The West Virginia Mountaineers dropped their second game of their Big 12 slate on Tuesday night as they traveled to No. 7 Houston for a midweek road game and walked out with a 29-point loss for their troubles. In the 77-48 loss to the Cougars, nothing looked particularly promising about the Mountaineers performance. But after the game, head coach Ross Hodge dialed in on the team's dismal start to the contest and their repeated inability to convert when opportunities presented themselves as the team's downfall.
"I didn't think we played very well, I didn't think we had a great start, but they had a lot to do with that," Hodge said after the game. "I liked how we stayed together as a group, but again, I didn't think our fight and our toughness and our defensive execution on top of – you can't do both. You can't miss some open threes, miss some bunnies, miss free throws, and the not defend at a high enough level to keep you in the game."
Mountaineers Held To Five Points in First 15 Minutes Against The Cougars
It's well-known that Hodge's coaching style is modeled off a similar philosophy as the one the Cougars employ, and a large part of that approach revolves around defensive intensity. Hodge had one of the best defenses in the nation during his time at North Texas, and Houston certainly has become known during their recent run of success at the national level as a upper-echelon defensive team. And unfortunately for Hodge, his team wasn't ready on Wednesday to handle that type of pressure from the Cougars.
Houston held West Virginia to just 2-of-16 shooting from the field and five total points over the first 15:30 of the game, at one point extending their lead to 28-5. Once the Mountaineers managed to see some shots start to fall, they were only outscored by six points the rest of the way. But the deficit was too much to overcome.
"That's part of what elite defenses do. They make it so hard on you to get quality looks, that when you do get a couple quality looks, you feel the squeeze and you don't get them to go down," Hodge said.
Now, whether it was during the cold start, or in the second half as the Mountaineers attempted to rally – narrowing the deficit to just 11 points before things once again got a bit out of hand – there were plenty of opportunities where Hodge admits that WVU could have closed in out some easy opportunities.
There were, as Hodge said, good looks that didn't go down because WVU "felt the squeeze" and other crucial moments of the games where missed foul shots and turnovers were costly. And if the Mountaineers are going to compete and win against teams like Houston, they're going to need to make the most of those chances.
"So I thought during that stretch we actually were able to turn the corner a couple times and we short-arm some layups around the basket," Hodge said. ""You go the foul line, you miss two free throws, and even Honor [Huff] had a couple fairly clean looks in that stretch. You know, it was 33-18 at the half, if you make one three, make those two free throws, and make a layup, now it's 33-24, 33-25 and it feels a little different. When you don't get off to the good start you start feeling the squeeze, and again, that's what elite defenses do to you."
"On our end when you do have a couple plays to make early to settle the game and settle everybody into it, you got to make those plays. And we didn't make them."