Bob Huggins explains how to keep players motivated through struggles

After losing just two games in their non-conference schedule, West Virginia has gone on a rough, five-game losing streak ever since beginning their Big 12 Conference schedule. Head coach Bob Huggins was asked about battling through the presented adversity, and if himself and his coaching staff or his veteran players were keeping the team motivated through their recent struggles.

“I think it’s a little bit of everything, I mean obviously guys like Kedrian (Johnson) have voiced their opinion as have a lot of other guys,” Huggins said.

The Mountaineers have plenty of veteran leadership to lean on, with five of their five players in their starting lineup all being seniors. Yet things have not been clicking for them, joining Texas Tech as the only two teams in the conference yet to secure a single conference victory so far.

“I think what’s important is the guys that voice their opinion are actually the guys that are giving it everything they have and really as much as anybody can carry the load,” Huggins said. “You know it’s hard to motivate others when you’re having a hard enough time motivating yourself.”

West Virginia has fallen just short in most of their conference games, losing just one by more than double digits and most recently falling on the road to Oklahoma by just one point. Hopefully, they can keep their motivation high, as they face one of the top-ranked teams in the conference in No. 14 TCU at home on Wednesday as they seek their first conference victory of the year.

Bob Huggins previews TCU, compares Horned Frogs to Los Angeles Lakers

There are no days off in the Big 12, with a majority of the conference making a run at making the NCAA Tournament at the moment. West Virginia will continue its tough schedule, playing against TCU on Wednesday. An old rivalry of head coaches will be renewed, with Bob Huggins going up against Jamie Dixon.

TCU only has three losses on the season and is fresh off a win over Kansas State. Tempo has been the name of the game for the Horned Frogs, getting up and down the court. Huggins clearly thinks highly of the job Dixon is doing, comparing them to an all-time NBA team.

“I think it’s the most talented team Jamie has had since he’s been at TCU,” Huggins said. “They’re like the Lakers used to be. They’re like the Showtime Lakers. They do a great job of running lanes. There’s various clips of them rebounding the ball, out letting it, and scoring a layup at the other end before the ball ever touched the floor. Jamie has done a really, really good job of making it an up-tempo style.”

Some of the best NBA players to ever play the game were on the Showtime Lakers, with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabar being the two main ones. Mike Miles and Emanuel Miller are running the show in Fort Worth, maybe they thought they were out in Los Angeles.

Quite the compliment coming from the West Virginia head coach.

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this report