The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

Lots of stuff happened at the Coliseum last night

December 11, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Chief among the events, WVU lost, 80-76, for the 14th straight loss to a ranked opponent and another game this season that the team might have won had it not possessed a few of the qualities that continues to doom it in close games.

The defense is at times terrible and the lapses are often untimely. The sum of those parts leaves the Mountaineers at 6-0 against bad teams and 0-4 against good teams and without a lot of bad teams left on the grid.

Other events?

A Gale Catlett sighting!

A Polish center running wild!

Let’s stop here: Officiating was a factor. It wasn’t the factor, but it was a factor. Karnowski played 32 minutes, and finished with a strong triple double — 19 points, 13 rebounds and 11 moving screens. That tweet generated a lot of feedback, and I see some of you have been tracking my commentary on the officiating in the comments. I believe calls and no-calls and, more importantly, a lack of consistency, mattered. It didn’t bother WVU when it built a 51-41 lead and it didn’t keep them from making shots or free throws late, but it mattered. I can say that.

Kevin Noreen, on the other hand …

“I feel like (the officials) missed a few things,” WVU forward Kevin Noreen said. “I was up in him on a rebound and got an elbow to the head that wasn’t called. We were both fighting for the ball a few times and I ended up getting the foul. But that’s the way things happen sometimes. The refs didn’t affect the outcome of the game. We did, and you’ve got to play through those things.”

All in all, WVU left that game really frustrated and Team Together, I believe, started to splinter just a little bit. That’s not to say this team becomes that team that was so hard to watch last season and will soon turn on one another and make this a miserable ride the rest of the way. No, because I think this team is better than that team and knows it and won’t quit … but this team is beginning to see the ceiling. That realization does weird things to people, especially people who really believed just a few days ago that the limit was much closer to the sky.

Overtime? Sure, why not. I also said this during the game:

You’re welcome …

It really was a fun night, one of those nights that used to make that gym a pretty neat place to play and watch a game. Maybe, even in defeat, the Mountaineers drummed up some support.