MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — After capping a 17-point, eight-rebound night, West Virginia forward Derek Culver now stands at 992 career points.
He’ll try to become the Mountaineers’ 54th 1,000-point scorer Saturday, when No. 6 WVU hosts No. 17 Oklahoma State to wrap up the regular season.
“I didn’t even know I was that close to it,” Culver said after WVU took down TCU, 76-67, at the WVU Coliseum. “I really wasn’t paying attention, but that’s something I’ll most definitely be looking forward to.”
Culver’s three seasons at the school began on tough ground. He missed the first 10 games of his career, because WVU head coach Bob Huggins wanted Culver to become more focused on his academics.
He was also benched for the first half of WVU’s CBI tournament game against Coastal Carolina as a freshman for showing up late for the game.
When asked about those instances, Culver has always referred to himself acting like a “knucklehead” back then.
In the years that have followed, Culver has been named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll, as well as developed into the conference’s top low-post threat.
“He’s come a long long way,” Huggins said. “It’s about consistency. If you want to go on and make money playing basketball, you have to bring it every day. He’s got to become more consistent.
“Obviously, he’s worked at his free-throw shooting and he’s making free throws, but now he can’t make a jump hook. We’ve got to convince him he needs to get back in the gym and work on that.”
Putting the clamps on Nembhard
Culver had to take a double-take at the final stats, because even the WVU forward didn’t believe how well the Mountaineers had defended TCU guard RJ Nembhard.
“He only got five points?” Culver asked. “Wow, that’s crazy.”
TCU’s junior guard entered the game fourth in the Big 12 in scoring and had gone 20 consecutive games scoring in double figures.
He was held to just five points Thursday and Nembhard fouled out in the final minutes having shot just 2 for 8 for the game. It was his lowest-scoring game since Kansas held him to three points last March.
“We tried to make his life as miserable as possible,” WVU forward Jalen Bridges said. “We trapped every ball screen he came off. We tried to deny him the ball. I felt like we did a really good job of that.”
McCabe hurt
It was announced before the game that reserve guard Jordan McCabe would sit out the TCU game with a lower back injury.
Huggins said he wasn’t sure if McCabe would be available Saturday against the Cowboys.
“I don’t think anybody knows,” Huggins said. “That’s going to be a day-to-day thing.”
It was just the second game McCabe has missed in his college career.
He’s averaging 2.5 points this season and is third on the team with 38 assists.
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