NORMAN, Okla. — Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said West Virginia could very well be 5-0 in Big 12 play after the Sooners beat the Mountaineers 77-76 on Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center.
Baylor coach Scott Drew talked about the competitiveness of the league when the Bears beat WVU the game before.
Kansas coach Bill Self issued a similar statement two games before, when the Jayhawks handled the Mountaineers in Morgantown.
But the Mountaineers aren’t 5-0, or 4-1, or 3-2, and so on. The Mountaineers remain winless five games into league play.
WVU coach Bob Huggins said prior to the Oklahoma loss he believed the Mountaineers would be a good team, and that feeling didn’t change after Saturday’s game.
“We’re playing in the best league in the country,†Huggins said. “We’ve had some guys in and out with injuries and so forth. We’re going to get them all put together, and I think what the normal person doesn’t understand is we’ve got freshmen — which I think that’s important — and we’ve got two very, very good freshmen. I can’t play them now. I can’t play them in hard spots right now. We’ve got two or three sophomores that are going to be really good players. They’re not quite there yet.
“We’ve got some transfers — we’ve got junior-college guys and we’ve got some [transfer] portal guys.
“I don’t care who you are, you put all those in a mixing pot and it’s going to take us a little while. Now, when everybody gets to clicking and understanding what everybody does a little bit better, don’t worry about us being 0-5. We’re going to catch up fast.â€
The Mountaineers, despite falling to 10-7 overall with their current five-game losing streak, have had solid opportunities to win four of the five Big 12 games they’re played. Those four losses to Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Baylor and Oklahoma — three of which were on the road — came by an average of less than five points. The only loss not really within reach was against now-No. 2 Kansas, 76-62.
So where do they go from here? The simple answer is back to the WVU Coliseum, where they’ll have another chance in a big game Wednesday against No. 17 TCU.
“I would say that being a guy that has been in a similar situation as far as being a transfer on a new team with a bunch of new transfers and a whole new team, really it comes down to, I think, off the court we jell perfect,†said forward Tre Mitchell, who transferred to WVU from Texas in the offseason and had a team-high 16 points Saturday. “We’re friends, best friends, whatever you want to call it. We’re arm-in-arm 24-7.
“But, on the court, I think we’re so talented that everybody thinks it’s their turn. I think that we need to start understanding that it could be anybody’s night any given night. The reality of the situation is, if you’re not going that night — we’ll say offensively — you can impact the game in a different way and you can get the ball in somebody’s hands that is hot that night. … There’s just so many different ways we can go about it. But we’re close. We’re not far off.â€
WVU dropped one spot to 30th in the NET rankings with the loss to Oklahoma. It’s the seventh-best ranking of the 10 Big 12 teams, and each of the 10 are in the top 65 in the NET rankings.
“We’re trying to put together a whole lot of pieces that, obviously, some of them don’t fit, but that’s the position we’ve been put in,†Huggins said. “We could sit down and cry about it, bitch about it, complain about it. We’ve decided we’d rather do something about it.â€
Oklahoma has started in a similar position, but the Sooners have now pulled out two conference wins. They started league play with a one-point loss to Texas and a three-point loss to Iowa State, before edging Texas Tech on the road in overtime. Oklahoma also lost to Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse by four.
Kansas is the only team still unbeaten in league play. K-State, Texas and Iowa State are all 4-1, TCU is 3-2, Baylor and Oklahoma are 2-3, Oklahoma State is 1-4 and Texas Tech and WVU are 0-5.
“Every game’s going to be like this,†Moser said. “That margin for error is small on either side. I really believe West Virginia could be 5-0. That’s how good I think West Virginia is. They’re physical, they’re smart, they’re well-coached. God dang — with the adjustments they make, they could easily be that way.â€
WVU was also playing Saturday without longtime associate head coach Larry Harrison for the first time since his dismissal Thursday. Huggins said it didn’t change preparation and “obviously they’ve responded pretty well.â€
“Obviously it’s sad to see him go,†Mitchell said. “I think everybody feels that way in the locker room because he’s had individual relationships with each of us. But at the end of the day, we still have games to win and regardless of how you feel about the situation, you still put on that West Virginia uniform and we still have an opportunity to do something for, not only West Virginia, but for yourself and your family and really put yourself on the map.
“It’s just an unfortunate situation, but nobody cares about your feelings in the Big 12. We’ve still got to go out and compete and do the best we can.â€
