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How long will growing pains last for young Mountaineers?

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Photo Via A Sea of Blue

Have you ever heard the term,”when it rains, it pours”? Well that’s the case for the West Virginia men’s basketball team who has now lost four of its last five games, all in which they had double digit leads.

The alarming note is that two of those blown leads came at home, where the Mountaineers have been so good at protecting home court during the Bob Huggins era. It just seems like nothing is going the Mountaineers way, they can’t make shots, poor transition defense and a true lack of inside depth.

There is no question that sophomore Sagaba Konate has been the most impressive player, or at least the most improved player throughout the season. Often times, Konate will find himself in foul trouble which spells trouble for West Virginia. Bench guys such as Maciej Bender and Logan Routt are no where near the production of Konate and are not where they should be.

This issue showed in the Kentucky game where West Virginia was dominated on the boards, “They just absolutely manhandled us, I mean absolutely manhandled us,” Said head coach Bob Huggins. “At one point we went with a bigger lineup because I was tired of seeing Gabriel dominate our guys inside,” he continued.

If the Mountaineers only had to play the first halves of games, they may be one of the best teams in the country, but unfortunately this is where the problem lies. The second half has been a nightmare over this five game stretch, no movement or flow on offense, poor rebounding among several other glaring issues.

What is it going to take for the Mountaineers to salvage their season? How long will it take for them to snap out of it? Time will tell. Of course, losing four 0f five is never easy to grasp, but there is still so much season left and so much possibility for this team to improve.

With Kansas falling to Oklahoma last week, West Virginia only sits a game out of first place in the Big 12 Conference even following the recent slide. Everything is still in play, every goal that the team had in the preseason is still attainable, it’s just a matter of getting over this road bump.

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