MORGANTOWN — To be very clear, Jasper Floyd’s outlet pass sailing out of bounds in the final seconds of West Virginia’s 61-56 loss against Utah on Wednesday night was not the cause of the Mountaineers’ sorrows.
The same could be said about Honor Huff’s 3-point attempt getting partially blocked about eight seconds earlier.
Neither play was the reason WVU lost to a team it had no business losing to. They did, however, sort of symbolize how this season has gone for the Mountaineers (16-10, 7-6 Big 12), in that they were moments of great anticipation that ultimately went unfulfilled.
Both plays were discussed in the postgame. The following is a breakdown.
Huff’s moment is interesting, because as it turned out, it sort of became a story of what WVU head coach Ross Hodge was pleading for versus what Huff saw in the moment.
To set it up: WVU trailed 57-54 and Utah’s Terrence Brown had just missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw that WVU forward Chance Moore rebounded. There were 32.8 seconds remaining when Brown missed the free throw.
WVU quickly got the ball up the floor and began to run its offense, with the ball eventually landing in Huff’s hands.
Huff is 5-foot-9. He was being guarded by Utah forward Seydou Traore, who is listed at 6-6. With the seconds ticking off the clock, Hodge is screaming for Huff to drive to the basket for a lay-up that could have cut the deficit to one point with still plenty of time remaining for WVU to foul and then have another possession for a 3-point attempt.
Huff said afterward he didn’t feel good about a drive to the rim, and so he maneuvered around the 3-point line until he launched one with about 13 seconds remaining in the game. Traore got his hand on the shot and the ball fell into Brown’s hands and he was fouled.
Hodge, “Kept yelling, ‘We don’t need a three, try to drive them,’ ” Huff explained. “I’m a 3-point shooter. Obviously, I don’t want to go against what he says. I felt like I had just made one, and I felt that was the best shot I could create for myself. We still had a lot of time left, so that’s on me. I take accountability for that.
“It was good defense, for sure. I felt like I rushed it a little bit. There was still time left, so I could have maybe called for a screen. In my head, that’s what I do (shoot 3-pointers). I don’t want to go down there with seven footers. I wanted to shoot my three, but coach was harping on me to drive it. That’s on me, I should have listened to him.”
To Hodge’s credit, he took the blame on that play following the game, saying once he saw there was no easy path for WVU to get to the basket for a quick two-point attempt that he should have used a timeout.
Brown made both free throws to give Utah a 59-54 lead with 10.9 seconds left. WVU guard Amir Jenkins took the next play coast-to-coast for a driving lay-up that Utah defenders simply let happen. Jenkins’ score made it 59-56 with 5.9 seconds remaining.
That sets up Floyd’s unfortunate moment. WVU immediately fouled Traore, a 70% free-throw shooter. He’s got two shots with 5.7 seconds left. If he makes one, the game is essentially over.
He missed both and Floyd grabbed the rebound with an opportunity for WVU to make one final mad dash down the court with the hopes of sending the game into overtime.
Huff was the one in charge of taking that mad dash. Hodge had already instructed his players if Traore missed the free throws to get the ball to Huff as fast as humanly possible.
That’s what Floyd was trying to do, but his pass was thrown anticipating where Huff was going to be. Huff wasn’t there and the ball sailed out of bounds.
“If you watch the play, Honor was looking for it and Trey (Eaglestaff) kind of ran in front of him,” Hodge said. “Jasper was throwing it to where he thought Honor was going to be. Honor kind of saw Trey, so he stopped. It was a bang-bang play. They knew what they were supposed to do. The execution was the missing piece.”
Both plays came in a span of 27 seconds. Those 27 seconds spoke volumes of the type of night WVU had, but not nearly as much as the other 39 minutes and 33 seconds.
