Feb 9, 2012; Fort Worth, TX, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers guard Eron Harris (10) during the game against TCU Horned Frogs at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports

Coach Bob Huggins filled out his roster this week with the transfer additions of forwards Jonathan Holton and Remi Dibo. Both forwards will enter Morgantown as juniors, with two years of eligibility remaining. The two JUCO forwards combine with the Mountaineers four high school forward/center recruits to bring the Mountaineers back to a 15 man roster.

For those who have not kept up with the roster changes, here is a recap:

Additions: F Devin Williams (FR), C Brandon Watkins (FR), F Elijah Macon (FR), F Nathan Adrian (FR), F Jonathan Holton (r-JR), and F Remi Dibo (r-JR)

Losses: F Dominique Rutledge (Graduation), F Deniz Kilicli (Graduation), G Matt Humphrey (Graduation), G Aaron Brown (Transfer), G Jabarie Hinds (Transfer), and F Volodomyr Gerun (Transfer)

Just at a glance, it is clear that Huggins and the coaching staff were out to add a ton of length to the roster. The length and athleticism of the Mountaineers forwards this past season was one of the major weak points that the Mountaineers needed to address heading into the 2013-14 season.

Now the Mountaineers have added some versatile big men in Holton and Dibo while also bringing in a crop of young big men to develop for that strong interior presence that Huggins’ teams put an emphasis on. Guys like Devin Williams and Brandon Watkins will probably get early looks this season in relief of paint dominator Aaric Murray.

C: Aaric Murray, 6’10″ 245 lbs, SR; Brandon Watkins, 6’9″ 225 lbs, FR; Devin Williams, 6’8″ 220 lbs, FR

PF: Kevin Noreen, 6’10″ 250 lbs, JR; Jonathan Holton, 6’9″ 215 lbs, r-JR; Elijah Macon, 6’8″ 210 lbs, FR

SF: Keaton Miles, 6’7″ 210 lbs, JR; Remi Dibo, 6’9″ 225 lbs, r-JR; Nathan Adrian, 6’7″ 200 lbs, FR

SG: Eron Harris, 6’2″ 190 lbs, SO; Terry Henderson, 6’3″ 190 lbs, SO; Aric Dickerson, 6’5″ 200 lbs, r-SO

PG: Juwan Staten, 6’1″ 190 lbs, JR; Gary Browne, 6’1″ 190 lbs, JR; Richard Romeo, 5’11″ 180 lbs, SO

We don’t have any of the new additions as starters in our first depth chart, but would not at all be surprised to see players like Holton and Dibo find their way into the starting line-up at some point during the season. For now, we like Keaton Miles to rise to the occasion and claim a starting spot, even though he has failed to do just that for his entire Mountaineer career.

Also, Kevin Noreen is talented, but failed to be a consistent starter through out this past season and could lose out to Holton or one of the talented freshman.

We shifted Devin Williams from his natural 4 spot to the 5 for the purpose of depth given the good size he has and the fact that Noreen and Holton would have him boxed out for playing time at 4. It would not at all be a surprise to see guys like Williams, Macon, Adrian, and/or Watkins receive redshirts this season with the perceived big man depth with the upper-classmen.

Just as all last season, this coming season promises to showcase a Mountaineers roster in flux as coach Huggins tries to determine which players are going to take the reins of the team and step up as leaders. Let’s all just hope that Huggins can identify a starting five before Big XII play this season.

Mar 14, 2012; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins speaks at a press conference during practice for the second round of the 2012 NCAA men

According to research published by the Auburn University athletic department, the West Virginia University Mountaineers rank in the Top 25 of two out of three social media indexes.

The study, conducted by College Athletics Internet Digital Association (CAIDA), analyzes the social media activity of Division I FBS programs. The three leading social media sites analyzed in the study were Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.

As the report shows, the Mountaineers made the Top 25 in both Twitter (#22) and Youtube (#18). The Mountaineers presence in Twitter is good enough for 4th in the Big XII conference with 30,720 followers. WVU trails Big XII Twitter champion Kansas, #5 overall with 61,855 followers. The Jayhawks strong presence on Twitter is clearly driven by their men’s basketball program and not their football program.

The Mountaineers are also looking up at Big XII foes Oklahoma at #7 with 57,045 followers and #20 Kansas State with 32,215 followers.

On the Youtube front, West Virginia fairs much better with 4,053 subscribers for #18 nationally. The Mountaineers subscription base is good enough for third in the Big XII conference. WVU trails #12 Oklahoma’s 5,543 subscribers and #17 Oklahoma State’s 4,511 subscribers.

