Mountaineers Now Postgame Show: WVU Drops Nail-Biter to Virginia
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00:09 Hello everybody, welcome into the Mountaineers Now post game show.
00:12 I'm Scott Calendet, that is Christopher Hall, West Virginia falling into
00:16 Fort Myers tip off once again 56 to 54 to the Virginia Cavaliers.
00:21 And before we dive into our analysis on this one,
00:24 let's take a look here at some of the numbers.
00:25 West Virginia turnovers once again an issue tonight 16 of them.
00:30 But they also did not shoot the ball well.
00:32 Not a huge surprise facing this very stingy Virginia defense.
00:37 And held the 37% shooting from the field 33% from three.
00:42 They did out rebound Virginia, but when they needed the two rebounds that they
00:46 needed the most, they did not come up with them there at the end.
00:50 Jesse Edwards and
00:52 Quincy Lissinsky pretty much the offense for the Mountaineers in this one.
00:56 Each going for 17 points on the day.
00:58 Seth Wilson buried a trio of threes and outside of that,
01:03 it was pretty much silent across the board for West Virginia.
01:07 Reese Beekman goes for 13, or excuse me, 12 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds.
01:13 Chris, it felt like again, this is almost gonna sound like we're
01:18 kind of stuck on repeat here, but it's somebody's got to come up and
01:22 make more shots outside of Quincy Lissinsky and Jesse Edwards.
01:25 But again, it's the depth, it's the lack of having a backup center.
01:30 Not having a cook a cook out there really hurts this team because Jesse Edwards,
01:35 he picks up his fourth foul around the halfway point of the second half.
01:39 And then he's got to sit out a few minutes that changes
01:42 a little bit of your game plan there.
01:45 >> Yeah, I mean, to be fair, this was in ski and
01:48 Edwards were out when West Virginia made that run when they were down 10.
01:53 So, hitting shots in the second half and that's really what this team is.
01:58 You got to have better guard play on both ends of the floor.
02:02 Ball stopped too much too much dribbling and it's really you're asking these guys
02:08 to do things that they can't really do.
02:12 And it is kind of unfair to them but they're finding ways to score.
02:17 It looks ugly at times but the story of the game is you just need some fresh legs.
02:23 You grab that rebound there at the end and
02:26 you don't get that questionable foul call driving down the lane there.
02:31 So, you get that one board and you're probably going into overtime and
02:36 that's more than likely the killer for
02:38 West Virginia anyway because they didn't have any legs.
02:41 So, the way UVA shot, I think we kind of talked about it the other day.
02:47 You're hoping that Virginia didn't shoot very well.
02:52 Both teams shot better the second half but West Virginia was right there.
02:55 I think, I don't know if Virginia is a top 25 team at the moment.
03:00 They will be as the season goes along.
03:02 I said after the game, they're not doing moral victories but I think for
03:07 West Virginia fans, you got to take what you can get at this point.
03:10 >> [LAUGH] >> You just hung in there with,
03:12 I know they lost to Wisconsin.
03:14 Wisconsin is a good basketball program but
03:17 you took a Tony Bennett team down to the wire.
03:20 I think me and you both didn't really have this game close because UVA defense is so
03:24 good.
03:25 You had slow pace of play but you have to work so
03:27 hard offensively it's gonna wear you out.
03:29 And that's kind of what happened but give credit to West Virginia that for
03:33 whatever reason they're finding energy later in the game today.
03:36 Maybe it was because there was a lack of transition on both sides of the floor and
03:40 both teams weren't really running.
03:42 So maybe that did help a little but kind of see what they do moving forward.
03:48 You'd like to see some better offense, some of those dead periods,
03:51 start the game.
03:53 I think they didn't get their first bucket till after the first media timeout.
03:56 So a little bit better start, not surprised with that Virginia defense but
04:01 wanna see more fluidity within the offense.
04:04 >> Maybe we could just carve out a new column for moral victories, right?
04:08 So technically West Virginia, let's see there two, two and
04:13 one, if that's what we wanna call it cuz I mean-
04:16 >> No, no, no, no.
