There’s an overused basketball cliché about having more turnovers than a bakery … but sometimes clichés are appropriate.

That was the case Saturday night in the WVU Coliseum when the Mountaineers’ 20 turnovers contributed a great deal in their 69-61 loss to seventh-ranked Texas.

“You can’t turn the ball over 20 times,� stated a dejected West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins, as his club fell to 11-8 overall and 1-6 in the Big 12 Conference. “We talked about that earlier in the year and said we were going to fix it. We had it down to where we were turning it over maybe six times a game, which still isn’t good but it’s way better than 20. Now we’re back to 20, and not against pressure. We just throw the ball to the wrong team.�

WVU’s 20 turnovers Saturday equaled its season high, as it gave the ball away 20 times in an 82-76 overtime loss at Kansas State on Dec. 31 as well. It’s also the 17th time in their 11 seasons as a member of the Big 12 that the Mountaineers have turned it over 20 or more times in a conference game. They have a 5-12 record in those charitable affairs.

“I can’t give you anything specific,� said WVU junior forward Tre Mitchell when asked about what led to the turnover problems. “I would say one (of reason) is me. I had five (turnovers), so clearly there is an issue there.

“We were just careless with the ball, and we have to take better care of it.�

Mitchell did have 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds Saturday, but he was just four of 11 from the field. Senior guard Kedrian Johnson was the only Mountaineer with more points than Mitchell, as he scored a career-high 22, but he also had a turnover issue with six. Texas was led in scoring by senior guard Marcus Carr, who had 23 points, 19 of which came in the second half.

It was that second half that pushed the Longhorns (16-3/5-2) to their eighth win over West Virginia in the last 10 meetings. WVU led 28-26 at halftime, but then Texas began to heat up offensively, converting 53.8% of its field goals (14 of 26) in the final 20 minutes, while also slowing down the Mountaineers, who made just 35.7% of their tries from the floor (10 of 28) in the period. That disparity allowed the visitors to outscore West Virginia 43-33 in the second half. UT closed the game with a 6-0 run in the final two and a half minutes to turn a razor-thin 63-61 lead into an eight-point victory.

“I know that Texas likes to pride itself on defense, but the situation is we pick and choose when we want to play together,� said an introspective Mitchell. “We pick and choose the moments that we want to move the ball, when we want to work together, when we want to screen for our teammate to get them open. Then we pick and choose moments where we say, ‘Forget about everybody else. I’m just going to try to do something myself.’ We have to start sharing the ball more and stay consistent with it. We had success with that early on, but then we deviated from it.�

It was an especially emotional loss for Mitchell, who transferred to West Virginia this past summer after spending the 2021-22 season at Texas.

“I just wanted to win, man; I just wanted to win,� said Mitchell, his heading hanging low. “Those were dudes (for UT), I went to war with them a year ago, worked out with them in the summer, went through ups and downs with them last year and built relationships with them. But that doesn’t change the fact that when we step in between those lines in different jerseys, it’s mine against yours. I just wanted to do what I could do to help us win, and clearly I didn’t do too well at that.�

After a snapping five-game losing streak with a 74-65 victory over No. 17 TCU on Wednesday, the Mountaineers couldn’t sustain the momentum Saturday against another ranked Big 12 foe. They’ll try to bounce back Wednesday (7 p.m. on ESPN) at Texas Tech (10-9/0-7).

“We just have to come to practice and work to get better,� stated Johnson. “We can’t dwell on it. We have plenty of games left. We just have to get better from this point.�

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There’s an overused basketball cliché about having more turnovers than a bakery … but sometimes clichés are appropriate.

That was the case Saturday night in the WVU Coliseum when the Mountaineers’ 20 turnovers contributed a great deal in their 69-61 loss to seventh-ranked Texas.

“You can’t turn the ball over 20 times,� stated a dejected West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins, as his club fell to 11-8 overall and 1-6 in the Big 12 Conference. “We talked about that earlier in the year and said we were going to fix it. We had it down to where we were turning it over maybe six times a game, which still isn’t good but it’s way better than 20. Now we’re back to 20, and not against pressure. We just throw the ball to the wrong team.�

WVU’s 20 turnovers Saturday equaled its season high, as it gave the ball away 20 times in an 82-76 overtime loss at Kansas State on Dec. 31 as well. It’s also the 17th time in their 11 seasons as a member of the Big 12 that the Mountaineers have turned it over 20 or more times in a conference game. They have a 5-12 record in those charitable affairs.

“I can’t give you anything specific,� said WVU junior forward Tre Mitchell when asked about what led to the turnover problems. “I would say one (of reason) is me. I had five (turnovers), so clearly there is an issue there.

“We were just careless with the ball, and we have to take better care of it.�

Mitchell did have 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds Saturday, but he was just four of 11 from the field. Senior guard Kedrian Johnson was the only Mountaineer with more points than Mitchell, as he scored a career-high 22, but he also had a turnover issue with six. Texas was led in scoring by senior guard Marcus Carr, who had 23 points, 19 of which came in the second half.

It was that second half that pushed the Longhorns (16-3/5-2) to their eighth win over West Virginia in the last 10 meetings. WVU led 28-26 at halftime, but then Texas began to heat up offensively, converting 53.8% of its field goals (14 of 26) in the final 20 minutes, while also slowing down the Mountaineers, who made just 35.7% of their tries from the floor (10 of 28) in the period. That disparity allowed the visitors to outscore West Virginia 43-33 in the second half. UT closed the game with a 6-0 run in the final two and a half minutes to turn a razor-thin 63-61 lead into an eight-point victory.

“I know that Texas likes to pride itself on defense, but the situation is we pick and choose when we want to play together,� said an introspective Mitchell. “We pick and choose the moments that we want to move the ball, when we want to work together, when we want to screen for our teammate to get them open. Then we pick and choose moments where we say, ‘Forget about everybody else. I’m just going to try to do something myself.’ We have to start sharing the ball more and stay consistent with it. We had success with that early on, but then we deviated from it.�

It was an especially emotional loss for Mitchell, who transferred to West Virginia this past summer after spending the 2021-22 season at Texas.

“I just wanted to win, man; I just wanted to win,� said Mitchell, his heading hanging low. “Those were dudes (for UT), I went to war with them a year ago, worked out with them in the summer, went through ups and downs with them last year and built relationships with them. But that doesn’t change the fact that when we step in between those lines in different jerseys, it’s mine against yours. I just wanted to do what I could do to help us win, and clearly I didn’t do too well at that.�

After a snapping five-game losing streak with a 74-65 victory over No. 17 TCU on Wednesday, the Mountaineers couldn’t sustain the momentum Saturday against another ranked Big 12 foe. They’ll try to bounce back Wednesday (7 p.m. on ESPN) at Texas Tech (10-9/0-7).

“We just have to come to practice and work to get better,� stated Johnson. “We can’t dwell on it. We have plenty of games left. We just have to get better from this point.�

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — In an 18-game Big 12 season, certainly it's too early to call the third game of the year the most crucial West Virginia will play, right?

Maybe once upon a time it would be, but all of a sudden the Mountaineers are teetering on the edge of a cliff atop the tallest mountain anyone climbs — the Big 12 conference.

At 6 p.m. on Saturday night they go out before a sold-out crowd in the Coliseum with an 0-2 start on a season that they all felt would be one in which they could contend for both the Big 12 and the NCAA title.

They take on the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks and if you think they don't need a victory to keep this year from coming untangled just as last year did in league play, you are wrong.

Every game in the Big 12 is crucial. Erik Stevenson, the Mountaineers suddenly controversial guard, said the Mountaineers can beat anyone in the Big 12.

"Every team in our league is beatable. Every team in our league is good, but every team in our league is beatable, if that makes sense. It's a heck of an opportunity. We started out 0-2 and everyone thinks we're falling apart, but we're not. We just had some tough breaks and we're confident.

"We can win any game in this league. It's going to be brutal, but it's going to be brutal for every other team in the league as well."

Kansas is No. 3 in the nation but no one really believes it is head and shoulders above everyone in the league. The fact is that the Jayhawks had to overcome a big deficit to win their first game in the league and eked out a victory in their other.

How tough is the road going to be from start to finish?

Well, during WVU's game against Oklahoma State, they put on the broadcast a ranking of the 10 toughest schedules for the rest of the season across the nation and, guess what:

Nos. 1 through 10 were the 10 Big 12 teams, as difficult as that is.

It's kind of like in the old days when Miami was No. 1 in football in the nation and their intrasquad scrimmages were tougher than most team's Saturday games.

Bob Huggins puts it this way:

"Think about this, our league is 16 in the NET. Baylor is 0-2 just like we are ranked in the Top 25 in the country. Texas Tech is 0-2 and had run 27 in a row at home before they lost to Kansas. Oklahoma is 0-2 and their losses are by a total of four points.

"We lost two road games that got away from us at the end. Kansas State scored 100 points against Texas (that was No. 6 Texas and it wasn't 100 points, it was 116).

"The Big 12's average ranking in the NET is 26.8. The next league closest to that is 60.1."

