One player can’t carry a whole team.
West Virginia’s Jonathan Holton hasn’t been the go-to player for the Mountaineers this season, so blaming his absence on WVU’s 17-point loss to Florida on Saturday would be irresponsible.
Was Holton’s absence felt against the Gators? Yes
Would the Mountaineers have won if Holton was in the line up? No.
Florida was just too hot to be stopped and the Mountaineers just couldn’t keep up.
"“We’ve had games where we were off-the-charts defensively and couldn’t throw it in the ocean,” Gators coach Mike White said. “But today we put it all together.”"
Florida was up big early and with West Virginia shooting around 30-percent from the field, there was no way the Mountaineers could answer the Gators’ runs.
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It would have taken the Mountaineers’ best offensive charge to beat Florida. Just having Jonathan Holton wouldn’t have been able to do that.
WVU head coach Bob Huggins was critical of his team, as he always is. He knew that Holton wouldn’t have made a difference because the rest of the team wasn’t picking up the slack without him.
"”It’s not a matter of that,” he said. ”It’s a matter of us taking better care of the ball, and certainly Jon being here wouldn’t help that. We have to take care of the ball.”"
WVu turned the ball over more than the Gators did, and that’s possibly where Holton could have came in handy. Playing at the top of the 1-3-1 zone, Holton has forced turnovers in the backcourt all season.
The Mountaineers will be without Holton again in the next game against Iowa State and, likely, the next one after that. He was suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules on Thursday.