Mountaineers Now Postgame Show: Horns Go Down
Mountaineers Now Postgame Show: Horns Go Down
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Welcome in, welcome in everybody is the Mountaineers now post game show
00:13 presented by Country Roads, AirDog cleaning.
00:15 Take me home to comfort and take me home.
00:17 It is West Virginia with a 76 to 73 win over the number 25 ranked Texas Longhorns.
00:25 A quick look at the numbers.
00:27 Matt Sumnick, the surprise big star of the night for West Virginia, 16 points,
00:32 six boards, he was all over the place on both ends.
00:35 Kirk Creasa, 14 points, four of eight from three.
00:39 And for Texas, it was Dylan Dessue leading the way with 18 points.
00:43 And this one, Texas Tech had 22 turnovers, just an absolute slop fest,
00:49 really for both teams in this one, 38 combined turnovers between the two.
00:53 It took a while, Chris, for both offenses to really get going,
00:56 but West Virginia was able to make enough shots, get enough stops,
00:59 had some things go right there for him in the second half,
01:02 and found a way to get a win.
01:04 Yeah, and you really got to credit their defense.
01:07 I know we've kind of talked about all season long that defensive intensity
01:11 hasn't been there, and I think a lot of that credit can go to Pat.
01:15 It's just kind of spreading right now through him.
01:18 He's played with a lot of confidence as of late,
01:21 he sets another career high again in points,
01:24 and you've got to just really be impressed how big of a turnaround
01:27 he's really made just since from the beginning of the year.
01:30 So it's amazing what confidence can do to a player,
01:34 and Pat's just one of those examples that he starts to see the ball go in
01:38 against some of these better big guys in the Big 12,
01:42 and confidence goes through the roof, and he's shooting the ball with confidence,
01:46 and kind of needs to work up on the free throws a little bit, 6 of 12.
01:50 Kurt Carisa mentioned it after the game, jokingly, while he sat next to him,
01:55 but yeah, I like what you saw today from West Virginia on the defensive end,
02:00 and really the turnovers, you know, credit Texas defense for those,
02:05 but offensively I thought they played a lot better.
02:08 They've been talking about passing the ball more and sharing the ball
02:11 and swinging the ball around, and they started listening
02:15 and kind of neutralized those double teams a little bit.
02:18 So really, you know, you don't want to say it was a great all-village game
02:22 when you have 18 turnovers, but, man, it was a lot more efficient
02:25 on both ends of the floor.
02:27 Yeah, and I think they made an effort to get the ball to the basket a lot too.
02:31 Obviously that shows up in the 41 free throw attempts that they had.
02:34 Like you said, they left a few out there at the Charity Strip.
02:37 But, I mean, when you have Pat Sumnick have the game that he has,
02:41 and then you have really Quince Lozinski kind of had a quietly good game too.
02:45 He had 13 points off the bench.
02:48 He's another one that probably would like to have some free throws back.
02:51 But, I mean, it's just -- it's a nice thing to see when you have six, seven,
02:56 eight guys actually contributing and playing at a decent level where before
03:00 you really only had five or six guys.
03:02 So, you know, Eilert switched up the starting five once again.
03:05 They threw in Kobe Johnson in there as well.
03:10 He played 25 minutes, only had five points, three rebounds, three assists.
03:14 So, even though it wasn't an eye-popping night for him,
03:17 Kobe still had a decent game.
03:18 So, what do you take away from this one more than anything?
03:22 Is it just the outstanding performance by Sumnick?
03:26 I mean, what is it that stands out that gives you hope as to next week being
03:31 even better?
03:33 It looks like they're all finding their role.
03:36 You know, if you take away what they did today, you know,
03:39 I know Jesse Edwards, the roles are still the same.
03:42 Yeah.
03:43 So, they just kind of fit in with one another.
03:46 You can tell Rick Bompow doesn't feel that he has to do everything himself.
03:50 He's trusting his teammates.
03:52 Same with Quinn.
03:54 Quinn kind of has emerged in a bit -- emerged again tonight.
