MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Bob Huggins liked many facets of his team’s season opener: the 56-percent shooting, the 16-to-8 assist-to-turnover ratio and the adequate defense.
But rebounding, well, that wasn’t a category for the win column.
West Virginia was outboarded 30-28 by an undersized Mount Saint Mary’s team, a flaw somewhat obscured by the 77-62 final score. The two post players in WVU’s starting lineup, Kevin Noreen and Devin Williams, played 44 minutes and grabbed three rebounds combined.
But their coach blamed himself for devoting more time to other areas during the preseason. With an overhauled roster requiring focus on schematic points involving defensive alignments and the offensive system, Huggins suggested rebounding drills have been overlooked.
“We didn’t emphasize rebounding as much as we had before,” Huggins said. “When you don’t do things well and go back and look at your practice schedule, almost 100 percent of the time you didn’t practice it. That’s my fault.”
Click on the video to see Huggins’ postgame news conference.