Morgantown, West Virginia – Today was a tough day for West Virginia sports fans. Not only did the #1 high school prospect in the state decide to attend the University of Virginia instead of playing for his home state, the Mountaineers suffered a brutal loss to the Florida Gators at home.
Florida came to win today, and some Mountaineers didn’t match the effort or intensity that the Gators brought today. In fact, Bob Huggins said in his post game that that was the reason for today’s loss. “We let them get started,” Huggins said. “We didn’t guard them coming out at halftime. And they’re good. They’ve got really good players and they got us spread. We just didn’t play with a lot of aggression.
“Defense to a large degree is about heart, about competing. When you don’t compete, you get exposed.”
One player that was disappointed in his effort was redshirt freshman Jalen Bridges. Bridges, who averages 4.6 points and 1.9 rebounds per game, finished with 0 points (0-1 FG) and 3 rebounds in 16 minutes of play.
Bridges posted the following message on social media this evening, apologizing to West Virginia fans for performance today: “(I) feel like I let a lot of people down today. I’m sorry Mountaineer Nation, ya’ll won’t even see the JB (Jalen Bridges) that you did today again.”
Feel like I let a lotta ppl down today, I’m sorry mountaineer nation y’all won’t ever see the jb u did today again
— jalen (@jalenbridgess) January 30, 2021
Bridges has been forced to take a larger role on the team and had to enter the starting lineup since Oscar Tshiebwe left the team, and he has been a real bright spot for the Mountaineers since he’s become a starter.
It’s great to see that a redshirt freshman like Bridges is willing to step up and take responsibility for a poor performance. Jalen Bridges is the very definition of a true Mountaineer and he continues to make the state of West Virginia very proud.
