Huggins calls this ‘the worst defensive team that I think I’ve ever had’

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Having long ago lost patience with defensive miscues, coach Bob Huggins didn’t pin West Virginia’s latest performance on the recent dismissals of two starters.

“We haven’t defended all year. We’re horrible,” Huggins said after Saturday’s 78-53 loss at Kansas. “This is the worst defensive team that I think I’ve ever had. We don’t put any pressure on the ball. We don’t get to the ball. We don’t handle screens very well. We don’t do much right, to be honest.”

Playing its first game without Wes Harris and Esa Ahmad, forwards who were dismissed last week for violating athletics department policy, West Virginia moved 6-8 Lamont West to power forward. That frequently forced him to defend Jayhawks leading scorer Dedric Lawson, an inside-out threat who is 6-9 and 13 pounds heavier than West’s 222.

West didn’t consider the assignment much of a stretch, saying he has always viewed himself as a power forward.

“You just have to play hard, and I feel like I can guard anybody,” he said. “We’ve just got to get used to playing with what we got.”

The Mountaineers tried to make other adjustments, such as playing Derek Culver and Drew Gordon at the same time, giving the Mountaineers more bulk on the floor. Emmitt Matthews picked up his first collegiate start in what Huggins hoped would give the Mountaineers another athletic perimeter defender.

In truth, there is not enough depth or experience on WVU’s roster to make up for the loss of Ahmad and Harris, not to mention the injured Sagaba Konate and Beetle Bolden. And there are not enough X’s and O’s to be drawn up to cover for West Virginia’s lack of defensive pressure.

“The biggest thing is those two guys rebounded it for us,” Huggins said. “If you look at the game situations, Esa and Wes made big rebounds. The other things we can kind of try to fill in, but we lost probably our second and third best rebounder. Derek is our first, but they were all playing together. Now, we’re playing him and he’s really young, and we’re playing Lamont [as a power forward] and he’s really been a [small forward] for his career. We tried to play big, but that didn’t work out very well.”

Now, the Mountaineers (10-15, 2-10 Big 12) head back home to face No. 18 Kansas State (19-6, 9-3), the team that may have opened this season’s book on the Mountaineers’ lack of defensive awareness. The Wildcats’ 71-69 victory on Jan. 9 doesn’t appear to be a defensive blowup, but K-State shot 62 percent and scored 50 points in the second half to erase a 21-point deficit.

WVU hosts Kansas State at 9 p.m. Monday in the rematch.

“If we didn’t play again for another week, we could really break down this game,” West Virginia guard Chase Harler said. “Now, we just have to get ready to play on Monday. Hopefully we come out with more energy. We’ll need better offense and work on defense and try to get the win on Monday.”

As for West Virginia’s worst defense under Huggins, that is a possibility.

The best comparison would be the 13-19 season Huggins and the Mountaineers endured in 2012-13, during their first season in the Big 12. That team struggled down the stretch with seven consecutive losses, but it held opponents under 70 points per game (68.1).

This season, WVU is allowing 75.4 points and has allowed 80 or more nine times.

“If we go out there and do what we need to do, we should be all right,” West said. “We’re not playing as hard as we should and we’re letting teams get out in transition too much.”

Huggins said West Virginia’s deficiencies go beyond physical limitations. He highlighted a defensive possession coming out of timeout where Brandon Knapper made a ballhandler pick up his dribble at halfcourt. But his teammates didn’t match the pressure.

“We let another guy just kind of trot up the sideline and they throw the ball to him. That was before everybody was screaming, “Red, red, red,’ which means don’t let your guys catch the ball. He didn’t have to work to catch it. We let them throw it wherever they wanted. That’s never happened before.”

 

Defensive comparison

How West Virginia’s subpar defensive numbers align with 2012-13, which was the last Mountaineers squad with a losing record:

2012-13

Points allowed: 68.1 per game

Field-goal defense: 755-of-1687 (44.8 percent)

3-pointers allowed: 213-of-559 (38.1 percent)

Losses by 20 points or worse: 4

Largest defeat: 34 points at Gonzaga.

Final record: 13-19

 

2018-19

Points allowed: 75.4 per game

Field-goal defense: 639-of-1432 (44.6 percent)

3-pointers allowed: 182-of-517 (35.2 percent)

Losses by 20 points or worse: 5

Largest defeat: 31 points at TCU and at Texas Tech.

Current record: 10-15

 

Kansas forward Mitch Lightfoot dunks as West Virginia forward Lamont West (15) watches during Saturday’s game in Lawrence.