Mountaineers Now Postgame Show: WVU Defeats Drexel
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:09 It is the Mountaineers now post game show presented by Country Roads Air Duct
00:13 Cleaning, taking them to come for West Virginia.
00:16 Winners over the Drexel Dragons 66 to 60.
00:20 A look here at the numbers.
00:21 Once again, Jesse Edwards, Quince Lzecinski, the headliners for
00:24 the Mountaineers.
00:25 Edwards going for 16 points, five boards and a pair of blocks.
00:30 Lzecinski 14.6 rebounds.
00:33 He had five turnovers in this game.
00:34 It's been kind of a problem for him here occasionally this season.
00:38 He accounted for five of the 12 Mountaineer turnovers.
00:42 Amari Williams, the big man from England for Drexel.
00:45 He had 12 points and 15 rebounds on the day.
00:49 But I think one of the main keys here for this one, Chris,
00:52 is West Virginia finally made some shots, especially from three,
00:57 where they went seven of 17.
00:58 >> Yeah, we just talked about it the other day.
01:02 Need that third scorer Seth Wilson comes in.
01:06 As soon as he came in, hit those consecutive threes off the bench.
01:10 And they were down nine at that point.
01:13 So those are all obviously huge.
01:16 Akook Akook comes in, gives a lot of energy, plays around 12 minutes tonight.
01:22 That was huge.
01:23 He had a straightaway three as well.
01:25 So big minutes for Seth Wilson as much as he struggled as of late.
01:30 His body language looked better, shot the ball with confidence,
01:34 came off the ball screens a lot harder.
01:36 So just as a much needed boost for that team, obviously.
01:44 And getting Akook Akook back has just been great because he's been doing
01:49 little things defensively to get stops to kind of create some of those runs.
01:54 Even though there's been kind of limited minutes, but yeah,
01:57 it's even needed that third score.
01:59 I thought you got a little bit of help from everybody today,
02:02 even Pat Sumnick when he came in, hit a three.
02:04 So when you get a little bit of contribution from everybody,
02:07 kind of get that third score, you can kind of start to see the potential of this team.
02:12 >> Yeah, I mean, I don't know how many more wins this team would have if Akook
02:16 would have played, but it certainly shows that he is an impact player on this team.
02:21 And he's going to be, the further he gets along,
02:24 the more his conditioning comes along.
02:25 Because again, I tweeted it out, he's not playing a whole lot of minutes, but
02:30 he's making the most out of those damn minutes.
02:32 Like he's either getting an assist, which is actually one of the more underrated
02:37 parts of his game is the way he sets players up on the offensive end.
02:42 I think he's done a really good job of creating baskets.
02:45 But it's either assist, getting a rebound, blocking a shot.
02:48 I mean, just darting, taking away shots at the rim, which would have been easy shots
02:53 before when the point guards are coming down the lane, they see Akook there.
02:58 All of a sudden, it's a little bit of a different presence down there than what
03:02 they've had.
03:02 So he's played well, you mentioned Seth Wilson.
03:07 I think Josiah Harris at some point is gonna get going.
03:11 But look, you get through these first nine games at four and five.
03:16 It's not a great record, we all understand that.
03:18 But reinforcements are coming.
03:20 Kirk Creasa is now eligible.
03:23 He makes his debut next Saturday when the team takes on UMass up in Springfield.
03:28 I know it's really, really early and you got some so-called bad losses on the
03:33 schedule, but is this team's,
03:37 do they have a chance to maybe formulate a good chemistry here,
03:42 even with all these pieces kind of coming back and
03:45 be able to win enough games to get to the tournament?
03:46 >> So wait and see, and we don't know how the committee is gonna view these first
03:52 nine games.
03:52 Are they gonna take into consideration how shorthanded they were?
03:57 And it definitely is gonna matter how they're playing through conference play.
04:01 You gotta get some quality wins, that's obvious.
04:03 And if you go above 500, you're gonna get quality wins.
04:07 So it's really just a matter of how the committee views it.
04:10 We've heard everything over the years on how they view teams and
04:17 what considerations they make.
04:19 And we just saw the football playoff, of course, it's two different animals.
04:23 They select different criteria every year, it seems like.
04:27 Well, it doesn't seem like they do.
04:28 [LAUGH] Kind of cherry pick criteria every year.
04:31 So really, it's gonna be up to the committee.
04:33 If this was a full roster team and they had this record,
04:37 you'd have to really dominate the Big 12 to get selected, I would believe.
04:42 So they have a lot of work to do.
