WVU men's basketball dropped it's third consecutive game against Power 5 competition in non-conference play on Saturday night as they dropped a 75-66 loss to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on a neutral-site floor in Charleston, W.Va. And while it's hard to point at any one facet of the game and say, 'that's why West Virginia lost,' the team's inability to take care of the ball undoubtedly played a huge role.
If you watched the clash between Wake and WVU on Saturday, you may have felt like the Mountaineers were turning the ball over a bit uncharacteristically, and you'd be right for having that thought. The Mountaineers sacrificed a season-high 18 turnovers in the loss, seven more than their opponents registered on the night. And Wake took advantage of those turnovers, too, as they outscored the Mountaineers 25-14 in points off turnovers.
"Just got sped up a little bit," WVU head coach Ross Hodge said after the game. "Should have used our ball fakes and our pass fakes. Just wasn't fundamental enough. Just basic fundamentals. They have good length. They're fast. We knew that."
"At the end of the day, you can't have 17 turnovers that lead to 25 points."
Now granted, you can't be expected to perfect when it comes to turnovers, but the Mountaineers did lose by just nine points while shooting just 40 percent from the field, and lost the points off turnovers battle by 11 points. Some significant ground could have been made up in the point differential with fewer turnovers, and that could have made things a much different game down the stretch.
The Mountaineers will get a chance to work out the kinks against easier competition on Tuesday as they host Little Rock at Hope Coliseum in Morgantown, before they hit the road for another neutral-site non-conference game against Power 5 competition, as they travel to face Ohio State in Cleveland next Saturday. They'll want to have the turnover issues worked out before then.