03:58 And, you know, probably his 9-1-7 attempt, three-legged line, had 13 points,
04:02 but probably that offensive rebound he had towards the end of the game to get
04:07 back to the free throw line was huge.
04:10 We talked about it multiple times.
04:12 When shots aren't falling in, go get the ball.
04:14 Give yourself more opportunity.
04:16 Teams are doing it against you.
04:18 They out-rebounded by one, and sure enough,
04:20 that out-rebound by one was on the offensive board,
04:23 and that was Quinn Slizinski there towards the end of the game.
04:26 So, hey, every rebound matters.
04:28 And when you give guys like maybe Raekwon or Kerr or whoever a second
04:33 opportunity at the offensive end, you're going to have more success.
04:38 So 10 offensive rebounds is a decent number.
04:41 You'd like to see it get higher, but really stuff like that,
04:44 it's the little things we've talked about.
04:46 Get the loose balls.
04:47 Get those rebounds.
04:48 Fight for those rebounds.
04:49 Like Josiah Harris knocked the ball out of a Texas player that kind of left it
04:53 hanging out there.
04:54 He got a defensive rebound and knocked it loose and gave right back to West
04:57 Virginia.
04:58 So those stuff like that adds up, and when you do that,
05:01 you end up knocking off a team like Texas that, you know,
05:04 they have talent, just got to come together,
05:06 got to do the little things, and everyone starts doing other things,
05:09 you get wins like this.
05:10 I mean, just the way he's played in these last few games, I mean,
05:14 it's incredible to see the turnaround, like you said.
05:16 I mean, he was struggling kind of to gain his footing early on.
05:19 I think he was trying to figure out what his role really was,
05:22 when they had Jesse Edwards.
05:24 When Jesse comes back, that's the biggest question for me is, I mean,
05:28 Pat's playing so well right now,
05:30 you don't want to pull him out of the starting five,
05:33 but you also would like to have a backup center.
05:35 So how would you go about handling that?
05:37 Because you want your best five on the floor, right?
05:41 Well, yeah, I mean, he's not better than Jesse, but you know,
05:44 now Jesse doesn't have to play 35 minutes.
05:46 So, I mean, it's extremely valuable.
05:49 Now you can both probably get 22, 25 minutes out of both of them.
05:53 And you can move to the natural spot.
05:55 But you don't have enough for us, is the problem.
05:57 So you want to kind of keep it where you're rotating those guys in and out
06:01 to give Jesse a break.
06:02 You don't want Jesse playing 35 minutes again and get himself hurt again.
06:06 He's probably not going to end up playing a lot of minutes when he comes back.
06:08 They just pushed that timeline back as well.
06:11 So he's going to get plenty more opportunities.
06:14 They're going to have big challenges, big 12.
06:16 They're going to have challenges next week.
06:19 Coaches are going to -- and this is a great league for coaches.
06:21 So now coaches are going to see Pat, how he's playing.
06:25 So he's going to start looking at Quinn or the other fours to kind of stretch
06:29 and clear that pain out and take advantage of those opportunities as well.
06:34 So it's a starting point, really, for this group.
06:38 They still have a lot of things to work on.
06:41 And as other teams, you know, they try to take Kerr away.
06:45 And they've kind of figured it out.
06:46 So right now, you know, we know there's a little room for error right now.
06:50 So they're going to have to kind of figure it out quickly and keep adding to it
06:53 because it's definitely not going to get easier.
06:56 No, it's not.
06:57 I mean, you look at the schedule.
06:58 You've got Oklahoma next week, ninth in the country.
07:00 You've got Kansas, who's third.
07:02 And that's what I want to talk about.
07:03 And I was like, the big 12 is so crazy.
07:05 And it's like this every single year from top to bottom.
07:08 You can never really predict who's going to win.
07:10 I mean, we saw that today with West Virginia.
07:12 We saw it with TCU beating Houston.
07:14 Saw it a few days ago Kansas beating -- or falling to UCF.
