OK, It's Time For Huggins To Catch More Heat
by Dr. Charley West on Jan 18, 2010 11:05 AM EST
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PrintHas the Bob Huggins honeymoon ended?
The short answer: probably not. This coach of 600+ career wins deserves the right to weather a slump or two without too much question. Still, through 16 games, this Mountaineer team seems to have many more questions than answers. The talent is certainly present to justify the pre-season top 10 ranking. The execution? Not so much.
The Mountaineers own a losing record in 2010, with two wins over terrible teams and less than encouraging losses to Purdue (who has recently soiled its bed), Notre Dame, and Syracuse. In each game, there have been extended periods of the game where West Virginia has looked utterly lost. Sure, shooting has been cold, but it's not just that the shots aren't falling -- execution as a whole is down.
So what is the problem? Here is just a sampling of the questions surrounding this team:
- The lack of a point guard. Truck's reliability rating is non-existent, and Mazzulla is playing with one arm, which makes him neither an inside nor outside threat. So, at the #1 position, we have a walking turnover and a character from The Fugitive. Not good. It's an indictment of Huggins, surely, that in the third year of his tenure here, we are nearly void of options at arguably the most important position on the court. Cleveland State almost pressed us off the court -- think what Louisville could do...
- Devin Ebanks may already be in the NBA, or at this rate, the NBDL. Ebanks must really enjoy Morgantown, because instead of playing himself into a sure lottery pick, Ebanks has looked like he needs another two years in college ball. His disappearing act throughout most of the season has been the biggest head-scratcher. I still have the exact details surrounding Ebanks' leave of absence, but it has continued into January. The only difference is now it's happening on the court.
- Casey Mitchell sucks. Huggins is guilty of revving up the hype machine on this one. Sure, he qualified it by saying Mitchell would be hot and cold, but we've known very little other than cold. And I think it's going to be difficult to blame global warming for this one, though I've been wrong before. He might turn it around, but it seems Dalton Pepper has permanently taken his spot. I think it's time for Huggins to stay quiet about players that haven't seen the court yet. Along with Mitchell, that goes for Kilicli as well. Why needlessly raise expectations on newcomers?
At the end of the day, these faults rest at the feet of Huggins, who has assembled a roster of immense talent and spotty dedication and performance.
So where do we go from here? Well, the schedule certainly doesn't get any easier, with a very dangerous trip to Charleston looming on Wednesday. Marshall is a good team, but a loss this week would confirm a true tailspin of sorts for the Mountaineers. Sure, it wouldn't be the end of the season, but with player confidence (especially Truck and Ebanks) already in a deep valley, it's the last thing we need.
Hopefully, Huggins can turn it around. Or the honeymoon may really be over.
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The honeymoon IS over!
Just win Huggy. Losing to ND AND Syracuse make me want to throw my shoe! Casey Mitchell does suck, i don’t care if i see him on the floor at all this year. Pepper has stepped up, taken his spot and if he gets better on D, he will be nice I don’t even know why he plays Mazzulla anymore, everybody know’s he’s a one armed bandit. Yeah, he can play D, but no one even gaurds him on offense, they beg him to shoot the ball. who knows about Ebanks, he’s a big Pussy.
all that said, if we ever start shooting well, the Big East is in trouble.
by cabincreekzeke on Jan 18, 2010 11:21 AM EST reply actions
Could not disagree more about the Mazzula comment
Granted I didn’t get to see the Syracuse game, but about the only times they’ve been able to function offensively in the past few games have been when JM is on the floor. He definitely can’t shoot and that’s definitely a liability, but can drive occasionally and put them in some semblance of an offense. And when the team as a whole seems rather indifferent to whether they want to be on the floor or not (which happens regularly), JM comes in and brings instant energy and intensity.
by couchburner on Jan 18, 2010 12:25 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
I agree with your assessment
While Huggs has won 600+ games, he has only made 1 Final Four and has lost early with great teams more than few times in the tournament.
Our next 4 games are huge for momentum. I hope he can motivate these young men to live up to their potential.
Leave no doubt tonight! Leave no doubt tonight! No doubt! They shouldn't of played the Old Gold'n Blue.
by 5th Year Senior on Jan 18, 2010 12:24 PM EST reply actions
"I hope he can motivate these young men to live up to their potential."
5YS has officially become Bill Stewart
by couchburner on Jan 18, 2010 12:29 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Not yet
If I were Stew I would say, “I hope he can motivate these young lads to strain hard and live up to their potential and honor their families. Kick-offs, ask me about kick-offs.”
Leave no doubt tonight! Leave no doubt tonight! No doubt! They shouldn't of played the Old Gold'n Blue.
by 5th Year Senior on Jan 18, 2010 1:42 PM EST up reply actions
This is precisely where Huggins has an advantage over Stew....
or more appropriately a BB coach over a FB coach. It’s the system that they’re given to work in…BB has a tournament at the end and Huggs has time to get this team right and if they get hot at the right time, they can still make a deep run after this slump.
Huggins is Fine
There is no way he should be remotely on the hot seat!!!!! All teams have their ups and downs- look at North Carolina this year.