04:17 >> [LAUGH]
04:18 >> I'm going with it.
04:20 >> Absolutely not, absolutely not.
04:22 >> I mean, it's gonna be that way for much of the season.
04:26 And again, even when Kurt Caruso comes back, it's not-
04:30 >> It'll help the offense,
04:31 they'll be able to score a lot more.
04:32 >> Right.
04:33 >> Cuz Kobe, he had five turnovers today.
04:37 He's done well at times, but he's not a point guard.
04:39 Seth Wilson can't get around the edge.
04:40 That's something that you gotta get around the top of the defense to make them crash
04:46 in to get away from Jesse and they've done it at times, they did it against SMU.
04:49 [COUGH]
04:51 That's what provided a lot of those alley oops and looks for him.
04:54 And it can be done, but a team like Virginia,
04:57 that's where you gotta have better guard play.
05:00 They just could not get down the lane, create opportunities for other guys.
05:06 And they spent most of the time shooting at the defense and that's not,
05:10 no college team is gonna find success just continuously shooting over the defense.
05:14 So a game like this, Kurt would have been a huge addition for the offense.
05:19 >> Yeah, I mean, you probably would have cut those turnovers.
05:22 I don't know about maybe in half, but pretty close.
05:24 >> You're probably looking at four or five turnovers off the mark.
05:28 >> Now he's gonna commit turnovers and it's kind of the butterfly effect, right?
05:32 He's on the floor so other guys wouldn't maybe turn it over.
05:36 You don't really know, but
05:37 it's definitely gonna give you better looks on the offensive end.
05:41 You may have the same turnovers, but you're gonna get better shots off and
05:44 turn and probably get more points.
05:46 >> Well, speaking of Kurt, I mean, does what you see or
05:50 did what you see tonight maybe change your mind about how this team
05:55 can survive without him throughout his suspension?
06:00 >> I know Pitt's doing okay, really just don't know enough yet.
06:06 A team like Monmouth again, I'm not sure, that's probably a sneaky good team.
06:13 One of those teams that's just gonna play above their weight class at times.
06:17 So just don't really know.
06:20 To me, it's just up in the air because yeah, they can get up for a game like this.
06:23 But can they use that same energy?
06:27 Is it Bellarmine Sunday?
06:28 >> Yeah. >> Can they use that same energy for
06:30 40 minutes?
06:31 Well, they need to use that same energy.
06:32 What happens if Bellarmine goes up 10?
06:35 Is that defeating to this team?
06:36 So there's so much mental aspect of this.
06:38 They just dropped two against two teams that they would have liked to beat.
06:42 It would have been a great resume builder.
06:44 It wasn't really realistic, I think.
06:46 I'd go and think we were gonna win those two games.
06:48 But you don't know where the mentality of this team yet.
06:51 They look mentally tough so far.
06:53 They've come out and played hard, both games.
06:56 I mean, I was a tough ass the other day and he came out and played hard today and
06:59 almost beat Virginia.
07:00 So get a little bit of time off, should get a little well rested,
07:04 enjoy some Thanksgiving and kind of see what happens.
07:07 I mean, to me, it's night in, night out, let's just see what happens.
07:10 As of now, I would say yes, but
07:12 we just don't know where this team's gonna be come Sunday.
07:15 >> Yeah, last thing for me is I think a lot of the turnovers,
07:19 at least from what I saw tonight.
07:21 It looks like they're just dribbling the ball into trouble a lot of times.
07:25 And whether that's getting it too close to the baseline or
07:29 they're just dribbling into the corner, dribbling into double teams.
07:33 They're not spacing well and I feel like they're trying to force some things.
07:39 Do you feel like that's, I mean, do you feel like I'm right on that?
07:42 Where do you think some of these turnovers are popping up?
07:45 >> Yeah, and that's really where a point guard comes in play.
07:49 The point guard won't allow that to happen.
07:51 So they get themselves in trouble.
07:53 They're not recognizing the double team as it's coming.
07:55 Once you recognize when it's there, a lot of times it's too late.
