MORGANTOWN — Taz Sherman knew the doubts from those outside of the WVU men’s basketball team on whether or not the Mountaineers could play with the better teams in the country.
He couldn’t argue against them, either.
“For people who were saying stuff, saying, ‘How good are they?’ You couldn’t really disagree with it,” Sherman said after scoring 23 points Wednesday in WVU’s 56-53 victory against No. 15 Connecticut. “We’ve been up and down. I think a lot of people were wondering what our identity was. I think tonight showed our identity a little bit.”
Those questions or doubts were shown in a lack of respect in the national polls toward the Mountaineers (8-1), who also entered Wednesday’s game ranked No. 73 in the NCAA’s NET rankings — WVU rose to No. 53 Thursday — which are used by the NCAA selection committee to determine at-large teams and seeding.
In truth, Sherman admits there were still questions from within the program.
“We’re still figuring it out,” Sherman said. “I think we still have guys who are trying to figure out their roles.”
That includes returning players like Jalen Bridges and Isaiah Cottrell, who are still learning on how aggressive they can be offensively.
Cottrell talked about that just the day before the Connecticut game.
The Mountaineers were coming off a win against Radford, in which guard Sean McNeil did not play, because of a bad back.
You would think that would open up an opportunity for Cottrell and Bridges to take more shots, except they didn’t. The two forwards combined for just six shots against the Highlanders.
“We want to take good shots and not force anything,” Cottrell said. “Some games, you have more opportunities. You still run through the plays and pass the ball. Shot selection is big. You can’t go out there and say, ‘This game, I’m going to take 10 shots.’ ”
WVU also has a collection of three fifth-year senior transfers who are trying to figure out how to take what worked for them at smaller schools and make it work at a Power Five Conference school.
Pauly Paulicap continues to impress with his work ethic and timely inside scoring and shot blocking.
Dimon Carrigan leads WVU with 12 blocks and Malik Curry’s transition has seen him become
the fourth-leading scorer (7.2 ppg), but he’s also had good and bad days with his assists and turnovers.
“Our bigs have been playing great with blocking shots and playing with heart,” Sherman said. “They’ve been playing hard and have been giving us great energy.”
When it all seems to click against a ranked team, that’s what creates the special feeling WVU players felt Wednesday.
“We know now what type of team we can be when we play to our full potential,” Sherman said. “I think this is one step toward where we can get to. It was a great win that’s going to help propel us to the other tough games we have coming our way.”
TWEET @bigjax3211