I disagree that this team clearly has top ten talent. What is that based on, TV analyist and blogger hype? They are very good, but they have two glaring weaknesses:
1. The point guard position is weak. Truck Bryant is sloppy and Joe Mazulla is hurt. This is compounded by the fact that their 2 guards aren’t real good ball handlers. This weakness stops their offensive flow big time
2. They are long but they don’t have any really big guys. This doesn’t hurt as much as the point guard spot, but some teams will really kill us down low
I think Huggins is doing the best he can with this team. I’m sure he thought Bryant would be a little better and that Mazulla would be further along with his injury.
Don’t panic because we aren’t a 30-0 monster of a team. This team is on the way to being a 23-7, 22-8 top 20 kinda team, and we are becoming a mainstay in the top 25 and the upper half of the Big East. Our program is better than it ever has been in my opinion.
Of course he isn't on the hot seat.
At least not until Roy Williams or Coach K start begging for his job. His recruiting skills alone keep him here until he decides to leave.
Just playing Devil's advocate here.
Whose responsibility is it to recruit quality point guards and have them ready to play?
by Country Roads on Jan 18, 2010 7:44 PM EST up reply actions
Good Point
That is on Huggins, although you could argue that he gambled that he had two candidates who could fiil the job and therefore went after some other types of players- most notably a shooter to replace Ruoff(sp?)
A few comments
The PG problem is a bit frustrating. Bryant shouldn’t be turning the ball over this much at this point and I’m sure Huggs was hoping that Mazzulla would have 2 arms to use at this point. Bryant needs to learn that at some point you can over-penetrate and you need to kick the ball back out or dribble it out of trouble instead of just heaving a shot up that is worse than just chucking it out of bounds.
Ebanks has disappeared and that has really hurt. He needs to be more aggressive with the ball and get to the hoop and subsequently get to the free throw line. Same goes for Jones, Butler and the rest of the team.
Speaking of Da’Sean…he needs to STEP IT UP. His play has been fine, but it is not good enough for this team’s on and off the court leader. We need 20 and 10 from him game in and game out. Rise to the occasion Da!
As far as Huggins goes, he (over)hypes his recruits for a reason. The better they seem, the higher our ranking goes, and national attention. This leads to more nationally televised games and increased exposure of the program as a whole. This helps his recruiting. Would you rather play for a WVU team that is on national TV for half of its games or one that plays 4-5 games a year on TV? I would go with the first, and so would every young high school player that Huggs is trying to recruit for his team.
Losing to Notre Dame and Purdue on the road are not bad losses. Sure we can say we wished and hoped they would win those games, but those are hard places to play and good teams. ND shot well over 50% and Purdue would probably have beaten any team in the country the way they played against us. And as much as I hate to say it, Syracuse is looking like a #1 seed in the tourney about now.
B-B-B-Byrd Byrd Byrd, Byrd is the Wyrd!"
Hot Seat? Probably not.
Not yet. Where are the recruits? Not seein em. I think our facilities are as good as anyone’s in the country so that cant be it. ( someone suggested it was)
Frankly we dont have the talent. Ebanks is a letdown. We controlled the offensive boards last year this year its one and done. We need a big man in the paint and a lights out shooter. I rate the talent level of this years team as a 5 and not deserving of a top 10 ranking. Very dissapointing but hopeful.
KEN
I strenuously object.
“Frankly, we don’t have talent.”
Kevin Jones and Da’Sean Butler could start for anyone. Devin Ebanks is the most talented guy out there, he just hasn’t grasped how to use his talent. Truck has as much talent as say a Darris Nichols, he just doesn’t have the instincts and basketball smarts Darris did. We have supremely athletic guys, they just struggle to play as a team and within themselves. Talent is not the issue, it’s been harnessing and fitting the talent together. On a pure talent level, WVU hasn’t been this talented in a long time. But we don’t have a lot of great basketball players at this point. Joe Alexander was ultra talented, but he didn’t become a good basketball player until the last 8 games of his career.
“This year its one and done.”
We are actually second in the country behind Kansas St., rebound 43% of our offensive misses. Our problem is that it is normally 2 and 3 and done because we don’t make shots (because they are all jump shots).
I agree
We have a lot of problems but rebounding was not one of them until ’Cuse. I think we have only been out rebounded twice this year. Of course, those games were early when we were giving a ton of effort. Now it just seems like we are going through the motions.
I think Huggs can turn it around and these next four games are key before we get into the heart of our Big East schedule.
Leave no doubt tonight! Leave no doubt tonight! No doubt! They shouldn't of played the Old Gold'n Blue.
by 5th Year Senior on Jan 18, 2010 3:38 PM EST up reply actions
Talent includes Brains
I agree- we are a very talented team. But our talent is of the more athletic variety-we are strong, fast, and athletic. We don’t have as much talent in the shooting, passing, spacing and movement areas. truck embodies those weakneses.
facilities
There is one small problem with our facility. We are the only school in this division without a practice facility. Which means our men’s basketball team has to share it with the women, gymnastics, and any one else. I have heard that Huggs is working on getting a practice facility built.
Really?
One and done? They own the offensive glass as 25314 said. When you rebound 43% of your own misses that’s pretty good. The problem is they are settling for jump shots (also pointed out by 25314) and not getting the ball to the RACK. They need to get inside, beat these teams up on the glass and get to the line!
B-B-B-Byrd Byrd Byrd, Byrd is the Wyrd!"
I believe the facility is already being built. I had a facility management class last semester and the woman in charge of the project came in and showed us blue prints and pictures and everything. I believe it will be done by next May or June. It looked amazing in the pictures. That should definitely help with recruiting some.
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