It is somewhat surprising that the Mountaineers Youtube subscriptions are so low, given the massive amount of WVU videos on Youtube. The study must only be considering the WestVirginiaU official account and not the fan accounts like dougitydog (which puts out some amazing content).

The one social media where WVU is severely lacking is Facebook. The Mountaineers did not qualify for the Top 25 of the rating in terms of likes. According to Facebook, the West Virginia Mountaineers fan page claims 205,985 likes which would be good enough for #25 on the list ahead of Miami. Not sure whether the study used this page or not.

As it stands, the reigning champions of each social media are Ohio State on Facebook, Nebraska on Twitter, and Oregon on Youtube. To help the Mountaineers raise up the standings, like the Facebook fan page, follow @WestVirginiaU on Twitter, and subscribe to the WestVirginiaU channel on Youtube.

Nov 20, 2011; Lincoln, NE, USA; Rhode Island Rams forward Jonathan Holton (35) drives against Nebraska Cornhuskers center Jorge Brian Diaz (21) during the second half at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Nebraska won 83-63. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

Coach Bob Huggins and the West Virginia University men’s basketball team received reinforcement this week with the announcement that junior college forward Jonathan Holton has decided to transfer to the Mountaineers.

Holton is a 6’7″ 215 lb forward that can really stretch opposing defenses with his accurate outside shooting. As coach Huggins put it, Holton is exactly the kind of big man that WVU needs to compete in the Big XII:

“Jonathan is a prototype Big 12 forward,” says Huggins. “He can really score it off the bounce, play with his back to the basket, stretch defenses to make 3-pointers, as well as being a terrific offensive rebounder. He should give us immediate help on the front line.”

Huggins and his staff are clearly impressed with Holton’s production at the junior college level. While attending Palm Beach State Community College (FL) this past season, Holton averaged 17.5 points and 14.1 rebounds per game.

Holton enrolled at Palm Beach State after playing his freshman season for the Rhode Island Rams of the Atlantic 10 Conference. He fell out of favor with the Rams as a result of two charges of video voyeurism in which he allegedly filmed two separate sexual encounters and made that content publicly available on social media.

After spending a year of mending his ways in Florida, Holton is finally getting his second chance at the Division I level.

Holton will sit out the 2013-14 season but will be eligible to play for the Mountaineers in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.

Mar 2, 2013; Lawrence, KS, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins talks with guard Jabarie Hinds (4) during the second half against the Kansas Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

News broke yesterday that three of the players from the 2012-13 basketball team are set to transfer from West Virginia. The transfers of Aaron Brown, Jabarie Hinds, and Volodymyr Gerun were initially hard to digest.

How do you react to a mass departure like this? Is this a sign that the program is in a downward spiral or is it a sign that the Mountaineers were freeing up scholarships for future recruiting classes?

I personally like to think of it as the program cleaning house of players that were not committed to righting the program.

It was clear this season that there was an issue with team chemistry. It is not as if the Mountaineers squad was devoid of talent, there were plenty of quality players on the bench for coach Huggins. On a scouting basis, the 2012-13 Mountaineers squad had more than enough talent to earn a NCAA Tournament bid.

For whatever reason, this team could not find a way to correct the bad chemistry and turn the squad into a winner.

With the departure of Brown, Hinds, and Gerun, the Mountaineers have freed themselves of three players who obviously did not want to be in Morgantown. Brown and Hinds saw their roles diminish this season in favor of more playing time for freshmen Eron Harris and Terry Henderson while Gerun just did not seem to fit into the Mountaineers system this year at all.

If these three want to seek more playing time or better opportunities for themselves, than they cannot be faulted for that. They are doing what is best for themselves, but also doing something good for West Virginia. They are freeing up scholarships for talented players that will be dedicated to bringing the Mountaineers back to glory.

It may not look like a good thing on paper, but this is good news for the Mountaineers.

Mar 24, 2013; Newark, DE, USA;Delaware Blue Hens forward Elena Delle Donne (11) is defended by West Virginia Mountaineers forward Averee Fields (5) during the first round of the 2013 NCAA womens basketball tournament at Bob Carpenter Center. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Carey’s basketball squad snatched defeat from the jaws of victory today, falling to Elena Delle Donne and the Delaware Blue Hens 66-53 in the opening round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament.

