(Bob Huggins pre-match press conference)
Morgantown, W.Va. — The carpet rolls out for Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers for the first time in 19 days when WVU hosts Navy Wednesday evening.
West Virginia is Second loss of the season to Xavier on Saturday night, 84-74The Musketeers outscored the Mountaineers by 17 points in the second half, with Xavier scoring 17 points from 12 WVU turnovers.
“We just threw the ball. I tried to check some of the good half coat sets, but I got confused.
“We feel like we’ve beaten ourselves. We’ve seen the movie. We’ve all seen it individually and we saw it as a team yesterday. There’s nothing we can’t change.” I just had a few mental lapses on the defensive end and the offensive end,” WVU senior guard Joe Toussaint said.
“I’m always the guy who takes responsibility for whatever it is. I always take responsibility and take whatever comes with it. I’ve been that way since I was little.”
In the loss at Xavier, West Virginia lost 34-28 on the board. It was the fourth time in eight games that the Mountaineers were rebounded by an opponent.
“I think offensively we’re starting to get a little better, but defensively it’s horrible. We have to get better,” Huggins said.
“There are countless things we’ve done well in the past that we don’t do.”
Navy (5-3) dropped games back to back after a 5-1 start. The Cadet features a balanced offensive offense with seven players averaging over 6.6 points per game. The Navy posted a 21-11 record last season.
“Most of the services [academy] Team, they perform really well. They don’t have the size that people in our league would have, for example, but they are skilled and very disciplined,” he said Huggins.
“I remember last year they beat Virginia. They’re not going to go it alone, they’re going to go one-on-one.
West Virginia plays just over a quarter of its regular season schedule, and its roster and rotation, which includes nine rookies, continues to evolve.
“Considering our games are all the same, it’s not. Not even close. They have to make adjustments. And you throw injuries in there, Pat [Sumenick] I was injured. Pat has just returned. Pat is not playing because he is not ready to play. When you look at all the things they have to overcome, yeah it takes time. It will certainly take longer than I would have liked. ”
