A little bit of a good news/bad news situation here. Bad news? I’m nervous about a game against fucking Cincinnati. Good news? We’re playing at home again and we couldn’t POSSIBLY lose as bad as we did against Iowa State. Silver linings, right?
Through the first ten minutes of the game there are things to applaud, but there are also some very big concerns that I have raised before. Cincinnati is widely known as a top-10 defense in the country and we haven’t really had a problem with them, leading 19–8 at the 10 minute mark in the first half. My concern? It is the “Honor Huff and the Huffettes” show yet again. When Honor Huff gets going, he’s almost unstoppable but we CANNOT compete in this conference if he is the ONLY player who can score consistently. If Cincinnati was living up to their defensive reputation and made Honor’s life hell, the next leading scorer would be Treysen Eaglestaff with 5, and that’s just not going to cut it. I’ll always cheer for a good game and a sizable lead, but Cincinnati isn’t winning this conference either, so we need to be sharper.
Cincinnati started to chip away at the lead, but we ended the half up 31–28. The stats certainly could look better for us: we turned the ball over 9 times to their 4, we’re fouling more often, and we aren’t rebounding abundantly well. The only thing we have going for us is that we’re shooting 55% from 3. Thanks, Honor. Luckily, WVU has a 9–2 record when leading at the half, and Cincinnati is 1–2 when trailing. Hopefully we can ride this wave to our first Big 12 win of the season.
I remember watching your favorite movie, Top Gun, with you one time and you told me that you wanted to be a fighter pilot. You said that one of the reasons that you wanted to do that was because the dogfights in those movies made it seem really cool. I think we can admit it now that you’re not here to defend yourself, but I think that you saying that was just the male bravado. I will forgive you for lying, but I will also admit that it looks sick as hell. A “dogfight” is really the only way that I can describe the second half. If there was a neutral observer of this game, I’m sure that they would say that the second have was a really good viewing experience. As someone who’s rooting for one of the teams? Not so great of a viewing experience.
We, somehow, won this game even though we almost pissed it away at the very end. Honor and Treysen hit two big shots in the last couple minutes of the game that put us up, and then it was a FT game after that. Even with the win I will stand on what I said earlier; the way that we play basketball is not going to win many games if we can’t find solidified 2nd and 3rd options for scoring. It can’t possibly be Honor Huff scoring 25+ and hoping that we can cover the rest by committee. That is not sustainable in most conferences, and certainly not the Big 12 this year. I think that Chance Moore could be our second option, but if we don’t gameplan or find out soon who the third option is, we are going to be eaten alive. I don’t want to harp on something that hasn’t happened yet too much, but you know me: depressed, anxious, and nervous.
Without further ado, The Roundball Big 3 of the Game:
Honor Huff — 24 points, 8 rebounds, 6 3s
Chance Moore — 14 points, 4 rebounds, 6/10 FG
Treysen Eaglestaff — 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals
We don’t have long to celebrate because we have to play Kansas on Saturday. Thankfully, it’s at home, but they have a guy who’s going to get drafted no later than 3rd in this year’s NBA draft so we have our work cut out for us.
I love you, Dad. I miss you. I’ll see you Saturday.
Round The Game 
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