Mountaineers Now Postgame Show: WVU Experiences a Rough Knight in Orlando
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello everybody, welcome into the Mountaineers Now
00:12 post game show presented by Country Roads AirDuck
00:15 cleaning, taking them to comfort West Virginia
00:17 falling to the UCF Knights 72 to 59 tonight in Orlando.
00:22 It was a tough night indeed as West Virginia
00:26 really just couldn't get anything going offensively.
00:28 Pat Sumnick who has been red hot as of late
00:30 really willed West Virginia their wins
00:33 over Texas and Kansas.
00:34 He was held scoreless tonight.
00:36 He fouled out, had three turnovers.
00:38 Not your typical Pat Sumnick of late.
00:40 Josiah Harris was the leading point scorer
00:44 for West Virginia with 15.
00:46 He had eight rebounds as well.
00:48 All of his points coming from behind the arc
00:51 and a look at the team stats here, West Virginia.
00:54 Again, shot the ball well from deep 11 of 28
00:56 but outside of that, not much 10 of 30 from everywhere else.
01:01 So yeah, Ibrahima Diallo had a double double in this one
01:06 14 points and 12 boards to go along with three blocks.
01:10 Chris, this one was, it just felt like it was over
01:12 from the beginning.
01:13 I mean, even the six oh run to start the game
01:16 it just had that early feeling of like,
01:18 ooh, if this gets to double digits
01:20 it's probably not going to end well.
01:22 So, and yeah, that's pretty much what happened.
01:25 - Yeah, West Virginia definitely didn't do themselves
01:28 any favors early turnovers, but you know,
01:31 officiating kind of dictated how that was going to be said.
01:34 - Weirdly officiated game.
01:36 - It was a terribly officiated game yet again.
01:38 And they just allow one team to do whatever they want.
01:43 Same thing that happened in Oklahoma last week
01:44 and West Virginia drove the ball to the basket.
01:47 They got hacked, they got bumped
01:48 and they didn't get the call.
01:50 They only got 12 fouls
01:51 with an aggressive defensive team like that.
01:53 Pretty impressive.
01:55 I don't think they were fundamentally sound,
01:56 but you know, you just get inconsistency
02:00 from night to night.
02:01 And I know last week I said, you know,
02:03 they have to overcome it,
02:04 but I don't know how you'd overcome
02:05 when you're getting hit in the arm
02:06 while you're going up for a shot.
02:08 So one of those nights they even went in
02:11 and tried to draw the fouls, couldn't get them.
02:13 And UCF got to the free throw line.
02:15 So I don't know what else you're supposed to do.
02:19 Battle got frustrated.
02:20 He got bumped to the floor after the play.
02:22 - Yeah.
02:23 - It just goes, so you can scream.
02:24 You can't scream after a dunk,
02:25 but you can body check a kid to the floor
02:27 and that doesn't result in anything.
02:28 So I understood his frustration,
02:31 but he's got a, if you want to be a good,
02:35 good, good, you want to be a good player,
02:37 you have to overcome stuff like that
02:39 and not let it get to you and just keep grinding.
02:41 So I understand the frustration,
02:42 but he's got to keep his head about him there,
02:45 especially as the leading scorer
02:47 and one of the leaders on the team.
02:49 - Yeah. I mean, he went out what,
02:50 the 10 52-ish mark or so.
02:52 And I mean, it's not like they necessarily
02:55 had a chance at that point,
02:56 but I mean, you felt like if he's around,
02:59 you would have much better chance, obviously,
03:02 but they cut it to, I believe, single digits, right?
03:05 Once where it got close to cutting it to single digits.
03:08 - Yeah, I mean, Harris gets hot all of a sudden.
03:10 That opens up the floor a little bit.
03:11 - It's a different ballgame.
03:12 - If he's winning the game.
03:13 So, yeah, to me, it's frustrating to hear myself
03:18 complain about the officiating,
03:20 but I mean, it's just so bad every night.
03:23 College basketball is so bad.
03:26 - I don't think I realized how bad it was
03:28 until I started covering the NBA.
03:30 - Everyone wants to talk about how the portal
03:33 and NILs ruining college sports, it's the officiating.
03:36 Like, how can you watch this game
03:38 and not see that there's a huge problem?
03:40 Again, you're getting bumped on one end of the floor
03:43 and it's a foul, and on the other end, it's play on.
03:46 Like 12, if you go, probably go back and look,
03:48 that's probably the lowest foul total
03:51 UCF has probably had all year.
03:52 12 fouls on a team like that?
03:54 They called it, I think, three or four in the second half?
