WVU focused on avoiding a repeat of last year
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MORGANTOWN -- How quickly we forget.
A year ago, at around this time, Bob Huggins' West Virginia was off to a 11-1 start as they readied for Big 12 play and the questions being asked weren't about whether they be able to get an NCAA seed or if they were capable of having a .500 season but, instead, whether they were contenders for the Big 12 championship.
What we haven't forgotten is that last year's team won only five games the whole rest of the way, finishing at 16-17 and with no postseason place to play.
We bring this up as Buffalo comes to the Coliseum for a 5 p.m. game on Sunday wondering why history could not repeat itself and, in that regard, who better to go to for an answer than the man who suffered through that awful spell.
Bob Huggins says it won't happen again, not this year, not ever, and notes that the reason it will not happen this year is that this is a different kind of team than the Taz Sherman/Sean McNeil group of a year ago.
"I don't have any reservations with this team," Huggins began. "I don't think this team is anywhere near what it was a year ago.
"If you look back at it and analyze it, we were in position to win a whole lot of big games," he went on. "I don't think that will happen this year."
And why not? If it could happen then, couldn't it happen now?
"I don't see Joe (Toussaint) backing down. I don't see Keddy (Johnson) backing down. I don't see Erik (Stevenson) backing down. Different people."
Huggins offered up a way to research what he was trying to say.
"You want to do a study, go back and look at our last 10 games a year," he said. " I don't think that will ever happen with this group. I think this group wants to win. I think they've got something to prove.
"Putting on a uniform means a whole lot to these guys."
Huggins isn't looking inside the numbers, but he's looking inside the players themselves.
"It's a whole different deal," he went on. "These came here … Erik could have gone wherever he wanted to go. Joe could have gone wherever he wanted to go. Tre could have gone wherever he wanted to go. Emmitt (Matthews Jr.) wanted to come back.
"They chose to come here. They weren't the only ones. The guys we have here wanted to be here. I'm sure they all have different reasons. I don't think we had that a year ago. I know they enjoy being here and, for the most part, they sought us out as much as we sought them out.
"And the truth of the matter is they've had enough lectures from me that this isn't going to happen the way it did before. That was a one-time only thing and will never, ever happen again."
So, why did this group seek out WVU as much as the other way around?
Erik Stevenson, who had played at three different schools — Washington, Wichita State and South Carolina — and Tre Mitchell, who played at Texas were elegant in their explanations.
"When Huggs reached out, it was a blessing. It really was. This close to home, it was a blessing, almost like God dropped it in my lap," Mitchell, who is from Pittsburgh, said. "Since being here, I love it. I love everything about it. I took it very slow while I was waiting to pick a school, trying to clear my mind and better myself on the court.
"Being here is like nothing I ever imagined. I tell people a million times I can't believe that this culture and this brand of people and basketball and society was an hour away from my home and I knew nothing about it," he explained.
It was, well, almost Heaven.
At Texas, his family couldn't come and watch him play.
"I have family members at every game now. my grandparents now can come. They've been to a couple of games and they haven't seen me play since high school. Now it's an hour trip for them and they kind of get to see this whole experience while I'm experiencing it as well."
It's been the same with everyone as they melded together.
"We clicked very quickly," Mitchell said, using the word "clicked" rather than "cliqued" as some teams do. "I would credit that to our guys' character. At some places guys come in thinking 'I'm going to be the guy, I'm going to do this.'
"But our guys are 'All right, what do we have to do to win here?' You see our stats, we have multiple guys in double figures' because this group has experienced it all and want to do whatever it takes to win."
Stevenson, who carries the emotional heartbeat of the team, came in a saw early in the summer how this group's chemistry would work and was vocal in letting his teammates know they have something special working.
"I felt it was my duty to give the message to the team, 'Don't mess us up.' We have plenty of guys who can score, plenty of guys who can do anything. So don't let egos get in the way, don't let personal passions or motivations get in the way," he said.
"Let things fall where they may. Sugar is sugar and we will win games," he went on. "We got a bunch of guys who want to be here. We have guys who want to win for the state, for the fan base, but mainly we want to win for Huggs.
"We don't know how long he's going to be doing this and he's got one thing on his mind, holding up that trophy some time in April. We have a bunch of seniors, fifth year guys who got one more crack at it."