Quick Hits: Josh Eilert on Bellarmine’s style, second-chance points, more

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It wasn’t easy for WVU men’s basketball Sunday night in its win over Bellarmine, but the Mountaineers are back to .500.

Here are the biggest takeaways from interim head coach Josh Eilert’s postgame comments Sunday evening:

A different style of opponent

WVU couldn’t have faced two more different opponents than they did with SMU and Virginia at the Fort Myers Tip-Off, but Eilert says that the Bellarmine Knights offered a unique challenge of their own.

“I knew this team would present a challenge,” Eilert said. “We saw three different opponents [and] three different styles of play in our last three games. SMU wore us out in the full court, wore us out in the physicality and half court. Virginia presented their challenges with their half-court offense and their blockers and movers, and this was another challenge within itself.

“I think that coach Davenport did a heck of a job,” he added. “He understood where our weaknesses were and really went to exploit that in terms of pushing the pace and really making us guard the duration of those possessions and the position that we are in, the shorthanded roster.”

Too many second chances

When there are only seven-to-eight players in rotation, it’s easier to play defense once every possession instead of twice.

“They ended up with 14 more field goal attempts than us and they got 12 offensive rebounds, so those are killers when you play a team like that,” Eilert said. “You guard for 30 [seconds] and then you guard for another 20 [seconds], then you come down on offense, regardless of the result on the defensive end, your offense just doesn’t have that spark. You’re fatigued and they did a heck of a job with the pace, making us guard for 30 [seconds], sometimes 50 [seconds]. Credit to them and credit to their preparation.”

At the end of the night, over 47% of all Bellarmine shots either went in the hoop or were followed by an offensive rebound. Luckily enough for the Mountaineers, the Knights scored just nine second-chance points Sunday.

Efficiency on off days

Following its two losses in Fort Myers, the WVU basketball team experienced travel issues, and players and coaches did not return home until early Thanksgiving morning. The team had an off day Thursday before practices Saturday and Sunday, but Eilert noted that the team failed to get into a groove with their practice schedule, and fatigue ensued.

“I told them to get their rest, and Thursday didn’t really feel like an off day for them,” he said. “It didn’t feel like it for me. It was such a quick turn and Friday we’re practicing at noon. We didn’t get two consistent practices. We had kind of a slow start to Friday’s practice, and we finished strong. Then it flip flopped the next day [Saturday].

“We started strong and then it tailed off,” he added. “I told those guys in a heart to heart we’re going to have to have a consistent approach to practice and preparation so we can be more efficient. I really did feel the fatigue setting in there in that game. I felt it going into shootaround, so I even shortened shootaround up to try and be as efficient as possible with them. I may have pushed it a little hard, harder than I probably should’ve on Friday and Saturday, but sometimes you don’t feel that.