Column - WVU needs to get back on track after St. John’s loss

It didn't take Bob Huggins too many words to describe West Virginia's problems in its loss to St. John's Wednesday night.

"I couldn't get our guys to buy in. We tried," he said. "They did pretty much what I told them was going to happen.

"They played well, and we sucked."

So what happened?

How did the Mountaineers go from looking like possibly the second-best team in the Big East Conference in their win over Cincinnati to losing by 16 to a St. John's squad that lost four games in a row?

"Sometimes success is harder to handle than failure," Huggins said during his postgame radio interview.

And it's a problem that Huggins thinks stems from the attitudes that players have in this day and age.

When things are going well, they're untouchable.

"I just honestly think kids today put a lot more value in their ability than what their ability really deserves," Huggins said. "You hear kids talk – and they can't play dead – and they're talking about being in the green room and leaving early – and it's a joke. It's a farce."

But that's an attitude that a young team like this WVU one simply can't have, especially in Big East play.

The Mountaineers overlooked the Red Storm in the game before a nationally televised matchup against No. 4 Syracuse.

Once again, they should have listened to their coach.

"You see it coming. You try to tell them, try to show them," Huggins said. "I tried to explain to them how hard this league is.

"That didn't seem to affect them much."

Now, if it doesn't start

listening to its head coach, West Virginia could be on the verge of spinning out of control.

If there's one thing anybody can learn from watching Big East basketball, it's that any team can beat anyone on any given night.

Wednesday's result was evidence of that.

The important thing for the Mountaineers moving forward will be to get this loss out of their minds as quickly as possible.

With the senior leadership this team has, that's not out of the question. Kevin Jones and Truck Bryant have been here before; they know how to get out of a funk.

"Games like this, you try to get as far away from you as possible because we knew that we were a better team," Jones said. "It's hard when you have a lot of young guys because they have a tendency to get real down on themselves, especially when coach says certain things, but that's just the way coach is."

There are 10 games left to play in the regular season for WVU.

Of those 10, only three of those games – road games against Providence and South Florida and a home game against DePaul – will be looked at as games West Virginia "should" win handily.

The rest are against teams like Syracuse, Louisville, Notre Dame, Marquette and a Pittsburgh team that looks much different than the team that lost its first seven Big East games now that point guard Tray Woodall is back in the lineup.

Wednesday's performance was disappointing, to say the least.

And, if things don't turn around quickly, it could get even worse.