Does GCU have anything left for West Virginia?
Grand Canyon coach Dan Majerle said his team simply “ran out of gas” in the 89-57 loss to New Mexico State on Saturday night.
He’ll see if anything is left in the tank Wednesday at 4 p.m., when the Antelopes travel to play West Virginia in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational.
West Virginia (14-20) was rebuilding after four straight NCAA Tournament trips, but still beat Texas Tech, Iowa State and Kansas.
The Texas Tech win came in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament. But West Virginia needed to win four games in four days to get into the NCAA Tournament and lost to Kansas 88-74 in the semifinals.
This is a chance for Bob Huggins to give some of his inexperienced Mountaineers a chance to keep developing.
This was only the third losing season Huggins had in his 34-year coaching career. The last timewas the 2012-13 West Virginia team that went 13-19. Before that, his only other losing season came in his first at Akron in 1984-85.
Huggins (859-361) trails only Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and North Carolina’s Roy Williams for wins among active Div. I coaches.
GCU, led by Carlos Johnson, worked hard to avenge regular-season losses to Seattle and Utah Valley in the first two rounds of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament in Las Vegas, before hitting a wall five minutes in against a stronger, deeper New Mexico State team in the championship game.
GCU (20-13) could have just called it a year, after not getting NCAA Tournament and NIT bids.
But for Majerle, playing in the CBI is “a chance to play against one of the storied programs and coaches.”
There is a bit of a hangover after losing by 32 to its biggest rival.
“We have to get over that initial feeling,” Majerle said.
GCU’s lack of depth, mainly due to losing senior wing Gerard Martin to a season-ending knee injury before its last eight WAC regular-season games, showed in the WAC tourney final, when the Aggies had five players off the bench as part of the rotation. GCU countered with three.
After scoring 66 points in his first two games of the tournament, Johnson was held to nine points in the final.
Unable to rotate defensively to cover players on the perimeter, New Mexico State scorched GCU with 17 3-pointers.
If the Antelopes still feel the effects of that, it’s going to be a long trip back home from Morgantown, W.Va.
If GCU wins, it won’t play again until Monday against either Howard or Coastal Carolina at a site to be determined in a quarterfinal. The semifinals are March 28.
“I hope the guys are excited,” Majerle said about still playing.