The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board

There was some good new to come out of last night’s expected unexpected. Whether you want to believe or accept them is up to you, but it is what it is for likely NIT bound West Virginia

1) Kevin Noreen kept you from setting a Big 12 Tournament record for fewest points in a half in the first half last night. He had five points in the final six minutes of the half in which his teammates managed nine points. Oklahoma scored 12 points in the second half of a loss in 2003.

2) The second team kept you from setting a tournament record for fewest points in a game. Colorado scored 35 against, ahem, Texas in 2000. The Buffaloes lost.

3) There’s no way WVU sees Texas in the NIT.

The third time might be the charm in some fairy tales, but we’re clear that the first two times against Texas were a Cam Ridley-big hint that the Mountaineers have a Texas problem, right?

I know WVU felt good about its chances, for whatever artificial or even naturally occurring reason, but I know what I knew, and four weeks ago the Mountaineers shrugged their shoulders and said they had no answers for Texas. I don’t know what could have possibly changed except for the calendar.

The outcome, which is to say the reality, did not, and while I know the Mountaineers have been resilient within the season, they are not resilient within games, and when last night’s game started the way it did against that team, there was no doubt apart from the arrival of a miracle WVU was toast.

And afterward, the puffed out chests were deflated and the lines that followed the third loss to Texas sounded similar to one another and to the ones that followed the last game.

“They beat us three times,” Harris said. “There’s something they’re doing that bothers us. We just beat the best team in the conference (Kansas), but for some reason that team right there gives us trouble.”

WVU has a problem with Texas. We know that. There is no disputing that. There’s no use disputing that. But WVU has a problem with WVU, too. The Mountaineers are 0-11 when they fall behind by 10 or more points in a game. Six of those 11 losses are the last six losses, each by double digits and in the end by an average of 14.6 points.

It’s unusual to see a team that knows the way to the floor so well not to have learned a way back to its feet, but that’s WVU. Does a lot of that have to do with jump shots not falling and heads dropping? Sure. But WVU can never guard well enough to stop the bleeding or to cover for the shooting until it warms up, or at least thaws. WVU never rebounds strongly or consistently enough to give itself second chances or to take them away from the other team.

You can control a few things in basketball, and how you respond to ups and downs is one of them. It might be the biggest one of them. Yet WVU can’t because it really has very little success with the things it can control to control the responses. That, above all else and at the almost end here, seems like the problem of all problems for the Mountaineers and it sure sounds like there’s no way out of that wet paper bag.

“It’s not easy, especially when you know your effort probably isn’t going to get rewarded,” forward Remi Dibo said.

The Mountaineers will now wait until Sunday evening to see if they’ve been invited to the NIT. I say that, but Bob Huggins was asked after the game if he thought his team deserved a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

“Well, we were sixth in the best league in the country. You know, we struggled early and we lost some games early because we were so young. And I think we’ve gotten better and better. I think, are we one of the, you know, whatever, 60‑however‑the‑hell many there are now? I don’t even know. Yeah, I think we are. But I guess it’s your body of work.”

That body is decidedly unNoreen. The NCAA Tournament thing isn’t happening, but I don’t think the CBI will be calling either. The NIT can be beneficial, but let’s try to nip another one of those March cliches in the bud, too.

It doesn’t give you a lot of practices, let alone games. It’s good for what a team makes of it, but it can be hard for a team to do well with the cards it is dealt.

The first-round games are March 18-19. The second-round games are March 20-24 and the quarterfinals are March 25-26. So in theory, WVU can find out it’s in the NIT Sunday, practice Monday and play Tuesday. That’s tough.

At best, you get a Wednesday game and two days of practice, and WVU probably won’t have to travel for the first game. I figure WVU will be no better than a No. 3 seed, and I wouldn’t be surprised by a No. 4. You’re going to get a decent opponent, and poor Josh Eilert has a big task ahead of him the next few days as he tries to get as many things in order as he can so he’s ready to go when the matchups are revealed.

Anyhow, things get tricky after the first round of games because it’s not easy to schedule the NIT on campuses this time of year. WVU could play Tuesday. It’s opponent could play Wednesday. They might meet in the second round Friday. Or they could both play Tuesday and meet in the second round Saturday. There are some extra practice opportunities there, but I’m not sure what WVU can really do at this time of the year, especially with Terry Henderson still rounding into form and Juwan Staten no less than healing a turned ankle that could be really bad, for all we know.

But no matter the schedule, a team has to win three games in eight days to reach the final four in Madison Square Garden. You can only practice so many times in there. There’s no limit to the amount of film the Mountaineers can watch, but what could they possibly learn about themselves after 32 games that they don’t already know?

Juwan Staten said something this week that has since stuck with me. “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a season …”

Is it? I don’t know, but that line, the one repeated so often in March, seems like the fallback for a losing team. I’m not accusing WVU of that — quite the contrary, which I’ll get to in a moment — but in my experience, it’s a thing pulled out of despair.

When one team is better than another team two times — and in the case of Texas in relation to WVU, by 28 points, 13 baskets and 34 rebounds — why can’t it be better three times? If it’s easy twice, why not thrice?

And I’m not saying there isn’t some truth to it. Teams do figure one another out and a game plan for a conference tournament game be simple because you’ve already drawn up scouting reports twice before. And sometimes its simplified because of the short time between games.

And let’s not forget Texas Tech did beat WVU here last year.

That said, I don’t think it’s relevant and I don’t think it’s as easy as that for either side tonight. I don’t think Texas wins by turning in a lineup and I don’t think WVU wins just because it has some probability edge.

I do think there’s a portion of that Staten quote that needs to be included for the purpose of this conversation. “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a season, and beating Kansas can definitely be a confidence boost. With the mix of those two, we should be OK as we head to play Texas.”