07:19 I mean, it's unpredictable.
07:21 And I think when we look back on this game, maybe a week from now,
07:25 we may think about it a little bit differently.
07:27 Maybe West Virginia is starting to figure things out and turn the corner.
07:30 And all of a sudden that's not a bad loss for Texas,
07:33 and it's just a really good win for West Virginia.
07:35 How much do you feel like this win can propel this team to actually turn that
07:41 corner, get back to where they're hanging around the 500 mark?
07:45 Because, look, it's a tough schedule, but Oklahoma's lost two in a row.
07:50 If you could go somehow out to Norman and steal one, you come back,
07:54 and you've got Kansas.
07:55 And, look, I get Kansas is a national championship contending team,
07:59 but it's Morgentau.
08:01 West Virginia has had worse -- maybe not worse teams,
08:03 but worse odds going into a Kansas game at home and found a way to win.
08:08 The last year of Jermaine Haley is a perfect example of that.
08:11 So I think there's a real opportunity there.
08:15 If they go to steal one in Norman,
08:17 you've got to feel like there's a chance they can get this thing turned.
08:22 Yeah, they're going to get a real -- a lot of effort from Oklahoma.
08:26 Porter Moses is not going to sit well with him.
08:29 No, not at all.
08:30 And that team, they've lost two in a row.
08:32 And that's a really good defensive line of the team.
08:34 They're one of the better defensive teams in the league
08:38 that they have been under him.
08:40 It's going to be a battle, and they're going to have to go out with the same effort.
08:43 I mean, they haven't had a win like this this year.
08:46 They haven't had a lot of success, so how are they going to handle it?
08:49 Are they going to be right back here at the Coliseum tomorrow working?
08:52 Are they going to be working off the celebration from tonight?
08:56 So it's a long way to go.
08:58 It's well-deserved to celebrate.
09:00 Obviously, they busted a toe.
09:02 They could have ducked and just kind of put up stats the rest of the season
09:05 if they wanted to.
09:06 They keep trying to find ways to win, and they did it tonight.
09:09 And right now, just enjoy it.
09:11 Don't think about Oklahoma.
09:13 Just try to build on this one.
09:15 24-hour rule, right?
09:17 Yeah.
09:18 We'll see what they do.
09:20 Shout-out to Josh Eilert getting his first win over a top-25 team.
09:23 I know he's been through, obviously, a hell of a lot this year.
09:27 And if there's anyone that deserves a win like that, it's Josh Eilert.
09:31 And, again, you look around at the Big 12, there's some teams
09:34 that are really struggling too.
09:36 Oklahoma State's down there struggling.
09:37 UCF, I mean, there's a few others.
09:39 But if this team just starts to figure things out a little bit,
09:43 they get Jesse Edwards back, this team can make a run.
09:46 Again, this is what we're talking about, not to put together a resume right now,
09:50 but it's about getting to that point where you're playing your best basketball
09:53 in March when you get to Kansas City, because that's really the only realistic
09:57 chance that this team has to get to the NCAA tournament,
09:59 so is to make a run in that conference championship.
10:03 So we'll see what they can do here in the coming week.
10:06 Again, they got number nine Oklahoma on the road Wednesday at 8 o'clock.
10:10 That will tip off on ESPN.
10:12 And then they'll return back home a week from today to host number three,
10:16 Kansas, at 4 o'clock, also on ESPN+.
10:20 So that'll do it for us tonight on the Mountain Ears Now Post Game Show.
10:23 Again, West Virginia winners 76-73 over the Texas Longhorns.
10:28 For Christopher Hall, I'm Scott McCallum.
10:30 You've been watching the Mountain Ears Now Post Game Show,
10:32 presented by Country Roads AirDug Cleaning.
10:34 Make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube at Mountain Ears Now
10:37 and give us a follow on X at the same handle.
10:40 We'll see you guys here in a couple of days on Between the Ears.
10:42 Take care.
10:43 [Music]
10:44 [Music]
10:48 [Music]
10:51 (upbeat music)