Trending
MORGANTOWN -- "We will fix it."
With these four words West Virginia (10-14 overall, 2-9 Big 12) basketball coach Bob Huggins opened Tuesday's Big 12 Teleconference.
"Maybe not this year, but we will fix it," the Hall of Fame-caliber coach said.
Less than two days after suffering one of its worse losses of the season -- a 75-53 thumping at the hands of the University of Texas -- Director of Athletics Shane Lyons delivered a devastating blow to any hopes that the Mountaineers might turn around a dismal campaign and somehow put themselves back into the running for a postseason NCAA berth.
"West Virginia University men's basketball senior Esa Ahmad and junior Wesley Harris have been dismissed from the team for violation of athletic department policies," the e-mail from Lyons read.
Exactly what policies had been violated were not discussed and will not be discussed -- at least by athletic officials in public.
The Mountaineers have to head into their final six regular-season games without their third-leading scorer -- Ahmad, who had become the 53rd player to reach the 1,000-point plateau in school history recently -- was averaging 12 points per contest and 5.8 rebounds per game.
Harris, the Mountaineers' top defender, was contributing 7.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per outing.
Combined with the loss of Preseason All-Big 12 first teamer Sagaba Konate, who has not played since December, and top returning guard James 'Beetle' Bolden (12.2 ppg) and Huggins will head to Allen Fieldhouse on the campus of Kansas with a squad that is averaging -- as a group -- less than 47 points per game.
But it is also a squad that is one of only four to beat the Jayhawks (19-6, 8-4 Big 12) in league play -- a 65-64 victory Jan. 19 in Morgantown.
That was a game that featured a driving basket by junior transfer Jermaine Haley with 8.5 seconds remaining to give the Mountaineers their second win in league play.
Haley, who scored 13 points in that win, will again be in the starting lineup as will be freshman standout Derek Culver, who tallied 11 points and hauled down seven boards against a Kansas team that came to the Coliseum with a No. 7 ranking.
The remainder of the starting lineup? Well, that won't be known until just before the 4 p.m. tipoff.
The Jayhawks are on a two-game winning streaks thanks to wins over Oklahoma State (84-72) and TCU (82-77 OT).
Player of the Year candidate Dedric Lawson is averaging 19.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game while senior Lagerald Vick (14.1 ppg), Devon Dotson (12.0 ppg) and Ochai Agbaji (10.8 ppg) are averaging double digits.
The likely fifth starter will come from Quentin Grimes (7.8 ppg) or Marquis Garrett (7.2 ppg), who scored a team-high 15 points in the loss to WVU.
"It (the loss of Ahmad and Harris) gives us a chance to experiment with playing two bigs," Huggins said. "In all likelihood we'll do that next year."
But, as far as Saturday is concerned, mum is the word on what Huggins and his assistants plan to do.