MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Derek Culver’s nine free-throw attempts in Saturday’s 92-80 loss against Oklahoma was the ninth time he’s led the Mountaineers in trips to the line this season.
In 19 games, the 6-foot-10 forward has made 131 free-throw attempts, but West Virginia coach Bob Huggins believes Culver should have made a few more, but is not getting a lot of calls from referees.
“Derek got frustrated and I’d get frustrated, too, if I was him,” Huggins said. “I don’t know how it’s possible that you allow people to do the things they’ve done to him. It’s not [just] today, it was the last game and the game before that and the game before that. In an era where we’re supposed to be cleaning up post play, that was not clean, nor has it been.”
Culver finished with nine points and nine rebounds, but was just 2 of 8 shooting from the field, the fifth time in the last six games he’s been under 40 percent from the field.
Huggins believes many of the calls that don’t get whistled in Culver’s favor is because of his size and level of athleticism.
“He’s 260 pounds and he’s the strongest guy in the gym,” Huggins said. “It takes an effort to knock him down.”
Road sores
In falling to 0-9 on the road, West Virginia had some of its worse defensive numbers of the season.
Oklahoma shot 59.2 percent (29 of 49) and ended up with three more baskets than the Mountaineers, despite the fact that WVU attempted 13 more shots than the Sooners.
In the nine road losses, WVU has lost by an average score of 82.1-64.7 with three teams scoring more than 90 points.
In all, six teams have scored 90 or more this season against West Virginia. It happened two times all of last season.
“They did a great job of making open shots today,” Huggins said. “We gave them enough open shots to lose three or four times.”
Line change
Facing a 23-point deficit and a lack of energy from his players, Huggins decided to substitute an entirely different five players onto the floor at the same time.
Oklahoma led, 69-46, at the time, but the Mountaineers came away with a 34-23 scoring advantage the rest of the way.
“Too little, too late,” said WVU guard Jordan McCabe, who finished with 18 points and three assists. “At that point, yes, most teams will try to pick it up and cut the lead down to as little as they canm but we’re not here for moral victories. We’re here for real ones.”
The difference
For Oklahoma, the Sooners were trying to avenge a 79-71 loss in Morgantown from earlier in the season, in which WVU came away with a 46-30 advantage on the boards.
West Virginia still won the rebounding battle, 35-27, but Oklahoma forward Kristian Doolittle felt the Sooners were more physical than the first meeting between the two schools.
“I felt like we were more physical this game and we had a bigger focus on boxing out,” said Doolittle, who finished with 15 points and nine rebounds. “The first time you play somebody, the scout team can any simulate so much what the other team is going to do.
“We had a good game plan coming into this game with a big emphasis on Culver, because he’s really good.”
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