MORGANTOWN - I always thought WVU should be more creative with its catchy basketball nickname of "Press Virginia."
For instance, when the opposing team is introduced, those in charge should send the noise of steam releasing throughout the Coliseum - as if from an iron pressing a shirt. Maybe give out little iron magnets with the schedule. In marketing, you have to keep things fresh.
In basketball, though, that press never gets old. It never gets stale. Not if it's working. Not if you're West Virginia.
If the Mountaineers are turning over their opponents, if they are rebounding the ball, it almost doesn't matter what else they do.
Ask TCU. The Horned Frogs held WVU to 37.5 percent shooting from the field Saturday. It didn't matter.
They held the Mountaineers to 25 percent shooting from beyond the 3-point arc. Didn't matter. Shoot, West Virginia converted but 61.8 percent from the free-throw stripe. Did. Not. Matter.
The Mountaineers forced a Big 12 season-high 26 turnovers. They stole the ball 15 times. That meant 19 more shots. Toss in 15 more rebounds and there ya go. Th, th, th, that's all folks. Final: 73-42, WVU.
The 13,137 in attendance mostly watched as if in a theater. There was polite applause until reserve Richard Romeo got playing time, drew a foul and scored via two free throws. Devin Williams got a nice hand for reaching 1,000 career points. (I asked Williams, by the way, how many points he COULD have had in his career if not for near misses. "I don't know, man," he said. "I'm not a point-oriented guy. ... That just comes with me grabbing my rebounds.")
While it was a theater crowd, though, it was a horror show for TCU. One had to harken back to the Dec. 5 game against Kennesaw State to find more opponent turnovers (31). Perhaps the last time the press was so effective was Jan. 26 at home against Kansas State when the Mountaineers forced 19.
Which happened to be the last time Jon Holton was in the lineup.
Hey, Esa Ahmad, is the difference in the team's press like night and day with Holton in there?
"Yes," he said. "Yes, it is."
Williams agreed.
"Jon," said the junior, "brought the energy."
"When we have five guys playing at once, and everyone is active and everybody has a lot of energy - and we're not missing any pieces - we're back to doing what we used to do," said guard Jaysean Paige, who led his team with four steals.
Actually, it looks like fun, doesn't it? Sure, it's intimidating to opponents, but don't you wonder what it's like to be in the middle of that chaos?
"It's all about energy," Ahmad said. "If we don't have energy and effort, the press doesn't work. Today we got out there and worked as hard as we could. Just played."
"It's fun, man," Holton said. "We have, like, 13 guys. In the last minute we backed off a little, but all 13 were working. It was fun."
You could see the cracks in TCU early. By the 16:42 mark of the opening half, the Horned Frogs had four turnovers.
"You can tell when [opposing players] are getting tired and need a breather and we're running in guys with the same amount of energy," Paige said. "That's when it's working."
TCU tried to pass over the top of WVU's press on numerous occasions. Sometimes it turned into an easy bucket. Mostly, it didn't.
"People are going to take a lot of time to figure out ways to try and break our pressure," said WVU coach Bob Huggins. "I thought honestly today it helped more than hurt us. We came up with a bunch of balls. If I had anybody that played Little League and could judge a foul ball, we would get a lot more."
"Once we did crack it and get on the back end, I can't tell you how many layups we missed," said TCU coach Trent Johnson. "They're good. They force you to play out of your comfort zone. We did a decent job at our place, but this morning it was men versus boys out there."
Paige knows. If WVU releases the steam, if it presses and rebounds, not much else matters.
"Yeah, if we turn them over and finish in the transition, if we rebound, we really don't mind what's going on [around that]," said the guard. "As long as we do what we do, we'll be all right."
WVU is now converting at a 45.4 percent clip from the floor, which would've ranked No. 104 before Saturday's games. It is now hitting 31.2 percent of its 3-point shots, which would've ranked No. 304 of 346 teams.
Yet it just doesn't seem to matter. The Mountaineers are No. 1 nationally in turnovers forced.
And on this day, anyway, they are tied at No. 1 within the Big 12.