MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Nathan Adrian went 40 days, nine games and 15 attempts between 3-pointers.
For the Morgantown High product recruited to West Virginia as a shooter, that was a jarring slump. The worst one he could recall enduring, at any level of basketball.
“Yeah, it’s never been that bad,” he said.
On Tuesday night, however, Adrian finally got one to go down. His 3-pointer barely 3 minutes into the game began a stretch where the 6-foot-9 sophomore forward scored seven straight points in two minutes.
“That first one was a big weight off my shoulders and it really got me going,” said Adrian, whose season-high 11 points became one of the storylines from West Virginia’s 86-65 clubbing of No. 18 Oklahoma.
Adrian sank 4-of-8 shots overall in 21 minutes, which included an agile-looking reverse layup to finish a fastbreak. In one halfcourt set, he backed down Oklahoma’s Ryan Spangler before banking home a 7-foot turnaround.
Adrian didn’t make any 3-pointers beyond the first one, finishing 1-of-4 from deep. Still, that line was enough to raise his season 3-point average to 16.7 percent. Slumpers can’t be choosers.
“Obviously I haven’t been playing my best. Maybe we can get something going now,” he said. “It’s just getting in the gym, seeing the ball go through the hoop and figuring out what feels right. Then I’ve got to transfer that to the game.”
Coach Bob Huggins said before the game the drought was becoming psychological for Adrian, who developed a reputation as a standout high school shooter and sank 35 percent of his 3s as West Virginia freshman.
“I think Nate Adrian is very capable of making shots, but you look at the stats and it doesn’t seem that he is,” Huggins said Monday. “We recruited him to make open shots.
“I think it’s in Nate’s head. He needs to get a few to go down and I think his confidence and his psyche will improve.”
Despite the string of misfires that essentially turned Adrian into an offensive afterthought, Huggins said he never considered yanking him from the playing rotation. Saturday night’s boxscore showed Adrian contributed two steals, three rebounds and one blocked shot, and he also zipped a 45-foot outlet pass that led to another basket.
“Obviously, we’re a whole lot better when he makes shots,” the coach said, “but Nate does a lot of things.”
Carter warms up: Jevon Carter set a personal high with four 3-pointers and his 18 points were second only to the 28-point outburst he inflicted upon VMI on Nov. 26.
His string of late-game treys had the Coliseum crowd on its feet, though it was interrupted by an ugly straight-on miss.
“That shot that hit the side of the backboard—I knew if I didn’t hit my next one that I was coming out because of how bad I missed it,” Carter said.
Macon re-emerges: Though his ribs remained tender, Elijah Macon gave West Virginia an effective 9 minutes off the bench with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting and three rebounds.
He said the injury dated back to being elbowed during “a rough practice” on Sunday, Jan. 4. Macon sat out the following night’s win at Texas Tech and played only four scoreless minutes in the loss to Iowa State.
Quote: “Our mindset was just crazy. It was good vibes everywhere. We were feeding off each other,” said freshman guard Daxter Miles Jr. “We know it’s important to protect homecourt and we let ourselves down against Iowa State. We was determined not to do that anymore. That’s out of the door and now we’ve got to keep building and get these away games.”