Huggins Feels Things Turning: 'We're Going to Get it Going Gang, Don't Worry'

Saturday afternoon, the West Virginia men's basketball team dropped its fifth straight game as they fell by a 77-68 score to the Arkansas Razorbacks in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. 

A few days ago, head coach Bob Huggins was extremely upset with the attitude of his team and the lack of execution in their loss to Oklahoma. Thursday and Friday were very light days at practice, including one "mental day" which Huggins said was good for him. 

The effort wasn't there in the first half of Saturday's contest which gave the early impression that the Razorbacks were going to run away with it. After falling behind by 20 points, the Mountaineers cleaned some things up and went on a 12-0 run to cut it to just five. As bad as the first half may have been, the effort in the second half is what gives Huggins hope that things are about to turn.

"I hate to lose, I detest it. But I'm proud of them for how we competed. I'm proud of the fact that they didn't lay down," Huggins said in his postgame interview with Tony Caridi. "We're going to get it going gang, don't worry. I feel really good because we finally competed for the first time since UAB. I feel like we've turned and we've got it going in the right direction."

Things don't get any easier for the Mountaineers as they have one day to rest up before taking on No. 4 Baylor in Waco. Huggins, seeing the glass half full, doesn't care about the limited amount of time to prepare for the Bears.

"It's not tough. It's an opportunity. It's an opportunity that I'm really looking forward to and those guys headed for the bus better feel the same way. I'm still gulled by what happened in the Coliseum. We had a chance to win that game. We're going to play and all you can do is ask people to give their best. In the first half, we didn't do that. In the second half, we gave our best. As you guys probably noticed those guys who didn't give their best sat on the bench and they're going to continue to sit on the bench if they don't give their best. We owe that to the University. We owe that to the state of West Virginia, I've said that. I will continue to work my tail off for this team to win games and go to the NCAA Tournament and advance in the NCAA Tournament."