It has festered and bubbled for more than a week now for the WVU men’s basketball team, that being a disappointing one-point loss against Ohio State in double overtime.

Final exam week was the reason the Mountaineers (8-4) went nine days in between that game in Cleveland and tonight’s 7 p.m. game against Mississippi Valley State (1-11) inside the Hope Coliseum.

The Delta Devils essentially serve up one final get-right moment for the Mountaineers, who will begin Big 12 play after Christmas. Mississippi Valley State’s program faces much adversity. It is one of three schools that was part of an NCAA gambling investigation in which six athletes — two at MVS — were banned from participation.

No current player with the Delta Devils were part of the investigation, but the team has struggled mightily this season under head coach George Ivory. The lone victory has come against Mississippi University for Women, a Division III school that does field a men’s basketball team.

The Delta Devils are ranked last in the country in both the NCAA NET rankings and the Ken Pomeroy Ratings and are currently 359th in the country in scoring defense, allowing 90.7 points per game.

All of it points to what should be a positive moment for WVU, but head coach Ross Hodge still had plenty to discuss during a Zoom call with the media. Here are the highlights:

How did WVU lose that 16-point lead against Ohio State?

Hodge did not take a defensive stance to this question, but rather placed the blame on the Mountaineers offense.

“We had 22 offensive possessions in the last sixteen minutes of that game,” Hodge said.

“We had nine turnovers, nine of our fifteen. So, the other 35 minutes of the game, you only turned it over six times, which you can win doing that.

“But in that time period, we had nine turnovers, probably two or three ill-advised shots that you’d like back, and then you have a trip where you go to the line and go 0 for 2. So, 14 of your 22 final possessions are fairly empty. You’re putting a ton of pressure on your defense if that’s what your offense is going to be doing.”

What was the status of guard Treysen Eaglestaff against the Buckeyes?

Eaglestaff played 23 minutes against Ohio State and shot 1 for 9 from the field. He played just four minutes in the second half and did not play in either overtime period.

Hodge said Eaglestaff’s defensive effort is what kept him off the court.

“And so, if he’s executing defensively, that’s always going to allow him or anybody – it’s not just him, you know – but kind of in the case of Saturday night, he didn’t execute early in the second half and it cost us,” Hodge said. “And then you couple that in with maybe you’re not having the most productive offensive night and you’re not executing on that end of the floor.”

Eaglestaff, one of WVU’s prized transfer portal additions this season, has struggled in nonconference play. He’s shooting 36% from the floor and 28% from 3-point range, while averaging 8.2 points per game.

“The thing I like about him and appreciate about him, it’s not like he’s meeting it with resistance or blame or he doesn’t have the heart or the attitude that he’s getting screwed or I’m picking on him,” Hodge said. “He has the heart and like he knows he needs to be better and he’s working really hard at it to be better. And he’s not alone in those areas, you know, but he knows we need him to be better and he knows that.

What’s WVU been doing with the time off?

Practice.

Hodge said this time off was especially important, as will be the time off before the Jan. 2 road game at Iowa State, because it allows WVU to get more comfortable working with forwards Chance Moore and Jackson Fields.

Moore missed the first five games of the season in accordance with an NCAA eligibility ruling. Fields fractured his wrist in the spring and missed the majority of preseason workouts after having surgery. He wasn’t cleared to play in the regular season until the Nov. 30 game against Mercyhurst.

“It gave us some much needed mental and physical rest coming off (the Ohio State) game,” Hodge said. “It also gave us the ability to focus on ourselves, and try to do something we didn’t get to do a lot of in the fall, which is practice with our entire team. That’s been nice.”