That’s what I thought when I sat down to fire up the blog today by beginning with an explanation of last night’s loss. And that’s sure what it looked like WVU thought when it took the floor last night against St. John’s.

Quote Bob Huggins, who was wonderfully quotable after the loss: “We somehow got an inflated value of our self-worth.”  That’s not good, particularly when the objective beginning last night, after working so hard and playing so well to reach a certain level this season, was to act like it belonged. Said it yesterday: “It’s now upon WVU to handle its triumphs as well as it did its stumbles.”

That simple. Sometimes it’s hard to describe a loss or explain why and how it happened, particularly when one is just perplexing like last night’s. And sometimes you have nights like last night, where it was plainly visible WVU wasn’t ready to play or think its way to a win.

I mean, you could watch the first several minutes, see Truck miss a few and the way that bothered him and his teammates, see how their eyes widened and the rim shrunk against the zone, how the energy wasn’t there, how the St. John’s start hit hard, how Huggins was … rattled? … because what he suspected might happen and had worked to prevent was actually happening.

Panic stinks — it’s not good for you and the other team can smell it  — and WVU is not yet a team that consistently steers back on the road for a smooth ride after a bumpy stretch. And it was bumpy from the start.

Deniz Kilicli was just about a non-fator on a night the team needed him in the middle against the zone — and I thought he had a good start, actually.

Truck looked like he wanted to make one early, but he was 0-for-4/0-for-3 very fast. By the way, his 14 straight misses from 3-point range dropped his percentage from 35.5 percent to 31.6, though he did make 3 of 5 when he snapped the rut.  

Keaton Miles hesitated on some open shots, even though opponents yell “HE CAN’T SHOOT” and leave him open — and Miles can hit from that left side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsW-5uGr_gM

Jabarie Hinds was aggressive, early but he faded. Gary Browne and Aaron Brown weren’t any help and Browne was 0-for-4 at the free-throw line after making 23 of 30. Nique Rutledge was good for the time he can get, but it got so bad last night that Huggins needed Paul Herbert Williamson in his first Big East game and Tommie McCune.

I’ve had a few players tell me McCune is a really good shooter and he kills it in practice. Yet he doesn’t play and, not to say one has to do with the other, but on a night when WVU wasn’t prepared and Huggins dusted off McCune, McCune came into the game with his shorts on backwards.

What’s worse, that or this? Huggins spent an entire timeout switching from man-to-man to the 1-3-1 and this year that requires specific directions in the huddle to make sure everyone knows where they’re supposed to be.

The Mountaineers went back onto the floor and two players were in a zone and three were playing man.

The team with the worst shooting and 3-point percentage in the Big East really cut up WVU’s defense and had its way off the dribble and, once WVU defenders had to help their teammates, on the boards. The Red Storm, whch can really struggle to score, had 50 points in the paint and 22 intransition. Worse yet, the Mountaineers were supposed to know it was coming.

The Red Storm had 50 points in the paint and virtually all of them came off a layup or dunk. The Mountaineers expected that from the team with the worst shooting and 3-point percentage in the Big East, but the Red Storm followed up last year’s 81-71 win and 40 points in the paint with a similar showing.

Huggins said he showed his team clips from that game to show them what to expect.

“I couldn’t get our guys to buy in,” he said. “I tried. I showed them clips of when we got just absolutely manhandled last year at home by St. John’s to make sure they’d understand what was coming. They beat us up and down the floor and pretty much did what I told them what was going to happen.”