You would think a point guard standing out at the top of the offense, who then dips his head, falls and then just throws the ball blindly to the other team would be one of your worst moments in a 14-point home loss.
That play actually unfolded for WVU, which lost to Kansas State 81-67 inside the Coliseum on Tuesday, but it wasn’t close to the worst moment.
In what could only be described as … and this is the problem, because it’s really kind of hard to put into words these days what exactly these Mountaineers are trying to get accomplished.
If this game was being played at a local YMCA or even in the old church league, there wouldn’t be much concern.
Those games are designed to be without rhyme or reason, and let’s be honest, those games aren’t played by top-level college athletes.
Inside the Coliseum, in the Big 12 Conference is another story entirely.
These are well-trained college athletes, and let’s be honest again, well-trained college athletes who are being paid through NIL to put on a good showing.
What transpired Tuesday, and what happened the other day in the Big 12 opener at Houston (a 34-point loss) was not a good showing.
“We’ve got to look at some other things offensively to where we can put guys in different scenarios and positions,” WVU head coach Josh Eilert said. “I told them (in the locker room) that I’ll take some of the blame. We’ll go back to the drawing board and look at some different ways to where we can attack offensively.”
WVU’s offensive approach against the Wildcats (12-3, 2-0 Big 12) was questionable.
Aside from the play we mentioned in the lead, we also saw a lob pass being thrown to a guy who was double-teamed under the rim.
That didn’t work.
There was also a play where RaeQuan Battle stood out on the wing and called for a teammate to come out and give him a screen.
Except it wasn’t much of a screen, we’re not even sure there was any contact made.
Instead of Battle getting a path to go downhill with the ball, he was instead double-teamed, as the screener ran away from the action.
He turned the ball over and Kansas State finished with a dunk at the other end.
There was another moment in what we guess was supposed to be a handoff to a teammate coming around, except the handoff went to the wrong team.
Skip passes were intercepted. Guys got the ball stripped from them in spots on the floor you’d least expect to see the ball get taken away.
And after reliving and writing all of that, you’d expect the Mountaineers to turn the ball over 22 times in this one.
They only had 13, which is not an amount any coach would lose his cool over.
Except the majority of those 13 were turnovers you’d see at that rec center or in that church league and they would sometimes be followed by a chuckle.
True, there is no chemistry in this WVU lineup, not with everything this program has endured.
But these guys just didn’t start playing basketball yesterday. Some of this stuff you learn in the pee-wee leagues.
Chemistry or no chemistry, this isn’t Division I college basketball being played by the Mountaineers (5-10, 0-2).
It’s soft. It’s run-and-gun, which looks great, but then the gun shoots a lot of blanks.
It’s too much isolation, which is to say one guy going against the other five and trying to make unbelievably tough shots.
And did I mention it’s soft? That especially goes for WVU’s defense, which gave up more than 80 points for a second consecutive Big 12 game.
“You look and this is the second-straight game we’ve given up 50-plus percent (shooting) from the field. That’s not cutting it,” Eilert said. “Lot of that’s on me. I’ll take the blame for it.”
Eilert took a lot of the blame after the K-State loss. We’re not exactly sure how much of the blame falls on his shoulders.
Then again, after watching this team for just a little more than two months now, we’re not sure what to think.
