PROVIDENCE, R.I. – It might not have been apparent for much of the game, but West Virginia needed a win on Sunday afternoon. The Mountaineers got it, but not without some consternation as they trailed for much of the game and needed overtime for an 87-84 win over host Providence.
“We needed this bad,” said head coach Bob Huggins. “We haven’t been nearly as good on the road as we have in the past. I needed it for my sanity.”
Sunday wasn’t going to give the Mountaineers a much-needed resume win, as Providence entered the day tied with DePaul for the bottom of the Big East. But they could sure use another one or two down the stretch, even though they are 4-5 against teams in the RPI top 50 and 9-7 against top 100 teams. The Mountaineers’ worst loss is to MAC contender Kent State. Their solid strength of schedule will keep their RPI up, but at some point more wins will be needed as well.
Huggins alluded to the team’s road performance, and it is a little concerning as regards the postseason. Sunday’s win was just their second road win of the year, improving them to 2-5 (the other was at Rutgers just over a month ago). They are 4-1 in neutral site games, so winning away from home hasn’t proven impossible, just challenging. Considering the team’s personnel makeup, that’s not entirely shocking.
This West Virginia team isn’t as experienced or deep as some others in recent years. Kevin Jones and Darryl “Truck” Bryant are the only seniors, and Deniz Kilicli and Dominique Rutledge are juniors on a team where everyone else is a freshman. After Gary Browne and Aaron Brown, two freshmen, there isn’t much on the bench, where everyone but Rutledge is a freshman. Kevin Noreen’s broken left ankle just makes them thinner.
Against that backdrop, it probably doesn’t surprise anyone that it was Bryant who led the way in this one. In the second half and overtime, Bryant scored 24 of his 32 points, including the game-tying basket in regulation and the game-winning three-pointer. He came up two shy of a career high.
“The kid made a great play,” said Providence head coach Ed Cooley of Bryant’s game-winner. “Nothing you can do there, except shake his hand and go home.”
Jones never really got going on Sunday, which is one reason why the Mountaineers played from behind most of the afternoon. Although he finished with 20 points, he was 8-19 from the field, well below his season percentage of nearly 54 percent from the field. Part of that comes from not settling for three-pointers as he has done at times in his career; on Sunday he was 1-6 from long range and is shooting just over 28 percent from behind the arc on the season.
“It’s hard for us to win when (Kevin Jones) doesn’t play well, he didn’t play very well,” said Huggins. “He hadn’t played that bad since, I think, Mississippi State.”
As it’s now February, the Mountaineers need their freshmen to start growing up. Brown seemed to do that on Sunday, as fellow freshman Jabarie Hinds struggled with foul trouble. Brown came off the bench and had nine rebounds and six assists with just one turnover in 36 minutes.
West Virginia is at a critical point in their season. Of their seven remaining games, only two are against teams that are below them in the standings. One of those teams is arch-rival Pittsburgh. Naturally, that means this team will have opportunities for more quality wins, but it also means the road is more difficult. That’s what this team has earned to this point.
The good thing is that West Virginia has been battled-tested to this point. If they manage a .500 or better finish in Big East play, they should have enough quality wins and a lack of bad losses in reaching that mark to add up to an NCAA Tournament bid.
