WVU Presents Huggins With Career Win No. 934
Mountaineers Take B12 Opener
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MORGANTOWN — Just a couple of hours after Bob Huggins learned that Jim Boeheim had retired after coaching 48 years at Syracuse, leaving the West Virginia coach the winningest active coach in college basketball, his Mountaineers presented him with yet another victory, the 934th of his Hall of Fame coaching career.
But the only one Huggins is interested in now is the next one, and that will be a tough out for sure.
Riding the confidence that has come with a late-season turnaround that has now seen them win four of their last five games and has guaranteed them a place in the NCAA Tournament, the Mountaineers showed an unselfish attack built on precise ball movement and mixed in with a solid defensive performance to beat Texas Tech, 78-62.
That advanced them to a third showdown with top-seeded Kansas at 2 p.m. Thursday at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, a game they are juiced to play as they keep gaining momentum heading toward the NCAA Tournament.
However, Huggins has a way with conference tournaments. WVU has reached the finals in three of the last six Big 12 Championships and the semifinals in four of the last six and, under Huggins, WVU has reached the semifinals in seven of 14 conference championships in the Big East and Big 12.
While the Jayhawks swept the two games in the regular season, the second one at Allen Fieldhouse was a battle to the end with Bill Self and the Jayhawks escaping with a two-point victory, 76-74
Guard Kedrian Johnson led WVU in scoring with 20 points while Erik Stevenson saw his streak of five straight 23-point-or-better performances come to an end as he finished with 18, although he stopped looking for points midway through the second half and wound up with six assists.
The last Mountaineer to score 23 or more points in five consecutive games was Wil Robinson more than a half century ago, in 1972. Only five players in WVU basketball history had compiled such a streak.
Tre Mitchell had a huge game with 17 points and nine rebounds while Emmitt Matthews Jr., strapped with three fouls for much of the second half, finished with 14 points, four rebounds and three assists.
"I told our guys that we have to be unselfish tonight," assistant coach Josh Eilert, who prepared the scout for Texas Tech, said.
They obviously took him seriously as Johnson took 16 shots, Stevenson and Mitchell 15 and Matthews 10.
The problem with post-season play is that while what you are doing at the end of the regular season should just slide easily into the postseason, life on the tightrope that is the one-and-done conference tournaments makes it a whole new ball game.
"I don't think there's any question we're playing as good as we have this season," Huggins said.
WVU, obviously, closed the regular season playing the best it has in all facets of the game, but they staggered through the early moments against Texas Tech, almost as they did against K-State when they fell behind 8-0 in the final regular season game.
This time they were behind 9-2 and the offense wasn't flowing and they couldn't get Erik Stevenson loose for a shot.
Huggins made a move. He took Stevenson out, brought in Seth Wilson, and while Wilson couldn't find the trigger, either, the Tech defense didn't have that one person to concentrate as WVU worked its way back into the game before Huggins sent Stevenson back in.
This time he brought his torch with him and lit up the place with two straight 3s and some nifty ball handling. Everything began flowing three him and the Mountaineers climbed into a tie at 24-24.
"When things aren't going good, sometimes you have to sit down and re-evaluate where you are at and get going again," said assistant coach Josh Eiler.
Now Stevenson really went after it, hitting a pair of smooth jump shots, the second off a tough move, and then was fouled while shooting a 3. He canned all three free throws to give WVU a 31-24 lead.
"It's always good for our team to see myself, Kedy, Tre or Emmitt make shots early, so it was good to see those two shots go in," Stevenson said. "Sadly, I cooled off a little bit."
But he was sucking wind, too, and asked out, Huggins obliging. But now Johnson started doing his thing, grabbing off a steal, the Mountaineers eighth steal of the first half and scoring while being fouled. He made the free throw which gave WVU its largest lead of the half at 38-27.
They coasted into halftime ahead 43-35, and while the style points came from the offense the defense was what was making things happen.
True, Texas Tech shot 52% for the half, which might lead you to say "What defense?" But the Red Raiders took only 25 shots while WVU, with nine steals and only 3 turnovers of their own, had 10 more.
And, as has become their manner, WVU made 13 of 14 free throws.
The Mountaineers opened the second half as they finished the first, moving the ball, hitting shots, and playing defense as they extended the advantage to 53-39 three minutes in and Texas Tech felt like it was coming at them from all angles.
When Tre Mitchell hit a 3, Texas Tech called a time out, Matthews, Johnson and Stevenson each had 13 points and Mitchell had eight.
With the lead and with Texas Tech out of synch, the Mountaineers slowed the pace and Stevenson put his shot into his back pocket, looking more toward getting others shots as the lead grew to 17 points.
Texas Tech couldn't buy a basket, going 2 for its first 17 in the second half. With that going on, Huggins opted to milk the clock rather than push the pace with top-seeded Kansas awaiting WVU in 17 hours.