MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Having come off the bench in his last two games and playing just nine minutes against Kansas State, it was thought WVU forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. was one of the players affected during the Mountaineers’ two-week layoff for COVID-19 protocols.
Just how much that was the case wasn’t known until after WVU’s 87-88 victory against Texas Tech on Monday.
“He’s lost 18 pounds, I believe,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “We have to get him back — I don’t want to say healthy, because he is healthy — but get some weight back and some strength back.”
Matthews played 21 minutes against the Red Raiders and scored five points on 2 of 5 shooting.
Along with Matthews, Huggins said forward Derek Culver was also forced to sit out 10 days in quarantine, but he has started both games since.
Culver did sit out a long stretch of minutes in the second half against Texas Tech, before entering the game again on the final possession of the game.
“We just have to kind of get it going again, get guys back in shape,” Huggins said. “We are not in very good shape. We struggled with wind with a lot of our guys. We have to substitute a lot, because guys were out of wind. But, if you go 15 days and you don’t run up and down, you will be tired.”
Welcome home, Darris
Saturday’s game against Florida (9-4, 6-3 SEC) in the annual Big12/SEC Challenge marks the third time former WVU standout guard Darris Nichols will coach against his alma mater.
It will be his first trip back to the WVU Coliseum, though.
Florida is 2-0 against WVU with Nichols on the Gators’ sideline. He’s in his sixth season at the school as an assistant under head coach Mike White.
Florida beat the Mountaineers, 88-71, in the 2016 Challenge at the O’Connell Center in Gainesville.
The two schools also played at Madison Square Garden in 2018, with the Gators coming away with a 66-56 victory.
Scouting the Gators
Maybe more so than West Virginia, the COVID-19 pandemic has played havoc on Florida’s schedule.
The Gators had three games canceled at the start of the season in the bubble at Uncasville, Conn., including two scheduled against Virginia and Oklahoma.
Florida also had four games postponed in December after some positive tests/contact tracing within its program dealing with the coronavirus.
Still, the Gators have won three straight, including a 75-49 win against then-No. 6 Tennessee. Florida had five players in double figures against Vanderbilt, a common theme with the Gators.
Since leading scorer and preseason SEC Player of the year, Keyontae Johnson, collapsed on the floor in a game against Florida State — he spent 10 days in a hospital and was in a medically induced coma for part of that time — Florida has had others step up to form a well-rounded team.
A nucleus of Noah Locke, Tre Mann, Colin Castleton, Scottie Lewis and Tyree Appleby combine to score 60 of the Gators 77.8 points per game.
As for the Big 12/SEC Challenge games, WVU is 2-5, but defeated Missouri last season.
Florida is 4-3, but is on a two-game losing streak in the challenge games.
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