In case you don't get the point, Huggins translated the analytics for you.

"That means we are playing in the best league in America, against the best people in America who are coached by the best coaches in America. We've had every opportunity to win and we didn't finish the games. That's on all of us."

It can wear on you.

"I've been blessed to coach against the greatest coaches of all time," Huggins said. "I just didn't have to do it night after night after night."

WVU's road losses to Kansas State and Oklahoma State are only part of the challenge they face. They go into the Kansas game without their point guard, Kedrian Johnson, who is out with a concussion from the Oklahoma State game.

See, did we mention that play also gets a whole lot more physical come Big 12 play?

That's a hard blow.

"I've said since the beginning I think he's the best on the ball defender in our league. That says a lot," said Huggins, who will replace Johnson with Joe Toussaint. "That puts a lot of pressure on the guys going in for him."

WVU had 35 turnovers in the past two games and now they play without Kedrian Johnson.

"We watched it, we discussed it, we drilled it," Huggins said.

In the end, though, WVU has to do three things. It has to play clean without turnovers, find its shooting touch which disappeared in the past couple of games and they have to make free throws.

The truth is that the last two games — close losses — were games they would have won had they done those things but they did not do well in any of them.

Toss in Stevenson's transgression against Oklahoma State when he made a gesture to the fans after shooting WVU back into the game only to draw a technical and put him in position to foul out two minutes later, sins for which he apologized to the coaches, team and fans on Friday, and you see there is little wiggle room.

"We're coming back home, we're going to get our swag back, get our mojo back, get the one against Kansas and start on a run," Stevenson said.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — New Year's comes early this year.

Oh, for the world, it comes at midnight on Sunday morning when, in New York City, they count down the seconds until the ball drops at Times Square. But for West Virginia, the new year really begins with the ball goes up in a different Manhattan, the one in Kansas where Bob Huggins' Mountaineers usher in a new Big 12 season at Kansas State.

Tipoff is not midnight, but instead 7 p.m. Saturday, and while the national networks are holding their own New Year's Eve celebrations, if you want to see WVU's, you have to watch on ESPN+, if you can get it. A lot of people in this state can't, and Bob Huggins is well aware of that.

While Huggins' team is still in a "getting to know you" mode as far as playing together goes, with point guard Kedrian Johnson the only holdover starter from last year and forward Emmitt Matthews Jr., who is cleared to go in the opener after missing two games with a bone bruise on his knee, back at WVU after having spent last season playing at Washington, it will not be blinded by the light of a Big 12 opener because it is rich in experience.

Huggins was asked if the travel problems encountered as the players tried — and some failed — to get home for the Christmas holiday bothered them; he said not at all.

"We don't have a bunch of 18-year-olds, we have grown men," Huggins said.

He feels that the experience factor works in his team's favor even as it battles to learn the offense, defense, the teammates and the coach.

"They've seen a lot of things," Huggins said.

That includes offenses and defenses, hostile crowds as will be found at Kansas State and then Oklahoma State, big leads gained and big leads lost, hot hands and cold nights.

"Whatever they throw at us, we have people who have better recognition and know how to attack it," Huggins said.

That's Kedrian Johnson at the point and Erik Stevenson at the shooting guard. It's Joe Toussaint, who came over as a senior from Iowa, and Matthews returning to get his degree and try to win a championship with WVU stamped on it.

It's Tre Mitchell, maybe the most versatile of the lot, who can score inside and out, who is smooth and determined after having played in the Big 12 at Texas.

In fact, Mitchell, Matthews, Stevenson, Kedrian Johnson and Joe Toussaint have played an unheard of 530 collegiate games combined.

Stevenson often refers to himself playing "20 years," but it only feels like that, having been part of four programs.

One would think players who have used up as much eligibility as they have would be feeling a sense of urgency in what could be — and almost certainly will be — their final season.

But Huggins says there's a misconception with the team.

"We're not as old as people think we are," he said, noting that Matthews, Johnson and Stevenson are the only three on the roster whose eligibility expires after this year, even though with transfers and the professional ranks calling, others surely will exit at season's end.

Huggins says walking away with eligibility left is difficult.

"It's like Gabe (Osabuohien) said last year. He was here (in the gym) everyday, asking 'What would I do without it? I'd be lost.'"

Huggins, in fact, said he experienced that at the end of his playing career.

While Huggins' full identity now is with WVU, this is a homecoming for him as he coached the Wildcats for one year between his time at Cincinnati and coming home to WVU.

He will be facing a new coach at K-State in former Baylor assistant Jerome Tang, who is in his first year with the Wildcats. He has them off to an 11-1 start.