WVU Shifts Focus to NCAAs Following Early Exit from Big 12 Championship

The disappointment was palpable following West Virginia’s loss to Oklahoma State in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 tournament Thursday morning. After a brilliant regular season in which the Mountaineers went 18-9, 11-6 in the Big 12, and was ranked inside the top-10 multiple times, West Virginia was headed back to Morgantown after just one game in Kansas City.

The 72-69 loss to the Cowboys Thursday did not necessarily unexpected. OSU had just defeated West Virginia the weekend prior in the regular-season finale and had since then welcomed two of its best players back from injury in Cade Cunningham and Isaac Likekele. The Mountaineers have now lost three of their last four games dating back to the beginning of March. The lone piece of good news in all of this is that the season is not yet over for WVU. The Mountaineers are sure to be selected to the NCAA tournament and have shifted their focus solely on that for the time being.

“We’re going to go home and try to piece things together,” sophomore point guard Miles “Deuce” McBride said after the game. “[We will] look at film, heal up a little bit and go in the tournament trying to make a run.”

Thursday’s loss was a bitter pill to swallow for a team with expectations for themselves as high as WVU’s are. Moving on from that disappointment is not going to be easy, put the chance to play for a national championship is the team’s top priority.

“I plan on just talking to everybody and trying to recoup when we get back to Morgantown,” senior Taz Sherman said. “Just have a general conversation about what we need to fix and what we need to do to win a national championship. That’s why we’re all here. I think we can and everybody in that locker room thinks we can. We just need to fix the things that need fixing and continue to improve on the things that we do best.”

On the basketball side of things, WVU coach Bob Huggins said continuing to improve the team’s rebounding and defense will be the main focus before they get to Indianapolis. The Cowboys out-rebounded WVU 38 to 29 on Saturday and 45 to 32 Thursday. The Mountaineers has also allowed opponents to shoot 49% or better in four of their last seven games.

“We’re going to have to learn how to block out at some point in time, take that a little more seriously than what we do,” Huggins said. “And we’ve got to continue to get better with our defense. I thought our defense was better today than what it has been.”

Just two weeks ago, the Mountaineers were talking about possibly being a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. With three losses in their last four games, however, expectations have come back down to Earth a bit.

“We’ll probably fall to the three-line, I would guess,” Huggins said.