COMMENTARY FROM METRONEWS

 

Between the uncontested dunks and the unexplained dismissals, West Virginia’s week of basketball has been weak even by this season’s woebegone standards.

 

A team that started No. 13 in the AP preseason poll now flounders at No. 10 in the Big 12 standings, a precipitous freefall that has fans checking out. Boos became unmistakable during the most recent 22-point loss, when WVU folded up in the second half and made an average Texas team look like Phi Slamma Jamma.

 

As if a 2-9 league record didn’t tell us enough about the void of chemistry and leadership, news that surfaced 48 hours later, in which Esa Ahmad and Wesley Harris were booted off the team, confirmed the rock-bottom status. As the season grows longer and longer, the roster gets shorter and shorter.

 

Athletics director Shane Lyons wouldn’t elaborate on what ended the WVU careers of Harris and Ahmad, but as for Bob Huggins’ career, Lyons presumes his head coach has plenty of victories left. When a few grousing fans submit this season as evidence that the 65-year-old Huggins ain’t what he used to be — Kids are different today! You can’t coach ‘em that hard! — it rings familiar to the grousing of 2013, the last time West Virginia produced a losing record.

 

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Editor's Note: This report was written prior to Saturday's Kansas game. Photo shows Esa Ahmad, left, and Wesley Harris, both of whom were recently dismissed from the team. Photo by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.