bitcruncher
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I Root For: West Virginia
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WVU looks to bounce back
http://www.dailymail.com/Sports/WVUSports/200802010235The Charleston Daily Mail Wrote:WVU looks to bounce back
By Mike Casazza
Daily Mail sportswriter
February 1, 2008
MORGANTOWN - Rest assured Bob Huggins wasn't caught in a light moment, feeling compelled to share with the media following Wednesday night's historic 62-39 loss to Cincinnati.
He just could not hide what was obvious. West Virginia's basketball coach had seen this coming. Many of his players have seen this before.
The Mountaineers openly admit they sense trouble, just as they have in the past.
"I don't know if I ought to tell you this," Huggins said Wednesday night, dressed in a black Nike warmup suit rather than the gold suit he had debuted for the game.
Perhaps, Huggins was hoping to rid himself of any attachment to one of the worst nights in the recorded history of WVU basketball.
"The reality is before the last two losses," continued Huggins, "I showed them where they were a year ago. They were in the exact same spot. The exact same record. What are we going to do?"
A year ago, WVU was 15-4 following a victory over Marshall and the situation was identical following this season's 19th game, also against Marshall.
Those Mountaineers actually won their next three games, but missed the NCAA Tournament and ended up winning the NIT.
These Mountaineers have lost two in a row after the 15-4 start, begin a regular season-ending stretch in which they play six of 10 on the road with Saturday's 7 p.m. game at Providence and are loathe to embrace the possibility they might once again be in the NIT.
"We have to make the NCAA Tournament," forward Da'Sean Butler said. "We're not going to the NIT again."
WVU (15-6, 4-4 Big East) will have to rally because there are few opportunities to improve an RPI that was No. 34 before the second straight home loss that followed 15 straight wins inside the Coliseum.
The Mountaineers might play three or four regular-season games against ranked teams the rest of the season - Pitt twice, Connecticut, Villanova. But WVU will play Pitt, Connecticut and Villanova, none of which is a highly ranked opponent, on the road.
The future is unclear beyond the spoken suggestion that changes must be made.
"There needs to be a lot of soul searching," guard Alex Ruoff said. "We can either fold here and turn in the season and go on a losing streak or we can bounce back and get a big road win Saturday. I think a lot of guys need to sit in the locker room and think about what they did and what they need to do after something like this happens."
Ruoff said some players gave in. Butler said some weren't ready to play. Both said their team didn't deserve to win. For that, they agreed, perhaps a change beyond mentality is in store.
Huggins is examining personnel now and said he made a mistake by not playing forward Cam Thoroughman against the Bearcats.
"Cam Thoroughman will at least compete," Huggins said in a rather direct indictment of what has troubled him lately.
Huggins did play Jonnie West, hoping West could do what his teammates could not and make some perimeter shots. Huggins was left bewildered that other players didn't play along.
"We've got to get the guys who are making shots open," Huggins said. "Case and point, I put Jonnie West in. Jonnie shot the ball really well in practice. That's why I played him. He shot the ball really well in practice, but we don't go out and screen for him.
"Jonnie scored the ball in practice for two days against them, yet they don't get him open. Instead, you still have the same guys missing all the shots missing more shots. That doesn't make any sense to me."
Neither West, a 6-foot-3, 175-pound guard, nor Thoroughman, a 6-7, 215-pound forward, solve WVU's glaring size problems, but they do give Huggins some sort of a solution to his trouble with depth.
The Mountaineers have been using eight players for most of the season - though it's often really just seven if center Jamie Smalligan is at a matchup disadvantage. West and Thoroughman, both redshirt freshmen, wouldn't just add to the rotation, but Huggins said they add things the current constituency does not. Namely, a shot of energy based on made shots.
The Mountaineers are open to anything.
"Jonnie and Cam work as hard as they possibly can and they kill us in practice," Butler said. "You could say it'd be a good thing for the team because they can play, but if you see someone coming in for your minutes, you're going to compete more to hang on to your minutes.
"It's not that you don't want to see someone get to play, but sometimes you need something like that to make everyone work harder and we need something like that now."
It looks like Jerry passed his shooting touch down to his son. That's real good news for Mountaineer fans. 
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