MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — For every neck scratch, arm bruise and tender rib he acquires tussling for rebounds, setting screens or trying to draw charges, Kevin Noreen would accept a hundred more if it meant he didn’t have to accept the inconvenient truth about this year’s Mountaineers team.
Players short on devotion. Players listening vacantly to coaches. Players unable to learn their assignments.
Seems like an ideal blueprint for the type of crummy season in which West Virginia undeniably finds itself.
Said Noreen after Saturday’s 73-57 loss to Oklahoma State left things even crummier: “I think we’ve let down Huggs and we’ve let down each other … and the way I like to play is not to let people down.”
After making five baskets in the opening 4:43, West Virginia made only 11 over the remaining 35:17. And those occasions where some Mountaineers appeared lost on offense? They probably were.
“We can’t run offense, because some of our guys don’t know the sets,” Noreen explained. “As late as it is in the season, we can’t have that.”
This wasn’t some locker room rip job by the third-year sophomore, because he followed up with a confession that “there have been days when I haven’t given my all, and it’s unacceptable.” But upon further questioning — and the big guy patiently sat there answering and re-answering questions like a Congressional witness — he theorized that finger-pointing might not be worst result, because the worst result of all is underachieving.
And the underachievement for West Virginia isn’t manifested solely in a 13-14 record that has Bob Huggins sweatin’ mad, but in the way those losses are stacking up. The last six were hammerings by an average exceeding 15 points. Instead of a hungry squad desperate to salvage its season, the Mountaineers have seemed resigned to accept an unceremonious fade to black.
“We got beat to loose balls, we got beat to balls going out of bounds and we have gotten beat to everything,” Huggins said. “We have a whole bunch of guys standing around and watching.”
And when Huggins proclaimed “I’ll fix it,” most of us in earshot wondered once more which players might soon be watching from campuses elsewhere. Something about the man’s hyper-frustrated scowl — and his 27-year gap between losing seasons — doesn’t portray a coach willing to keep finding workarounds for players who don’t fit his profile.
Noreen certainly foresees Huggins taking whatever steps necessary to restore order by next season.
“I have no doubt Coach is going to fix it. That’s the way he is — he doesn’t lose. He’ll change things the way he sees fit and it will be better. But we can change things by how we prepare and how much effort we have.”