03:56 Like, that's impressive to say.
03:59 Like, you have to really try and call fouls
04:02 at that point in time.
04:04 - Yeah, two Mountaineer starters were held scoreless.
04:07 Sumnick, as I already mentioned, was one of them.
04:09 Kobe Johnson, the other, battled.
04:10 He only had five points before his ejection.
04:14 So, when you have those types of numbers, it makes it tough.
04:16 Obviously, the silver lining in this one
04:18 is obviously Josiah Harris.
04:20 And again, we've been talking about him
04:22 and some others throughout the year.
04:24 Someone's got to step up
04:25 outside of the big name transfer guys.
04:27 Maybe Josiah Harris could be that guy.
04:30 I mean, I know this is just a one game thing,
04:32 but I've said it all season long,
04:33 he's got a nice looking shot.
04:35 He's just got to have more confidence in taking it.
04:38 I mean, do you feel like he could be someone
04:39 that could step up into that role?
04:41 'Cause I mean, it looks like he has the parts.
04:43 I think the confidence is what's lacking.
04:46 Yeah, he needs some of that Sumnick confidence.
04:48 That's right.
04:49 It really changed his game as of late.
04:51 Yeah, he just needs to, you know,
04:54 cheer up what he's doing.
04:56 Just be confident when you get the ball
04:58 that you want to shoot it.
04:59 It looked a little better tonight.
05:01 Maybe not playing last against Kansas Saturday
05:04 kind of gave him a little advantage on the sideline
05:06 looking to know when he could take his shots.
05:08 But I mean, yeah, if he can get a little confidence,
05:12 obviously this goes for a long way to the team,
05:14 but really this team on the road,
05:16 they need to find that same energy
05:19 that they'd start off with at home.
05:21 Like if they just match that UCF energy,
05:23 they probably keep pace
05:25 and it probably comes down to the final minute or so.
05:27 So as much as I want to complain about the refs,
05:29 they got to do something with the energy to start the game.
05:32 They're not matching the energy on the road.
05:34 And really you want to do better than match it.
05:37 You want to play above your opponent on the road.
05:41 So I don't know the secret.
05:43 That's why coaches get paid millions
05:45 and find consistency to get that.
05:49 I think the last year that they've had a winning record
05:53 on the road was Deuces last year.
05:55 I think they won six games on a big 12 games on the roads.
05:59 It can be done.
06:01 You just got to have those guys that it's almost
06:03 like they're reacting to start.
06:05 Like they're just trying to ride that wave.
06:08 Yeah, just try to maintain,
06:09 stay within reach and then try to fight back.
06:13 But not the way they're doing it intentionally.
06:16 - Was that Deuce year the weird year
06:17 where they were winning games on the road
06:19 but couldn't win at home?
06:20 - It was a bunch of weird things.
06:22 - Yeah, I mean.
06:24 - That was actually, that was COVID year.
06:26 So that was.
06:29 - Makes sense why they were winning games on the road.
06:32 - There's not really anyone in this.
06:34 I mean, at that point in time.
06:35 - They're all neutral court games.
06:37 - I think it's that it depended,
06:40 you know, we'd have to go back and look,
06:41 depending where you were,
06:42 Stephanie was letting fans in a minimum,
06:45 you know, it wasn't full yet,
06:46 but there were, by the time basketball,
06:49 that time of the year conference play started,
06:51 basketball was allowing fans,
06:53 not a lot, but there was fans there.
06:54 - I mean, I agree that like the whole start,
06:56 the energy, when it's on the road,
06:58 it's, I don't want to say that it's like
07:00 a defeatist attitude by any means,
07:01 but it's almost like they enter the game
07:05 as if they're already looking up at the scoreboard
07:07 down 10 points,
07:08 and they've got to climb out of this massive hole.
07:10 They've got to overcome so much.
07:12 Instead of just taking it to the other team,
07:14 like they did Kansas.
07:15 And even, for example, Pat Sumnick,
07:17 like he just outplayed on honestly,
07:19 one of the best players in the country,
07:21 in Hunter Dickinson, just a couple of days ago.
07:23 Today against Ibrahima Diallo, he didn't do anything.
07:26 He was overmatched.
07:27 Again, you could point to the size differential,
07:30 but Dickinson still had that size advantage
07:32 underneath as well, and he outplayed him.
07:34 So there's no excuse for it.
07:36 It's just, I think, a confidence thing,
07:38 playing on the road, having the crowd against you,
07:41 that's got to change,
07:42 because right now the margin for error for this team
07:45 is extremely razor thin.