The Mountaineers, in the face of a sold out home crowd for the Blue Hens, built an early lead behind superb team shooting (43.8% in the first half). WVU also did an excellent job of containing star player Delle Donne in the opening period, holding her to 13 points.

West Virginia went into the locker room with a 33-26 advantage and halfway to pulling the upset of #6 seed Delaware to snap their 25 game winning streak.

Then the wheels came off.

Delaware abandoned their man coverage defense and moved to a 2-3 zone scheme in the second half. The zone coverage, combined with a taller, longer line-up, clogged up the passing lanes for the Mountaineers and forced WVU into poor turnovers.

The Blue Hens rallied in the second half to pour on 40 points against West Virginia. 20 of Delaware’s second half points came off the hands of Delle Donne who found her stroke early in the second half and had her way with Ayana Dunning in the paint.

Dunning still put together an impressive performance with 15 points and 10 rebounds, but was unable to contain Delaware’s star player for 40 minutes. Dunning would foul out in the final minute of play, highlighting the Mountaineers struggles with fouls in this contest, especially in the second half.

“It is too bad. They went 2-3 and a little bit bigger in the second half and it hurt us,” Mike Carey explained. “The 16 offensive rebounds just killed us and we didn’t do a good job of boxing out. Then they went 2-3 on the other side and we didn’t do a good job executing. It was different in both halves. First half, we didn’t put Delle Donne on the foul line and in the second half, she had 13 foul shots. This is the tale of two halves. Give them credit, they went to a zone and we didn’t execute against it.”

WVU sent Delaware to the line 22 times with Delaware converting 19 of those attempts. In contrast, WVU only attempted 6 free throws, scoring 5 of them. The free throw discrepancy is easily the difference in the outcome of this came.

West Virginia’s valiant upset defeat is still an excellent effort in the face of a hyped up home crowd. The fact that the Mountaineers were able to take a lead into halftime and stay competitive well into the second half is a testament to the Mountaineers team play and drive to succeed.

Unfortunately, WVU was over-matched by the one woman wrecking crew known as Elena Delle Donne.

For a complete box score and post-game quotes, visit wvusports.com

Mar 13, 2013; Kansas City, MO, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders Dejan Kravic (11) drives against West Virginia Mountaineers forward Aaric Murray (24) in the second half during the first round of the Big 12 tournament at the Sprint Center. Texas Tech defeated West Virginia 71-69. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

West Virginia had found their scoring touch. Fighting back from a double digit deficit, the Mountaineers were poised to take the game into overtime with all the momentum on their side. All that stood between the Mountaineers and a big comeback victory was one simple defensive stop.

Aaric Murray came up with that stop, delivering a monster block in the lane to end the Red Raiders hopes of winning the game. With only two seconds left, Jamal Williams threw up a desperation three that would not go. WVU players knew they were headed to overtime.

And in that split second, the Mountaineers season was ended.

Dejan Kravic found the short rebound for a quick tip in lay-up.

The final play of West Virignia’s putrid inaugural Big XII season summed up the entire season. A play in which the Mountaineers had all but ensured overtime and a potentially huge victory, they surrender a head-scratching colossal defensive blunder.

“Our credo for as long as I’ve coached has always been get to the ball,” Huggins said following WVU’s 71-69 loss to the Red Raiders in the first round of the Big 12 tournament. “It’s hard to win when you don’t get to the ball. And this group, for whatever reason, is the worst that we’ve ever had at getting to the ball.”

West Virignia’s inability to get to the basketball on the last play of the game will be the enduring image of a lost season.

For more on coach Huggins’s thoughts, visit wvusports.com

Feb 13, 2013; Waco, TX, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers center Aaric Murray (24) battles Baylor Bears guard A.J. Walton (22) for a rebound during the first half at the Ferrell Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

The West Virginia Mountaineers men’s basketball team will get their first taste of the Phillips 66 Big XII tournament tonight at 7 PM tonight in Kansas City against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

The tournament could not come at a worse time for the Mountaineers who are mired in an embarassing 6-game losing streak. The streak has been highlighted by poor shooting and bad execution on both ends of the court. In essence, the Mountaineers have just looked out of place in conference play.

WVU has a great opportunity to feel like they belong once more with a favorable match-up with the Red Raiders. The Mountaineers swept the season series with their foes from Lubbock, TX, collecting a 77-61 road win on February 2 and a narrow 66-64 home win on February 16 (the last win the Mountaineers collected during the regular season).

In the two meetings, the Mountaineers shot 56.5% and 48.7% from the field in the two meetings. West Virginia was also the better team on the glass, out-rebounding Texas Tech a combined 63-51.

