WVU 80, Providence 53

I hate to be negative in general and pessimistic with this team, but I still look at this game as what it was, another win at home over a Big East bottom-feeder. Surely this has to be the end of the line for Tim Welsh at Providence. I thought he was done a couple years ago but miraculously kept his job then. Now they will likely not make it to Madison Square Garden and I think they are definitely looking for a new coach for next season. Back to WVU, I really didn’t see anything in this game that changes my mind about their fate. They won by 27, you have to be pleased with that. And for another bright side, WVU has now clinched a Big East tournament berth no matter what happens down the stretch. Boxscore

Saturday Rundown: Basketball Woes

It’s been pretty lean for a couple of weeks here at the Mountain Top. Hopefully we can get back into the swing of things soon. But that said, I want to get back into men’s basketball again for today.

Has Huggins lost this team? Listening to his post-game comments from Villanova, I think there’s a good possibility. It sounds like the team has simply stopped responding to his coaching. The team is so enamored with shooting that it seems their self-confidence and self-worth are completely tied to the jump shot.  WVU wins when the shots are falling, but not for that reason alone. When the shots are falling, our guys are doing the other things you need to do to win. Namely, they are playing hard on the defensive end, protecting the ball and crashing the boards as much as they can. A bad shooting night leads to mental lapses, turnovers and bad rebounding.

Here are the numbers to hash this out, for Big East games this season: