WVU Men's Basketball vs. Morehead State 11/15

WVU head coach Bob Huggins against Morehead State on Nov. 15, 2022, at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Head Bob Huggins is now tied for the third most winningest coach in NCAA history, but following his 920th win and a rout of the Penn Quakers 92-58, the Hall of Fame coach says the team still has plenty to work on.

The West Virginia men's basketball team is heading out west to face their toughest test yet this season, the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament and a first round matchup against Purdue. 

Huggins following the dominant home victory over Penn, pointed out many of the issues that he believes the team needs to fix going forward.

"We’ve got a lot of work to do. We don't rebound the ball the way we need to rebound the ball. We don’t rebound it defensively the way you need to, and we don’t rebound it offensively the way you need to," Huggins said. "I thought we passed the ball better which was an improvement. I thought we got it out in transition a little bit better than we have been. Offensively, we weren’t sharp, and we’ve got a lot of work to do."

More specifically, Huggins said the execution still needs to be improved and that the team suffered a lack of consistency at some points in Friday's win.

"We didn’t execute a lot of the things that have been really good for us. I think consistency might be the best word. We lack consistency at this point in time, and we lack consistency at the defensive end. How many times were we standing there staring at the ball, and they come behind us for layups? That’s really inexcusable," Huggins said.

With 12 three-pointers against the Quakers, shooting has become a big aspect of the offensive game plan for WVU and Huggins hopes that can continue when the team takes on the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament against Purdue.

"We have several guys who can make shots which has a tendency to spread defenses out a lot more. I just hope that they keep making them. I thought we had more (players who can make shots) than what are making shots now. We have some guys that are struggling right now," Huggins said.

West Virginia's schedule only gets tougher in its next matchup, as it will take on Purdue on Nov. 24 in the opening round of the Phil Knight Legacy, which includes Gonzaga, Florida and Xavier among others.

The television broadcast of the Thanksgiving Day matchup between WVU and the Boilermakers in Portland, Oregon, will be available on ESPN2.