MORGANTOWN — Bob Huggins credited WVU associate head coach Larry Harrison with the defensive idea that made a big impact in the Mountaineers 56-53 victory on Wednesday.
“Larry said last week that maybe we should bring the 1-3-1 out,” Huggins said.
It was a thought that peaked Huggins’ interest enough to work on the defense over the last two days of practice.
It is a defense that is legendary in the state, having played major roles in deep NCAA tournament runs by WVU when it was coached by John Beilein, before Huggins also used it during the 2010 run to the Final Four.
“I figured no one has seen it for two to three years, so give it a shot,” Huggins said.
The result? UConn (8-2) was held to just six points over the final five minutes of the game and also was forced into a shot-clock violation with 2:35 remaining.
“I watched five of their games and did not see that 1-3-1,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said. “I thought our first possession against it was a mess. I thought we had some opportunities against it, but just missed a ton of shots. They played great defense. Those guys are tough.”
What did the WVU players think of the 1-3-1?
“We’ve been holding on that for a while,” WVU guard Sean McNeil said. “I’m sure Huggs has told you, none of our defenses look very good, but I thought our 1-3-1 looked pretty good.”
Fixing the line struggles
WVU finished the game just 12 of 27 from the foul line, a difficult-to-watch 44.4%.
It was WVU’s worst game at the foul line since Dec. 7, 2019, when the Mountaineers went 5 of 12 (41.7%) in a 70-68 loss against St. John’s.
“We’ll fix it,” said WVU guard Taz Sherman, who finished with 23 points, but was 4 of 7 from the foul line. “I promise we’ll fix it. We’re going to be a better team and we’ll get better at the line.”
Huggins said he expects his players will get better through practice. As a team, WVU is shooting 61.2% from the foul line.
“There’s only way you fix them, and that’s to go in (the gym) and work on them,” Huggins said. “I think, at least most of them will. They have the greatest practice facility in the world and it’s open 24 hours for them.”
News and notes
McNeil hit a 3-pointer in his 23rd consecutive game. In comparison, Alex Ruoff’s longest streak was 21 games. Ruoff is WVU’s all-time 3-point leader with 261. McNeil finished with 16 points against the Huskies.
Connecticut became just the 15th top 15-ranked nonconference opponent to play in he Coliseum since it opened in 1970. The Mountaineers are now 7-8 in those match-ups.
UConn came in averaging 8.2 3-pointers per game, but was held to just 3 of 21 from behind the arc. The Huskies were also out-rebounding teams by 10 per game, but came away with just a 35-31 edge on the glass against WVU.
TWEET @bigjax3211