WVU got key performances in both contests from a variety of players, making it difficult to pin-point who was the key to winning each game. Deniz Kilicli owned the paint in the second match-up, but was a non-factor in the first match-up. Eron Harris was ineffective in the first meeting, but was critical to the second win.

In this match-up, I like Aaric Murray to reclaim his mid-season form and become a huge factor underneath the rim. If Murray can find his high level of play once again, the Mountaineers will roll in this one.

The match-up with the Red Raiders will hopefully jog WVU’s memory of what it takes to win.

The last week of the regular season saw the Mountaineers lose 3 consecutive games, running their losing streak to 6 and 7 of the last 8. Things just fell apart for the Mountaineers late in the season…

Mar 2, 2013; Lawrence, KS, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins call out instructions against the Kansas Jayhawks during the second half at Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas defeated West Virginia 91-65. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

The last week of the season started off with the Mountaineers getting absolutely destroyed by Kansas. WVU actually held the lead for the first 11 minutes of the game, but suffered the predictable letdown and ended up getting blown out 91-65. This game went the way early season games went- WVU got a lead early but couldn’t hold it.

The next two games went exactly the way many games the second half of the season went- we fell down big, clawed back, but could never quite get over the hump. Against Oklahoma, WVU was down 17 with 2 minutes left in the first half, but closed to within 4 with 7 minutes left in the game. Against Iowa State, WVU was down 27 with 15 minutes left in the game, but closed the gap to 4 with 46 seconds left in the game. It’s been the story of the season- we can play really well for periods of time, but we could never but a complete game together. We always kept fighting though, which is a silver lining on an otherwise miserable season.

The 2012-2013 season is the worst season we’ve had since Gale Catlett’s final year, 2002-2003 (we finished 8-20 that year) and is Bob Huggins’ worse season since a 12-14 campaign in 1984-1985, his first year at Akron. We’re not used to seasons like this, and I don’t think we’ll have to get used to them. Huggins is a hall of fame coach, and you can be sure that he won’t let this happen again.

There will be no postseason tournament for the Mountaineers this season. All that is left is the Big 12 Tournament, which starts this Wednesday. I’d be highly surprised if we notched a win. We were competitive through January because we played solid defense, even if we had no offense. But for whatever reason, our defense is now terrible too, and that just spells doom for this team in the Big 12 Tournament.

Mar 2, 2013; Lawrence, KS, USA; Kansas Jayhawks center Jeff Withey (5) blocks the shot of West Virginia Mountaineers forward Dominique Rutledge (1) during the first half at Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas defeated West Virginia 91-65. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

Player(s) of the Week: There really was no single player that stood out in all three games, so I’m going to highlight the best performances in each game:

@ Kansas: Terry Henderson (20 points, 6-9 3 PT FG), Dominique Rutledge (17 points, 13 rebounds, 2 Steals)

Rutledge played the game of his career against Kansas, and Henderson was hot from beyond the arc. It wasn’t anywhere near enough though.

@ Oklahoma: Eron Harris (23 points, 5-10 3 PT FG), Deniz Kilicli (20 points)

Harris was hot from beyond the arc and Oklahoma didn’t have an answer for Kilicli inside.

vs. Iowa State: Jabarie Hinds (19 points, 4-5 3 PT FG, 3 assists)
Hinds finished the season off with his best performance of the year.

Coming Up:

• Big 12 Tournament

The Big 12 tournament is all we have left this season, unless we make a miraculous run and win it. Here’s a hint- that’s not going to happen. We enter the tournament as the 8 seed and play 9th seeded Texas Tech in the first round on Wednesday. We beat Texas Tech twice this year, but I would be highly surprised if we beat them a third time. We just don’t seem to have it right now. If we manage to beat the Red Raiders, we get #1 seed Kansas the next night. So it looks like we will have at most a two night run in the tournament.

Feb 18, 2013; Manhattan, KS, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins yells at guard Eron Harris (10) after Harris fouled out during a 71-61 loss to the Kansas State Wildcats at Bramlage Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports

With the thrilling finish of the Mountaineers victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders on February 16, West Virginia possessed a 13-12 record. While it was certainly not the record that coach Huggins had expected from his team, there was still some optimism that the team could finish strong and at least make a push to qualify for the NIT.

