West Virginia falls to Connecticut, 73-62

The No. 7 West Virginia Mountaineers fell short in crunch time in a 73-62 loss to the Connecticut Huskies.

Making matters worse, head coach Bob Huggins was ejected in the final minute after picking up two straight technical fouls.

It’s becoming painfully obvious that the Mountaineers need to find someone who can penetrate and get to the basket.

It seems like West Virginia relies either on perimeter shots or dumping the ball inside to the open man.

When they can’t get their three-point shots to fall, the Mountaineers really struggle to score points.

Friday, February 26, 2010 at 8:02 pm by steve

West Virginia rolls past Providence, 88-74

The No. 6 West Virginia Mountaineers bounced back with an 88-74 victory over the Providence Friars.

Starting at a potential third-straight loss, the Mountaineers got things going early and often in Providence.

West Virginia has struggled with slow starts this year, often having to rally back in the second half to pick up wins.

At one point in the first half, the Mountaineers went on a 23-0 run over seven minutes to help take an 18-point lead into halftime.

Devin Ebanks led the team with 21 points while Da’Sean Butler and Wellington Smith each added 16.

Friday, February 19, 2010 at 6:04 pm by steve

West Virginia falls to Villanova, 82-75

The No. 6 West Virginia Mountaineers fell behind early and could never quite catch up in an 82-75 loss to the No. 2 Villanova Wildcats.

West Virginia trailed by 11 at halftime but managed to make several second half pushes to get within five or six of the Wildcats.

It seemed like every time West Virginia got to that point, though, they just couldn’t seem to get over the hump.

The Mountaineers had solid scoring balance with five players reaching double-digits, but no one could seem to step up in crunch time.

It seemed like whenever West Virginia needed to get a stop, they just couldn’t control point guard Scottie Reynolds from making something happen.

Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 1:21 pm by steve

WVU Blows St. John’s Out in Second Half, 79-60

Facing an 11-point deficit at halftime, the West Virginia Mountaineers looked poised to be 20 minutes away from a most improbable upset at the hand of St. John’s.

Then, junior Da’Sean Butler turned on the jets, and the Mountaineers exploded offensively in the second half.

Butler scored a season-high 33 points, leading a WVU team that scored 57 points in the second half to be the Red Storm 79-60 on Saturday.

“It’s always good when the other four guys are looking for Da’Sean,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said. “That makes us better.”

After being held to hitting only two of seven shots in the first half, Butler exploded in the second by going 7-for-11 after halftime. Butler knocked down all seven three-pointers he shot.

“I don’t know about 3s, but [Huggins] wanted me to be aggressive,” Butler said, “and he set up some plays for me.”

Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 11:30 am by bryan

Mountaineers Thump Pitt at Home, 70-51

While the rowdy fan base nearly got out of control once again, the WVU basketball team kept their control on the court Wednesday night against one of their biggest Big East rivals.

After watching a double-digit lead nearly dissolve, the Mountaineers struck back and hammered the young Pitt Panthers, 70-51 on Wednesday night.

In the middle of the second half, restless WVU fans began throwing bottles and other objects onto the court as Pitt cut WVU’s lead to 43-41. That prompted WVU coach Bob Huggins to grab the courtside microphone and tell the fans “That’s stupid.”

“It was uncalled for,” WVU’s Da’Sean Butler said. (Butler finished with 18 points.) “There is a time and a place for stuff like that, but one place is not the basketball court. Take that outside if you’re going to do it. I don’t know what the fans are trying to prove whether they’re tough or not but it’s not what we do. I would appreciate it if they would stop. It might cost us a game.”

“I think the fans throwing stuff out on the court was wrong,” Huggins said afterward. “You want them to be enthusiastic and they’ve been terrific. I love them to death, but whoever threw things on the floor is dumb. You just can’t do that.”

Once Huggins had calmed the crowd down, WVU went on a 15-4 run that subdued the Panthers, backed by three-pointers from Butler, Kevin Jones, and Darryl Bryant.

“We knew they had a rowdy crowd,” Pittsburgh’s Jermaine Dixon said. “But the best part is that we get to play them up at our place in a couple days.”

Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 8:34 pm by bryan

WVU Fans Drawing Attention For All The Wrong Reasons

Last week, WVU fans made the news after the vice president of student conduct at WVU sent an e-mail to the student body, imploring them to tone down the foul language and derogatory cheers at sporting events.

While the request brought the f-bombs down, all problems weren’t solved. On Saturday, when the Mountaineers took on Lousiville, WVU fans kept up with the boorish behavior, chanting on 10 separate occasions the name of a woman who Louisville coach Rick Pitino admitted to having an affair with. Coach Bob Huggins went into the student section before the game, asking the students to remain respectful.

A few dozen students wore T-shirt tuxedos, in an effort to look classy…?

“[Coach Huggins] knows how passionate we are,” said WVU freshman Chris Northrup. “And he doesn’t want us to tone any of that down. But he just wants us to keep the f-bombs off TV.”

Some WVU fans appear to be taking the “tone it down” message to heart.

“It’s wrong that a school organization is encouraging this type of behavior,” said WVU student John Terry. “I can understand if it happens, but students shouldn’t be encouraged to personally attack an individual. That is just plain wrong.”

But for those tuning in Wednesday, to see the Mountaineers take on Top-25 Pittsburgh, don’t expect any improved behavior… at least for one game.

“Pitt is our rival so we’ll probably be using a lot of colorful words against them,” Jonathan Kimble, a sports management major at WVU said.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 8:14 pm by bryan