04:44 I think really their best chance right now is just to get right and
04:47 hopefully make a run in the Big 12 tournament where you can win the thing,
04:51 to be quite honest.
04:52 Cuz I think what really helps in this year is the league expanded.
04:57 And you're not playing the same nine teams twice this season.
05:01 Now, obviously, you have BYU has gotten way better than I think everybody expected.
05:07 I think they're 14th right now.
05:08 So there's still a lot of tough games on the schedule and
05:11 obviously you add Houston.
05:12 But again, not playing every team twice definitely helps.
05:15 And you get a little less familiarity and you bring Cincinnati and
05:19 UCF on the schedule.
05:20 So you kinda get, it's a little lighter than usual,
05:23 even though it's not lighter, really in that sense.
05:27 >> Yeah, I mean, if you're taking the college football playoff committee's
05:29 thinking, you probably like that because they're sitting there saying, well,
05:32 they're a different team at the beginning of the season than they were.
05:36 >> You gotta think how they apply the criteria.
05:38 I don't think West Virginia will get that benefit of the doubt.
05:42 But again, if they have an outstanding conference record,
05:46 like a 13 and 5 or something, I think you have to kind of take it all in the frame
05:50 at that point.
05:52 >> Yeah.
05:53 >> I mean, that's something I don't think that,
05:55 it's been a while since I had 13 and 5 record.
05:58 [LAUGH] That's a tough ask considering some of the guys,
06:02 some of the competition in the league right now.
06:05 >> Yeah, we don't know the status of Raekwon Battle.
06:08 I mean, if he's gonna play or not.
06:10 I mean, we do know that he's still out, but there's some ongoing lawsuits and
06:14 stuff and they're trying to get that decision reversed.
06:16 So if he comes back, that's just another card in your deck that you can work with
06:21 and one that Josh Allen could certainly use.
06:24 So, but to not more back on tonight, I don't wanna go too far away off
06:28 the tonight's game.
06:29 I think there was one part in the second half, Chris,
06:32 where it felt like it was about to be the tipping point, right?
06:36 Where it was the same kind of flow that you've seen these past few games where
06:40 they play well in the first half, they hang in for a little bit in the second half.
06:44 And then they go in that scoring drought for four to five minutes.
06:48 And that's like danger territory.
06:49 It feels like they get on the ropes every second half.
06:53 And it felt like they handled that much better today because they didn't allow
06:58 Drexel to get a six, eight, ten point lead like we saw Pitt do and
07:02 St. John's do and others do throughout the season.
07:06 They hung in there, they got stops, and
07:08 they were able to make it out on the other end of that four minute drought.
07:12 >> Yeah, Drexel's not a very good shooting team either, so-
07:16 >> Benefit from that a little bit.
07:17 >> I wanna give too much credit to the West Virginia defense,
07:20 cuz Drexel got open looks.
07:22 I think they were one for nine or something crazy during like an eight
07:25 minute stretch or a seven minute stretch.
07:27 >> Yeah.
07:29 >> They both went on, I think together they went on a four minute scoring drought
07:33 there after Seth Wilson tied the game.
07:36 So yeah, you can credit some defense, but at the same time,
07:39 Drexel's a poor shooting team and something that they're going to have to correct.
07:45 I know a lot of that's just fatigue, but we'll see kind of how they get Chris back.
07:49 But really, that 12 minutes you get from a cook tonight,
07:53 I think they honestly look lethargic in the first half and
07:58 it may have saved their legs a little bit in the second half.
08:01 >> Yeah.
08:01 >> Kinda unplanned saving their legs, maybe it was a little bit planned
08:06 among the players to save their legs there in the first half.
08:10 But yeah, I mean, Quinn just looked tired within the first two minutes of
08:14 the first half, so did Jesse.
08:16 This week off is gonna be huge for them.
08:18 And if they can get a cook to maybe 20 minutes by next week,
08:22 cuz he'll be able to do some conditioning this week to maybe give some of those guys
08:27 more relief and now I'd like to see Pat get more minutes, kinda he's still a wild.
08:33 >> He's played well in spurts.
08:35 >> Yeah, he's still a little wild.
08:37 But he would like to see him improve, be able to just add a couple more minutes out
08:41 there cuz it would be critical and
08:44 JoJo's not gonna be able to really play the full strongly,
08:47 especially when I get into conference plays.
08:49 I'm really just a three man rotation down there right now.
08:52 So if Pat can do something to stay on the floor a little longer,
08:56 it would definitely be beneficial for this team because I know he's part of
09:01 the rotation, but I think how many minutes did he have tonight?
09:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]
09:09 Of course, it's not profitable.
09:10 So yeah, he only played three minutes tonight.
09:12 He did hit that three, but I don't think he played a minute in the second half.
09:15 So he's gotta find ways to get on the floor and stay on the floor.
09:19 >> Yeah, one of the interesting stats I thought in this game was the free throw
09:23 shooting because this has kind of been what West Virginia has leaned on a lot
09:27 this year is getting to the line.
09:28 They're one of the better teams in the country in doing so.
09:31 Tonight, they only got five attempts.
09:32 They went three or five, but then conversely, Drexel,
09:35 they only went three or four.
09:36 We had nine total free throws in this game.
09:39 That's kind of unusual, I would say, for two teams that shoot it as poorly as they
09:44 do, you would think they'd try to pound it underneath and get the basket.
09:47 But I mean, 39 combined three point attempts, that blows my mind.
09:53 I just now saw that.
09:55 So interesting way for West Virginia to win.
09:58 That's a decent team in Drexel.
09:59 They beat Villanova on the road.
10:01 Zach Spiker, Morgantown native, he had to have enjoyed coming to Morgantown,
10:06 even if it wasn't losing fashion.
10:09 A pretty cool moment for him to be able to coach and
10:12 bring his own team into the Coliseum.
10:13 So West Virginia, four and five now.
10:17 Last thing before we get out of here, Chris, thoughts on Kirk Carissa,
10:20 what his impact is going to be?
10:22 What do you expect out of him from the get go?
10:25 I think a couple of things.
10:27 He'll be able to facilitate the offense a little better than what we've seen from
10:32 Kobe, it's not really a knock on Cody, he's playing out of position.
10:37 >> Played really well too, last few games.
10:39 >> Yeah, he's played well, he picked the spots I thought really well today.
10:43 But it'll be nice to see him and Carissa out there.
10:46 But I think really what you'll get once he kind of gets in the flow is the timing.
10:50 Talking about Seth coming off screens,
10:52 the pass will be right there on point where he can just release it quickly.
10:56 And that's extremely important in Big 12 conference play.
11:00 So little things like that, getting the ball down to Jesse in the right spots,
11:05 down on the post.
11:06 So he's not getting pushed to the outside, so he can just turn and shoot.
11:09 I will also be critical.
11:10 So I think really it's just his passing and his two man game.
11:13 And honestly, he's a better shooter than probably what he gets credit for.
11:17 And that may take a couple games for him to get his feet wet in there as well.
11:20 But his scoring is gonna really help.
11:23 So if Seth can keep up the way he did today,
11:26 it's been a knock on him the last couple years is consistency.
11:30 And see if he can kind of get it rolling.
11:32 Maybe get Carissa and also hit some shots on the outside.
11:34 All of a sudden, you got four scores.
11:36 And Quinn doesn't have to drive the ball so
11:38 much where he's getting pickpocketed for five times a game.
11:41 So it's kind of a wait and see really at this point with Kurt.
11:46 Cuz he's not in Gabe's absence.
11:48 These guys are trying to just use what they have to find a way to win.
11:52 So everyone's gonna have to try to get back on the same page here.
11:55 And I wouldn't be surprised if he struggled the first game with this Aaron
11:59 pass in the name of the substance because he hasn't really played with over the last
12:04 month, month and a half or whatever it is.
12:05 >> Yeah, it'll be interesting.
12:07 I think he's gonna be a huge, huge part to that offense finally get going.
12:12 Cuz I think they're really kind of living in the 60s,
12:14 the low to mid 60s most nights.
12:16 But I think when you add him to the mix, I mean, you would assume he's gonna
12:20 average somewhere between 12 and 14 points once he really gets going.
12:23 He's gonna average probably somewhere between six and eight assists.
12:27 So you're talking a lot more offense coming them out in years away.
12:30 So West Virginia winners again over Drexel 66 to 60.
12:35 They have a week off as Chris mentioned.
12:38 They're going through finals and everything.
12:39 So their next game will be next Saturday 630 on ESPNU against UMass,
12:44 the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.
12:46 And we'll have the post game coverage for that one as well.
12:49 So that'll do it for us here today.
12:52 Make sure you hit the subscribe button on YouTube at Mountaineers Now.
12:55 Follow us on X at the same handle.
12:57 And no shows tomorrow.
12:59 We'll be back on Monday with an episode of Between the Years.
13:02 Have a great weekend, everybody.
13:04 Take care.
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