Since that game, the Mountaineers have rattled of 5 consecutive losses (at Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Baylor, at Kansas, at Oklahoma). Over the past 20 days of futility, the Mountaineers have assured themselves of the first losing record the school has seen since the 2002-03 season and the first losing season for coach Huggins since his first season as a head coach for Walsh University in the 1980-81 season.

This kind of lengthy losing streak is pretty foreign to West Virginia fans. The last time WVU had suffered through such a streak was in the 2004-05 season when the Mountaineers hit the skids in 5 straight games (vs Marshall, Boston College, Notre Dame, at Syracuse, Connecticut).

West Virginia has an opportunity to break the losing spell and finish the regular season on a high note with one more home game left on the schedule. Unfortunately, the opponent is an NCAA Tournament bound team, Iowa State Cyclones (20-10). The Mountaineers narrowly lost to the Cyclones in Ames, IA back in January (69-67).

The Mountaineers will be seeking to avoid the longest losing streak the program has seen in 12 years.

Yes, we are referring to the abysmal 2001-02 season in which the Mountaineers went 8-20 for the season. That season featured not one, but two 9 game losing streaks wrapped around a lone win. In the stretch from December 28 to March 2, the Mountaineers won only once, an 89-81 home victory over Providence.

While the 2012-13 version of the Mountaineers are nowhere near as terrible as the 2001-02 squad, they are certainly going to capture the title of worst team of the Bob Huggins era and of the past 12 years. A title I’m sure they would be more than willing to give up if they could.

Feb 18, 2013; Manhattan, KS, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins yells at guard Eron Harris (10) after Harris fouled out during a 71-61 loss to the Kansas State Wildcats at Bramlage Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports

This week’s update is going to be short but sweet.  This was just not a good week for the Mountaineers.  We dropped two games at home and finished February on a 3 game losing streak.  We’re 2 games under .500 and have pretty much no shot at getting into any post season tournament unless we win a bunch of games in the Big 12 tournament.

As we have so many times this year, we started off strong against Oklahoma State than suffered a big collapse that we could never recover from.  Simply put, we couldn’t shoot, got out rebounded, and played poor defense for long stretches of the Oklahoma State game.  I think effort was a problem in this game, so Huggins tried to make some adjustments for the game against Baylor- he went with a different starting lineup, started the game out in zone defense, and used a different player rotation.  I guess you could say it worked-this game was close throughout, and we had chances to win at the end.  Eron Harris missed an open look at a three with around 17 seconds on the clock, and Staten took a very ill-advised contested three pointers with 7 seconds on the clock that wound up being our final chance to win. That’s the story of our season though- we’ve hurt ourselves far more than any other team could.

As we go into the final three games of the season, it’s very apparent that this team isn’t what we thought it was.  Huggins has repeatedly said himself how surprised he is.  What it comes down to though is the players with the most athletic ability don’t have the drive and the want to, and the guys that do try as hard as they can but they just don’t have the talent of other guys.  It’s a deadly combination.  Eron Harris gives me hope though.  He is a huge bright spot on offense- he can make shots and drive to the basket.  He seems like he really cares and tries hard.  He just needs to work on his defense, which is downright terrible at times.  But I would expect that to get better.  Better years are ahead…

Feb 13, 2013; Waco, TX, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers guard Eron Harris (10) dunks against the Baylor Bears during the second half at the Ferrell Center. Baylor won 80-60. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Player of the Week:  Eron Harris: 31 points in 57 minutes

Harris scored a career high 25 points against Baylor and was the only reliable offense for us all game.  Unfortunately, 25 points weren’t enough- we needed 28.  But Harris keeps stepping up and is setting himself up to be the focal point of our team next year.

Coming Up:

• Saturday 3/2 @ Kansas
• Wednesday 3/6 @ Oklahoma

We go out on our final road trip of the year, and it’s going to be an ugly one.  We’ve already lost to Oklahoma twice this year, and there’s no reason to believe we’ll beat them again this time around.  We actually had a really good chance at beating Kansas the first time around, and they have been struggling this year, so maybe, just maybe, this is an opportunity for the Mountaineers to ease a little of the pain from the season with a big victory.  I’m not saying it will happen- but the ingredients would seem to be there for an upset.  We’ll see tomorrow…

News and Notes

• Ukranian forward Gerun got some playing time against Baylor.  I liked what I saw out of him- he hustled and seem to have more basketball IQ than the other players on the court.
• Huggs said after the Baylor game that he’s done playing guys that don’t try, don’t make adjustments, don’t listen to him.  We saw that in the Baylor game- Aaric Murray played a couple of minutes than never saw the court again the rest of the night.