COLUMBUS, Ohio — Even before the first practice session commenced last October, before the first player was sentenced to treadmill punishment, Bob Huggins knew his team couldn’t win pretty.
Some 34 games into a season that now winds toward the Sweet 16, the grinder mentality keeps rewarding West Virginia with wins.
“That’s what we are,” Huggins said after his Mountaineers eliminated Maryland 69-59 on Sunday night.
“It seemed like everywhere we go people say, ‘Well, it’s not pretty.’ Well, I think it’s beautiful,” he said. “I love it. I love the fact that we can not make shots and still win, still find ways to score.”
Thanks to a plus-13 edge in forced turnovers, West Virginia attempted 60 shots to Maryland’s 44. That more than mitigated the Terps outshooting WVU 47 percent to 40.
“If you look back, Coach Huggs’ teams have always played defense and rebounded the ball, and that’s what got us the win tonight,” said point guard Juwan Staten.
Of Maryland’s season-high 23 turnovers, 14 came in the second half when the Terps briefly led 37-35 then fell apart by going 6:42 without a basket. It wasn’t like shooters went cold so much as the shots never came: WVU’s pestering defense allowed Maryland to attempt only five attempts during that game-changing stretch.
“It’s hard work. And it comes down to having a lot of heart,” Huggins said. “That’s what I told our guys at halftime. I said, if you guys want to play pretty, we’re going to lose. We’ve gotta do what we do. And they came out the second half and did a pretty good job of it.”