Make no mistake about it, sophomore forward Derek Culver is the alpha male in the West Virginia locker room. For a team without a real leader, Culver is the top dog.
However, Derek Culver’s body language and behavior on the court doesn’t do anything positive for the Mountaineers. In fact, his negativity and “bull in a china shop” mentality has become a real issue for West Virginia.
In tonight’s loss to the Texas Longhorns, Culver was seen screaming at freshman point guard Miles McBride for not getting him the ball in the post quickly enough. Culver, who is so out of control offensively that it looks like he’s playing on roller skates at times, had a smaller player on him and wanted to take advantage of him.
In all fairness to McBride, throwing the ball in the post to Derek Culver most likely results in one of two things: Culver will lose the ball and then sulk back slowly on defense, or he will miss a hook shot and then sulk slowly back on defense.
If he doesn’t lose the ball or miss a shot, he’s fouled by the opposing team, which is just as bad as the two previous options. Culver, who shot 80% from the foul line through the first five games of the season, simply cannot make a free throw at all now.
Although Culver has many reasons to be frustrated, he should be the most infuriated by his own performance. Instead of screaming at his teammates and pointing his finger, he should look in the mirror and make some changes.