07:48 I mean, there may not even be a margin for error
07:51 at this point.
07:52 So I don't know what they've got to do to fix that,
07:55 but they've got to figure it out here in the next couple.
07:57 - They got to do something with the guards too,
07:58 because I don't know why Kansas never adjusted
08:01 and why they didn't pressure the guards,
08:02 but everyone that pressured Oklahoma did it last week.
08:05 UCF did full court pressure for the most part.
08:08 - It's not a problem.
08:09 - When you pressure these guards and speed them up,
08:10 they struggle.
08:11 They start mounting up and they get down early
08:14 when they can't match the energy
08:16 and they don't attack offensively off that pressure.
08:18 And you use the opponent's momentum against them
08:22 when they're overplaying,
08:23 you get back to where it easy looks and get mismatches
08:26 and get the numbers that you're playing right into it.
08:30 And they just have yet to figure it out.
08:32 It's being schemed.
08:33 They just can't execute it.
08:35 And I mean, crazy, they're long.
08:37 They're one of the bigger teams.
08:40 They're a long team, they're tough defensively.
08:42 You just, you got to let them overplay
08:44 and just take advantage of that.
08:46 - Well, the good thing is West Virginia's got
08:49 Oklahoma State on Saturday on the road.
08:51 I guess that's the downside of it is on the road,
08:54 but they are winless in Big 12 Conference play right now,
08:57 as we speak, as we're recording,
08:59 they're actually up on TCU 33-19,
09:02 five minutes to halftime.
09:04 But you've got to be able to figure this out.
09:06 You got to go and get yourself a road win.
09:08 If you're going to get any road win in this league,
09:10 you would think it's going to come on Saturday
09:12 in Stillwater.
09:13 Maybe Jesse Edwards is back for that one.
09:15 I don't know.
09:17 I would almost say probably a more realistic timeline
09:19 would probably be next Wednesday
09:21 when West Virginia plays Cincinnati at home, but we'll see.
09:24 Maybe they get them out there for a few minutes
09:26 in a limited role.
09:28 But early thoughts on West Virginia, Oklahoma State,
09:32 what has to go right?
09:34 What has to change from what went on tonight
09:37 and how do they balance this up and down
09:40 kind of little stretch that they've been in?
09:43 - Attack, keep attacking.
09:44 And if you don't get the foul call early,
09:46 they're eventually going to call the foul.
09:47 Just keep attacking.
09:49 They play aggressive out front, make them pay.
09:52 Use their momentum against them.
09:55 Get the back doors, get some pick and pops.
09:58 Just don't let them anticipate your offense.
10:02 You got, you know,
10:03 Ida talks about it after every game,
10:05 use option B, C, and D.
10:06 There's plenty of,
10:07 like it's not just one play,
10:08 like they're setting up a layup.
10:09 There's plenty of options in a play.
10:11 - And it's like, oh crap, they covered it.
10:12 What do we do now?
10:13 - They just panic.
10:15 They don't know how to get, you know,
10:18 Kerr, he's been good,
10:19 but he needs to be a threat off the dribble.
10:24 So where they have to play back,
10:26 they're just playing up on him
10:27 because he's not driving to the basket
10:29 as much as he probably needs to be on one-on-one
10:33 to kind of give some opportunities to others.
10:35 So a lot of it's just film work
10:37 and a lot of it's just new guys still playing together.
10:40 - Yeah, I mean, I 100% agree with everything you just said.
10:45 I mean, it's been a tough season,
10:47 but I think the one thing
10:49 that I've kind of noticed over the last few games
10:50 is it's almost like a lot of these guys are pressing,
10:53 understanding the situation they're in,
10:56 what needs to happen if they were to go to the big dance
11:00 or what they need to do.
11:02 Like, they feel like everything is riding
11:04 on every single possession
11:06 and every single little decision
11:08 that they make on the floor.
11:09 They just need to relax, go out and play the game,
11:12 have fun with it.
11:13 And at this point, that's the best you can ask for.
11:17 Play with maximum effort, maximum confidence.
11:20 And if you do that and you fall short,
11:21 I mean, what else more can you ask for?
11:23 So West Virginia, again,
11:26 falling to UCF 72 to 59 tonight against UCF.
11:30 The back in action Saturday in Stillwater
11:33 against the Oklahoma State Cowboys
11:35 at 2 p.m. Eastern time, tipping off on ESPN+.
11:39 So that'll do it for Chris and myself.
11:42 Make sure you hit that subscribe button
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11:49 and we'll be back tomorrow morning
11:50 with an episode of Between The Ears.
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