Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which has been guarding screens since 2007. It seems what I was going to use for the intro today is actually what everyone wants to discuss in greater depth. Bob Huggins has had, once again, some interesting stuff to say about his team and two things seems to be getting the most run:
“We’ve got two guys playing point guard who have never played point guard in their lives. Some days they’re OK. Other days they’re not OK.”
… and …
“We’re probably the most non-athletic team in the league.”
We’re going to get into greater detail and I risk circling back to the same series of explanations and defenses, so I’ll just lay out a few things here.
– If you ask, “Well, who recruited those non-athletic guys?” I think we all know the answer, and that includes Huggins. He knows where the buck stops. He says it without saying it. I think we can agree on one thing: Huggins is never cryptic.
– He’s saying the same things to his players, so it’s not double-talk.
– Don’t make too much of the “never played point guard” stuff. It’s like having a high school running back play slot receiver in college. The way Huggins uses his guards, the difference between a PG and a SG is minimal. And in college, Hinds and Browne would not be SGs. Huggins likes guards who can get at the rim and get easy baskets and a high school SG like Hinds can do that as a college PG.
This is not an apologist movement. There are problems we’ve seen for a while — ” … we went to St. John’s and it was the most uninspired I’ve ever seen a team play in my life,” Huggins said. “It’s been all downhill from there.” — and we can talk about all of them, but WVU still isn’t in a completely desolate position.
Wednesday was a bad night. Maybe just a bad half. If you continue to pursue the sunny disposition, Notre Dame isn’t a good matchup for WVU, especially at home. I can’t stand the “If the season ended today …” line because the season does not end today. If the season ended Jan. 21, WVU would have had a double-bye in the Big East Tournament and been a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Plus, things can change very fast with a win tonight. The game is sold out. It’s a 9 p.m. start, when the Coliseum is always frisky, and the people seem to genuinely dislike sleepless Buzz Williams. Could be a good one, except — and this is when the rain comes on the parade — Marquette is a bad, bad matchup for the Mountaineers.
The Golden Eagles have a bunch of different parts and lineups and Williams makes the most of them all. They move the ball well and play really well off the bounce, two issues for WVU and its overaggressive, underperforming defense. Worse yet Marquette plays harder than anyone in the league and WVU looked gassed Wednesday night. Hey, who wants to have some fun?
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, act like you belong.
jtmountaineer said:
It says a lot about where we are in the season that my biggest wish, slightly above making the tournament, is for KJ to get 20 and 10 the rest of the way and secure BEPotY. I’d like him not to be a victim of the team’s downturn.
Yeah, that would be sad because I have no reservations saying he’s been the player of the year, but I know it’s tied to a team’s success, too. How closely? I don’t know. I’d say the runner-up is Marquette’s Darius Johnson-Odom, who is second in scoring and one of the best 3-point shooters in the league. He also plays for the second-place team that has won four straight and 11 of 12. See where I’m going?
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