wish I did. Sometimes we all think we’re a little smarter than what we are, but I have no answers right now,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said on his postgame radio show. “Man, oh, man. We’ve lost to the bottom part of the league. You can’t do that.
“Now anytime you turn on the TV, you’re going to hear how we dropped in the NET (NCAA rankings) and this and that. I’m sick of it.”
There is much to be upset at during this moment.
As against Oklahoma State, Huggins started with a smaller lineup and brought Derek Culver off the bench and started Sherman.
Huggins said the discussions in the previous weeks is having both Culver and Tshiebwe playing at the same time bogs down West Virginia’s offense.
So, Sherman and McNeil got more playing time with the hope that WVU could generate enough offense to counter the lack of defense the Mountaineers would face without playing its bigger lineup.
The result? WVU was a disappointing 2 of 17 from 3-point range while the Horned Frogs, who lost by 32 points in Morgantown earlier this season, outscored the Mountaineers in the paint.
One of the WVU’s 3-pointers was a Hail Mary from Sherman, “It came out of left field at the end of the game,” Huggins said.” — from about 32 feet. Other than that, WVU’s chances of making any shot outside of the paint was nearly zero.
Oh, and WVU finished just 8 of 15 from the foul line. So, if you thought this team would finally learn how to make some free throws by this time, well, it hasn’t.
“I really thought this could be a special year,” Huggins said. “I thought it could be something that all West Virginians could rally around. Maybe it still can be. It’s not over, that’s the good thing. I said after the Oklahoma game that we were headed in the wrong direction.”
That direction now seems to have players constantly questioning Huggins about their playing time, while the coaches question their own lineups and strategies.
This is fine in late November. It is not a great thing to deal with in late February.
“I’m not sure what the next step is,” Huggins admitted. “It’s like, ‘OK, we’re going to start these guys and get some other guys in and two bigs kind of bog down our offense.’ I’ve said that wasn’t the case, but I keep getting that suggestion and it’s the wrong suggestion.”
Man, are there any right suggestions to be made for this team?
“I don’t know what to do,” Huggins said. “I’m incredibly frustrated.”
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