COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — At one juncture this season, the kid endured a 24-day stretch without making a basket. In this week’s previous game, his only field goal was a banked-in 3 that even had Iowa State defenders giggling.
So you’ll forgive the West Virginia coaching staff for not prioritizing Brandon Knapper early in Saturday’s game against Oklahoma. He sat for the first 7 minutes, in fact.
By the end of the afternoon, though, Knapper was so cocksure that coach Bob Huggins was diagramming plays for him.
Leading 65-63 with 1:58 left, Huggins spent a timeout setting up Knapper for a corner 3. When Oklahoma showed a 3-2 zone, the scheme worked perfectly. West Virginia got the numerical advantage it wanted, where one perimeter defender had to choose between Wes Harris on the wing and Knapper near the baseline.
“Huggs knows what he’s doing,” Knapper said. “He knew that the big was not going to help in the corner.
“Huggs said coming out of the timeout, ‘Knapp’s going to hit this shot,’ and that’s exactly what I did.”
Credit Knapper with a career-high 25 points. Credit Huggs with coating the redshirt freshman in confidence. And credit West Virginia with a 79-71 victory that made a trying season a little more bearable.
Entering the game, Knapper’s redshirt freshman season looked miserable — try 27 baskets and 37 turnovers. Against the Sooners he gave the ball away only once in 26 minutes. He shot 7-of-10 overall and 4-of-6 from 3-point range.
“Coach is always telling us he’d rather us get the ball up over the rim than commit a turnover,” Knapper said.
Oklahoma may own the football rivalry, but in shorts and sneakers, West Virginia has won four consecutive meetings. Jerry West was back in the building for Saturday’s upset, reminiscing happily over the 1959 Final Four team and remembering less-fondly how the Mountaineers fared the last time he dropped by.
It was Feb. 20, 2016, the day of Hot Rod Hundley’s statue unveiling, which WVU followed up by losing to Oklahoma.
This time The Logo issued a warning, which Esa Ahmad took to heart:
“He said the last time he was here we lost, so we better not lose in front of him today.”
Ahmad snagged a personal-best 13 rebounds and would’ve snagged several more if not for losing a couple tug-o-wars to teammate Derek Culver, who grabbed 14.
“Yeah, me and DC were going back-and-forth on the boards,” Ahmad said.
The Sooners don’t crack the top 100 in rebounding percentage, and Lon Kruger must’ve felt helpless watching the Culver/Ahmad tandem enact their glass-crashing fury. They combined for 12 of West Virginia’s 18 offensive rebounds, fueling a 27-9 gap in second-chance scoring.
Speaking of second chances, Culver watched the Mountaineers’ efficient execution down the stretch and allowed himself to ponder his team’s 10-12 record.
“Imagine if we had got this rolling from the beginning,” he said. “But, you know, it’s never too late.”
At 2-7 halfway through the Big 12 round-robin, the hole sure seems too steep to escape. But confidence mixed with assertiveness made the Mountaineers good enough for at least one afternoon. Let’s see if that formula travels to Lubbock.