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Sioux Falls, South Dakota – The West Virginia Mountaineers took one step closer to winning the Crossover Classic Championship by beating VCU in the second round of the tournament.

Following the game, Huggins seemed extremely positive about his team and his players’ performances.  Huggins said the following about his players:

“Derek (Culver) played extremely well.  He’s got great hands, great strength.  They talk about great rebounders being able to rebound outside of their area and Derek does that.”

On junior point guard Jordan McCabe: “I think he tried to do too much the first time he got in and the second time he settled down.  I thought he did a really good job defensively at keeping guys in front of him too.”

Although Huggins was far more positive than in his typical postgame press conferences, Huggins did find areas for improvement for his team.  “We’re missing a lot of easy shots.  Derek, Gabe, Isaiah, they all missed one footers.   If you add those in there and we’re shooting a respectable 45 percent.  We missed a lot of easy shots.  As big and as strong as our guys are, the contact shouldn’t bother them.”

Although the Mountaineers defense played much better against VCU than they did in the season opener against South Dakota State, Huggins still isn’t pleased with his team defensively.  “It’s not where I want it to be, but it’s better than it was.  We had a long talk about it today.  We’re going to get better and better and better.”

Despite two underwhelming performances to start the season, Huggins still believes in his team and thinks they’ll take care of Western Kentucky in the Crossover Classic Championship game tomorrow: “I told our guys that I’ve already called home and they’re already cleaning out a spot for a championship trophy in the Hall of Traditions in our practice facility.”



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