Bob Huggins full of praise for KU’s David McCormack: ‘The guy is a first-round pick’
David McCormack, the same 5-man who combined for five points and 10 rebounds in Kansas’ previous two Big 12 games against Iowa State and Texas Tech, exploded for 19 points and 15 rebounds Saturday against West Virginia.
The 6-foot-10 senior’s performance in 29 minutes had veteran coach Bob Huggins wondering what this talk of a McCormack slump was about following his Mountaineers’ 85-59 loss to the No. 9-ranked Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse.
“I don’t know what’s been going on here, but the guy is a first-round pick the way he rebounds and the way he runs,” Huggins said of McCormack, as quoted on WVU’s official athletic department website. “He’s really worked on his jump shot and finishing around the rim. Of course, it’s easier to finish around the rim when you’re bigger than everybody else, too,” added Huggins, who had 6-10 Isaiah Cottrell as well as some shorter players try to slow McCormack during the game.
“He is big and he’s strong. He’s very athletic,” Huggins noted of McCormack, who regained his starting position Saturday after coming off the bench in KU’s first three Big 12 games. “He probably hurt us more at the offensive end;. We tried to front him. We didn’t do a very good job of fronting him. We cant side him, cant play behind him. We didn’t have a lot of options.”
West Virginia, which Saturday fell to 2-2 in the league and 13-3 overall (compared to KU’s 14-2, 3-1 mark), went to a 1-3-1 zone for a stretch in the second half — a half in which KU outscored WVU, 52-28.
“What went wrong is they made shots,” said Huggins. “They’ve got a lot of weapons. We tried to go 1-3-1 to see if we could slow down the onslaught, but that didn’t work.
“Their transition is what killed us. The 1-3-1 didn’t hurt us that bad. Actually man-to-man didn’t hurt us that bad. What hurt us is we didn’t get back in transition. We didn’t stop the ball. If the first guys down the floor didn’t hurt us, the follow up guys did because they sprinted to the rim, attacked the rim, followed up with jump shots. If you want to put one thing on it that turned the game around was their transition game more than anything else,” Huggins said.
McCormack did his damage by hitting 9 of 13 shots and the only free throw he attempted. Forward Jalen Wilson scored 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting with eight rebounds and five assists. Guard Ochai Agbaji went for 20 points on 8-of-17 shooting (4-of-8 from three) with seven boards.
“They ran through things all day,” Huggins said. “They put five guys in who probably hadn’t seen time since they got to school and they ran right by us.”
He may have been referring to reserve guard Joseph Yesufu, who had four assists in 12 minutes and forward KJ Adams, who had a point and an assist in seven minutes.
“We missed a bunch of shots and then got our heads down, and you don’t want to get your heads down against these guys,” Huggins said. “We got shots our shooters generally make.”
West Virginia’s Taz Sherman, who averages 18.9 points a game, scored five points on 1-of-9 shooting. KU’s Agbaji guarded him much of the game.
“Taz is not 100% back from the COVID,” Huggins said of Sherman, who had a recent bout with COVID. “He’s not near what he was. He’s not as bouncy. He’s certainly doesn’t have the ability to play long periods of time. We played him too long (30 minutes) because we depend on him so much.”
Forward Gabe Osabuohien had 10 rebounds and five points in 17 minutes for a WVU team that hit 17 of 63 shots for 27%. WVU missed 14 of 18 threes. KU hit 51.4% of its shots and was 8-of-21 from three.
“Gabe wasn’t Gabe today, Kedy (Kedrian Johnson, no points, two turnovers 15 minutes) wasn’t Kedy and that’s kind of what happens,” Huggins said. “All of those guys have been sick and that’s the reality.. When you’re not as athletic nor as big and strong you have to make compensations by playing harder and concentrating on blocking out every time – not just once in a while,” Huggins added.
The Mountaineers, who are 0-10 in Allen Fieldhouse in head-to-head matches between Self and Huggins, will play the Jayhawks on Feb. 19 in Morgantown, West Virginia where WVU is 6-3 versus Self and KU.
They can only hope McCormack is held in check in that upcoming game.
“Obviously as everyone knows he hasn’t really been playing up to his abilities this season. Tonight he did,” said WVU’s Jalen Bridges, who had 12 points on 3-of-11 shooting with 11 rebounds in 26 minutes. “He’s a big, physical strong dude and he’s athletic. He does a lot for them. He did a lot for them tonight. He was a big part of their success.”
KU will next meet Oklahoma at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.
This story was originally published January 16, 2022 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Bob Huggins full of praise for KU’s David McCormack: ‘The guy is a first-round pick’."
