U-G-L-Y

With Groundhog Day coming up this weekend, and in ode to Bill Murray’s classic movie of the same title, WVU’s men’s basketball team wishes it could wake up and get a do-over of today which was without a doubt one of the most inept outputs in the history of WVU basketball, a 62-39 home lost to the Cincinnati Bearcats.

Statistically the Mountaineers’ 20 percent from the field set the mark for worst shooting game ever by any group to don the gold and blue. The Mountaineers made 1 of 22 three-point attempts, thanks Darris Nichols for keeping us completely out of the dark. Nichols also shone with a 10-of-10 effort from the foul line to finish with 17 points, the only WVU player in double digits. Despite taking care of the ball with only 9 turnovers, any time you can’t throw it in the ocean you just can’t win games. The game was played at a snail’s pace, with 52 or 53 possessions by my calculations which are usually a little off. Once Basketball State posts their enhanced boxscore it should be easier to tell, but by my calculation Cincy hit 1.19 PPP while WVU musters a laughable 0.75. That’s your worst offensive and defensive outing of the year coming on the same night. Offensive efficiency for WVU has only dipped below 0.9 on two occasions this season, Louisville and Notre Dame, while the only other team WVU allowed anywhere in the neighborhood of a 1.19 was Georgetown at 1.09.

Was it Georgetown hangover? There has to be some explanation. This game was certainly an anomaly but to absolutely not show up for this one in a home game with a back story like Huggins-Cronin is inexcusable. If WVU recovers to have a decent season but falls short of the NCAA yet again, they will have only to point to this game to figure out why. If WVU fails to recover then it could be a long last month of the season, in the Big East. I have a lot of faith in Huggs and these players that this will not lead the season down the skids, but certainly everyone has to do some soul searching after this outcome.

UPDATE (1-31): The Basketball State boxscore records a pace of 63.4 for WVU to 60.2 for the Bearcats, much higher that I calculated (which is why I don’t do the calculations). Good for WVU’s defense which makes a more-respectable 1.03 OPPP but tragic for the offense by putting them at 0.62 PPP. I thought this had to be the worst offensive output of any D-I team this season, but again according to State, there have been about 76 less efficient offensive performances, including St. Louis’ 20-point output of 0.35 PPP against George Washington earlier this season. So at least we’re not the Billikens!

Tags: Bob Huggins, Cincinnati, Darris Nichols, inefficiency, ugly