NEW YORK — There was supposed to be a coronation of sorts here Saturday.
West Virginia’s venture to Madison Square Garden was not just an opportunity to take a firm grasp of a national audience and stake a claim to being a nationally-recognized program once again, it was THE opportunity.
Instead, the Mountaineers left dejected following a 70-68 defeat to St. John’s, and dealing with the same frustrations that hounded them a year ago during a torturing 21-loss season.
“We didn’t do the best job preparing (for St. John’s defensive pressure) as players,” WVU guard Chase Harler said. “We’ve got to get better. We can’t come out as flat as we did. It was kind of like last year, where we dug ourselves into a hole and couldn’t quite get back out of it.”
Count them, 22 turnovers committed by the Mountaineers.
Some of them came from the Red Storm using their quickness to sneak up from the side to knock the ball away.
The majority of them came from nothing more difficult as making a pass to a guy no more than 10 feet away or catching that pass.
On this day, WVU wasn’t really good at either passing or catching the ball and it made the Mountaineers look like a little kid trying to force a square peg into a round hole at times.
That was the same story written about this team all of last season, and it became tired and worn out by the end.
A 7-0 start, a Cancun Challenge championship and a real argument to be included among the top 25 had seemingly wiped that slate clear.
It all seems to be back on the table, as St. John’s not only cancelled the coronation, the Red Storm reminded the Mountaineers just how young and inexperienced they actually are.
“We’re young, which is not an excuse, but we’ve got a lot of young guys and we’re coming off having some success and we didn’t handle it very well,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said.
It wasn’t just West Virginia’s turnovers that was concerning.
It was also the Mountaineers’ inability on the perimeter to keep anyone from St. John’s from getting to the basket, something that was a big problem last season, too.
“The hardest thing about being a guard is being put on an island and constantly looking for the ball screen,” WVU freshman guard Miles McBride said. “I think if we have everybody helping at the same time, us as guards, can force guys to go sideways and not straight-line drive. That would help a lot.
“It’s really on us to man up and say, ‘These guys aren’t going to get past us.’ ”
That is the type of attitude Huggins would love to instill into this team.
The potential is there to do it, yet it could take some time for that potential to shine through.
Oscar Tshiebwe, as talented and gifted as he is, is still not up to par as far as where to be at all times and how to help out defensively.
Many times Saturday, Derek Culver was leaning Tshiebwe’s way with some instructions on getting to the right spot or moving the right way.
That will get better, just not tomorrow.
We thought this was going to be a better outside shooting team. The Mountaineers did finish 9 of 24 from 3-point range against St. John’s, but entered the game shooting barely 31% for the season from behind the arc.
Again, that will likely get better, just not tomorrow.
With all of that said, this game still comes down to being able to guard and running an offense to the point where every pass doesn’t seem like a test of strength.
On Saturday, you could’ve started to take odds on just how many of the Mountaineers’ passes would be completed to their teammates and not Red Storm players.
And that takes you directly back to a comparison of last season, which this team does not deserve, but can not escape with performances like this.
Instead of a coronation, the Mountaineers simply got crowned. It wasn’t supposed to be that way.
“I feel like this was a wake-up call for sure,” Culver said. “We realized that we’re not as good as we think we are.”
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