Imagine the kind of day where you just picked up your spirits by finding a $50 bill laying in the street … only to get fined $50 for jaywalking.
That’s sort of the game the West Virginia men’s basketball team had Saturday, maybe even the type of season it’s had, too.
The Mountaineers picked up their seventh consecutive win and first road win of the season Saturday, with a 65-59 victory against UAB at the Legacy Arena in downtown Birmingham, Ala.
WVU (10-1) outscored the Blazers 23-8 in the final eight minutes to secure the victory and finished 9 of 10 from the foul line in the final 2:36.
Taz Sherman scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, Sean McNeil added 12 points and Kedrian Johnson showed a ton of poise at point guard after teammate Malik Curry had gone down with an ankle injury midway through the first half.
Here’s the bad news:
Sherman’s seven turnovers accounted for half of WVU’s total for the game.
Jalen Bridges and Isaiah Cottrell continue to be passive. The duo combined for eight points on just seven shots.
Prior to the hot streak in the final minutes, the Mountaineers had gone just 8 of 17 from the foul line.
“We’ve won a bunch that we probably shouldn’t have won, just by grit and gutting it out,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said on his radio postgame show. “We made plays.”
Maybe this was one the Mountaineers shouldn’t have won.
They trailed 51-42 with eight minutes remaining, on a play where UAB point guard Jordan Walker drove into the paint, got three WVU defenders to surround him and then flipped the ball to a wide open Tony Toney for a lay-up.
It’s at this point we quickly look back on what has transpired for the Mountaineers.
It’s been a season of yeah-buts, as in yeah the Mountaineers beat Connecticut, but it was at home and UConn played without two of its top players.
Or, yeah they beat Pitt but the Panthers stink or yeah WVU plays good defense, but can’t score.
You could literally come up with a dozen reasons why this team shouldn’t be 10-1 and why WVU should have lost to the Blazers (9-3) on Saturday.
What the Mountaineers maybe have figured out is it only takes one good reason to sort of trump all the ifs and buts.
Maybe that good reason is Sherman went out and scored 28 points or maybe it’s WVU forced 25 turnovers or McNeil got hot and scored 15 points in a 10-minute stretch.
Maybe it’s Johnson playing great defense on the other team’s point guard or maybe it’s Gabe Osabuohien making one hustle play after another to make a critical difference at a crucial moment.
As much as can go wrong for these Mountaineers — the lack of rebounding, poor free-throw shooting, last in the Big 12 in assists, no established third scorer — just as much can go right for this team, too.
Huggins called that grit on Saturday, maybe he was right.
WVU doesn’t have to be a flashy 80-point scoring team to compete in the Big 12. It doesn’t need a future NBA lottery pick on its roster and it doesn’t need to be a team that fills up one highlight film after another.
What the Mountaineers have maybe realized is that an ugly win is a heck of a lot better than a pretty loss.
And while a lot of stats point toward how WVU should be struggling, it’s those key moments in each game that go right for WVU that have mattered more.
Call it grit. Call it determination, maybe throw in a little bit of luck.
It’s doubtful WVU players care what it’s called, as long as it ends with another win.
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