Honor Huff Goes Out with a Bang, Leads WVU to Crown Championship in OT Thriller

The first chapter of the Ross Hodge era in Morgantown has come to a close, taking down the Oklahoma Sooners in the championship game of the College Basketball Crown by an 89-82 score in overtime.

Here are my takeaways from the final game of the season.

Don't focus on the early 15-point lead

I know it's easy to look at this one and say, "Well, they were up 15, they should have won," but if you look at the game in totality, Oklahoma just executed better on both ends of the floor for the majority of the game. The Mountaineers had a blistering hot start, but that was never going to last. No team in the history of basketball has ever 80% from three on high volume, and this team certainly wasn't going to be the first.

Maybe the hot start from three was a bad thing

Starting out the game extremely efficiently is cool and all, but when much of it came from the three-ball, I kind of had a feeling they would lean into it more than they should throughout the game. I get it's hard too when you saw it go through the hoop as much as they did early on, but that's just not this team's game. In the latter part of the second half and the opening minutes of the second, West Virginia didn't look to go inside, and I believe that played a big factor in the scoring droughts they had.

One heck of a basketball game

Oklahoma didn't throw in the towel when they were down 15 early, and West Virginia stayed the course when they trailed by multiple possessions for the majority of the second half. You mean to tell me these games aren't worth playing? It sure as heck beats not playing at all, if you ask me. Two teams going at it who wanted to end their season with a win. Great basketball game by both teams.

A tip of the hat to Honor Huff

The senior guard came out red-hot, shooting a blistering 5/5 from three-point range to open the game, including a couple of REALLY DEEP ones right in front of Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser that drove him insane. He cooled off and came back down to Earth, but you have to credit the Sooners for doing a better job of fighting through ball screens and closing out better when he put it up.

It's crazy to say that this season was somewhat of a disappointment for Huff when he holds the single-season record for made threes in program history, but his numbers could have been much better if he weren't the primary threat on offense. His size hurt him on most nights in the Big 12, but if WVU had a true go-to three-level scorer, he wouldn't have been No. 1, 2, and 3 on the opposition's scouting report.

But man, what a way for Honor to go out, putting up 38 points.

A 21-win season for Hodge

I promise you no one is going to remember all the shortcomings of this 2025-26 team a couple of years from now when they're much more competitive and deeper. We'll all look back and say, "Damn, he won 21 games in year one? With little depth? No offense?" Of course, you'd like to have played in the NCAA Tournament instead of the Crown, but this team fought hard all year long, never hung their head, and bought into Ross Hodge's message. Now imagine what he can do once he gets younger guys in the program whom he can mold and develop. Ending the season with a win, a trophy, and $300k is one heck of a way to go out.