When Bob Huggins rumbles into the locker room the way he did with his West Virginia team down by two at halftime Thursday night, the Mountaineer players know better than to speak. Or even make eye contact with their head coach. Star forward Kevin Jones says the best way to handle the situation is to sit quietly and stare at the ground.

Jones admits the tirade was justified this time. The Mountaineers had an uncharacteristically sloppy first half and played directly into their opponent’s strengths. Against a team like Washington, which relies on its transition game to generate offense, 13 turnovers represents a ticket back to Morgantown, W. Va., a bit prematurely.

And then, when the halftime clock hit the five-minute mark, Huggins suddenly relaxed. His voice quieted. The storm passed. The realization struck that despite 13 first-half turnovers, West Virginia trailed by just one possession. This was the message Huggins delivered before sending his players back onto the court. And as they have virtually all season, his players responded.

The second-seeded Mountaineers outscored the 11th-seeded Huskies by 15 in the second half, en route to a 69-56 victory in the Sweet 16 at the Carrier Dome. WVU (30-6) advances to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2005, where it will face Kentucky on Saturday night. Washington (26-10), meanwhile, falls to 0-4 in the round of 16 since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

‘We knew we just couldn’t play any worse than we did in the first half, and that is what made us feel like we were going to be fine,’ said Jones, who led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. ‘We knew if we just played our game the rest of the way, we couldn’t lose.’

West Virginia compensated for its carelessness by dominating the glass. The Mountaineers out-rebounded their opponents, 49-29, including 23 offensive boards. The undersized and overmatched Huskies had no answer for WVU’s depth and strength underneath. Jones called his team’s rebounding advantage ‘the great equalizer,’ counteracting its early turnovers.

In the days leading up to the game, the Mountaineers focused on containing Washington’s flashy and speedy transition game. The Huskies’ ability to create easy baskets on the fast break had propelled them to a nine-game winning streak, including a run through the Pac-10 Conference tournament and two victories in the NCAAs.

Despite making it a point of emphasis, West Virginia still struggled to get back on defense in the first half. Washington scored 10 points off the fast break and 12 off turnovers. WVU had grabbed only seven offensive boards.

‘First half, they got us really playing fast-paced, their way of playing basketball,’ Jones said. ‘The second half we kind of slowed down and got into our offense.’

During his halftime tirade, Huggins told his team to worry less about trying to stop Washington and concern itself with doing what it does best — run a methodical half-court offense and rebound.

From that moment on, it was an entirely different game. The pace slowed down dramatically. West Virginia milked the shot clock and created consistent open looks at the basket. The Mountaineers went on an 8-0 run midway through the second half to open a nine-point lead and never looked back.

‘I think we showed them so much tape of how fast Washington is in transition and the need to get back that I think we were thinking about getting back rather than doing what we do,’ Huggins said. ‘… I said, ‘Maybe we’re going to lose, I don’t know. But if we do lose, let’s lose our way. Let’s lose doing what we do.”

With its transition game stifled, Washington quickly began to struggle. The Huskies had relied on West Virginia’s turnovers and missed shots to create layups on the other end. With WVU controlling the glass and scoring nearly every possession, running became a near impossibility.

Washington looked confused and listless in its half-court set most of the game. It didn’t help that the Huskies’ star player, senior forward Quincy Pondexter, got into early foul trouble and scored just seven points in the game. Small forward Justin Holiday led the way with 14.

‘We gave them some open looks at the beginning of that second half,’ Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar said. ‘The first half we didn’t give them very many open looks. They also began to attack the glass.’

The West Virginia players didn’t celebrate in the locker room after the game. They hadn’t played well enough to deserve that luxury. The players realize that they probably won’t be able to recover from a slow first half moving forward in this Tournament.

But on Thursday, Huggins came to the rescue in time. And though nobody would share exactly what Huggins said, forward Wellington Smith was willing to provide the gist of it.

‘He said we have to start playing like college basketball players,’ Smith said, as a grin crept across his face. ‘We had to stop playing like 5-year-olds and start playing like college basketball players.’

[email protected]

Published on March 25, 2010 at 12:00 pm