07:58 >> Yeah. >> And that's generally just what's
08:00 happening.
08:01 >> Late decisions is where it really hurts.
08:03 >> They're seeing it more and more.
08:06 So they'll work on it.
08:07 They'll have time to work on it, obviously, after Thanksgiving,
08:10 heading into Bellarmine.
08:11 And they'll start to recognize it, they'll watch film.
08:14 So Zinke and Edwards are veterans, obviously.
08:18 That's something that they'll pick up on and
08:20 we talked about it with SME at night.
08:22 They crashed for every time Edwards touched the ball,
08:24 he just gotta have that quick.
08:26 When he sees that, UVA didn't have to do that.
08:29 They matched up with them one on one,
08:31 kind of slowed them down a little bit in the second half.
08:33 Some of that may have been with foul trouble, but
08:36 you just gotta recognize it and just get the ball out quick.
08:40 I think their biggest issue there is when they do have,
08:44 when this one side gets overloaded, they don't know how to find the open guy.
08:48 When they swing it back out,
08:49 sometimes they pass it right back into the tee of the defense.
08:53 >> [LAUGH] >> I don't know where they're learning
08:54 that, where they're getting that one from.
08:57 But when you get it to the other side and you have that one on one and
09:01 the guy's running at you, you should be able to put the ball on the floor and go.
09:04 At that point, you're probably gonna at least draw a foul in that situation.
09:07 So some of it is just an experience and
09:09 JoJo could probably benefit from a lot of those plays.
09:13 But he hasn't quite learned that, hey, maybe just a couple of dribbles in
09:17 the jumper will do it other than just trying to take it all the way to the hole
09:21 and trying to dunk it, just hit the jumper.
09:23 >> I fibbed, I got one more for us.
09:26 So it's a similar question to the one with surviving without curve, but
09:31 it almost feels like it's damage control season, right?
09:35 Because you can't lose to a Bellarmine,
09:38 you can't lose to who they got coming up Toledo at some point.
09:42 You've gotta be able to beat those teams that you're supposed to beat because,
09:45 I mean, it's an outside shot, an absolutely long shot for
09:50 this team we think to get to the NCAA tournament.
09:53 But to keep their hopes alive, I mean, they've got to get to Big 12
09:59 conference play with at least a winning record,
10:03 maybe even two or three games over 500.
10:06 Because if not, I mean, you're talking about a brutal Big 12 schedule that
10:10 could see you only win two or three games.
10:15 >> Yeah, I mean, you gotta win the ones that you're expected to at this point.
10:19 Mention Pitt, you bring up St.
10:21 Jones, those are two games that you're looking at, like, okay,
10:25 you're gonna have to probably play your best ball that we've seen so far.
10:29 >> The highest state.
10:30 >> And they've made a big jump coming into this tournament.
10:33 So I don't know if they've peaked, but yeah,
10:37 you've gotta win what you can at this point.
10:40 I think we've already said it, but you really wanna win the Pitt game,
10:44 keep those bragging rights going.
10:45 But I think right now you just take it a game at a time and work on what you can.
10:50 And do the best you can to get your guards in the better situations.
10:52 >> So West Virginia will take on Bellarmine on Sunday at 5 o'clock.
10:58 That will stream on ESPN plus, we'll have the post game show here for you.
11:03 Chris will be live at the Coliseum.
11:05 We'll also have the post game show for the West Virginia football game against
11:08 Baylor on Saturday night, which kicks off at 7 o'clock on FS1.
11:13 So plenty more coverage for you guys to get to.
11:16 Throughout this Thanksgiving weekend, we've got a ton of shows,
11:18 a ton of articles up on the site.
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11:24 I don't think I'm ever gonna get that down.
11:26 I think I'm gonna say Twitter for- >> It's only been like a year and
11:29 a half or something, so.
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11:42 So for Christopher Hall, I'm Skylar Callen.
11:44 You've been watching the Mountaineers Now post game show presented by Country Roads
11:47 Air Dug Cleaning, taking you home to comfort.
11:50 We'll see you guys here in a couple of days.
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12:01 (upbeat music)