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Bock: West Virginia Basketball Learned a Lesson During Abysmal Year

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Isaiah Cottrell and Gabe Osabuohien grab the rebound. (WVSN photo by Kelsie LeRose)

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – At the beginning of the season, West Virginia’s problem was having too many players.

“We’ve got a lot of guys. 15 guys is a lot of guys,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said in October.

By the end of the season, the conflict was if West Virginia was going to play in the NIT or CBI Tournaments. What happened?

Well, to put it simply, the Mountaineers weren’t as good as everyone thought they were. The team played with a ton of heart all year, but it was just too much after losing Miles “Deuce” McBride, Oscar Tshiebwe, Derek Culver, Emmitt Matthews Jr. and Jordan McCabe all within six months.

The Mountaineers started 13-2 with big wins over UConn and UAB, but with multiple seven-game losing streaks during Big 12 play, they were back to square one. WVU finished 16-17, in last place in the Big 12.

Huggins throughout the preseason preached about how great the offense was, while putting the defense down. The defense was able to hold their own at times, not allowing over 60 points in 11 games. The offense never really got it together off of what it was in the 2020-21 season. Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil went the entire year with the team relying on them to score over 15 points a game. Luckily, fifth-year senior Malik Curry came alive at the end of the season, averaging 18.2 points in the last six games.

WVU fans expected Jalen Bridges and Isaiah Cottrell to make big leaps in their seasons. Bridges ended up raising his points per game from the previous season by 2.5. Cottrell spent half of the year adjusting to his ruptured Achilles he suffered in Dec. 2020. The Las Vegas native got it together, improving by every game in conference play.

Huggins and his coaching staff learned a valuable lesson this season. Everyone expected Sherman, McNeil, Bridges, three grad transfers and a player recovering from an Achilles injury to carry this team to the NCAA Tournament. Just the mixture of players didn’t start to click until late February when it was all over.

“Honestly, we probably didn’t do a good job in the portal,” Huggins said in January.

Huggins talked about the portal in the later months of the season, wanting to recruit like Mark Adams did at Texas Tech.

Just look at Texas Tech, when Chris Beard abandoned their team, Adams was just left with Terrence Shannon Jr., Kevin McCullar and Marcus Santos-Silva. Adams went into the portal and picked up mid-major players that turned his team into a national contender just like that. The Red Raiders added Davion Warren, Adonis Arms, Kevin Obanor and Bryson Williams, who made the All-Big 12 First Team. Adams is a fantastic coach, but if Texas Tech can do it, why can’t Huggins do it at WVU?

The coaching staff had a reality check of the new age of college basketball and luckily one of the greatest coaches in history is controlling the ship. The offseason will be the most important one in Huggins’ career since he took over in 2007.

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