West Virginia fires associate head coach Larry Harrison

West Virginia has parted ways with assistant basketball coach Larry Harrison, per release. Harrison was on the WVU staff for 16 seasons, 13 of which he held the title of associate head basketball coach.

Harrison joined the program alongside current head coach Bob Huggins, who issued a statement in the release on the matter.

“I want to thank Larry for his years of service to Mountaineer basketball, and I wish him well in his future endeavors,” Huggins said. Harrison has been coaching alongside Huggins for 24 years – 16 at WVU and eight more at Cincinnati before taking over the show in Morgantown.

The Mountaineers will begin searching for a replacement immediately. A reason was not given for why the WVU and Harrison have decided to part ways.

Bob Huggins upset with team’s lack of shooting practice, commitment to improvement

West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins was upset after his team’s 76-62 loss Saturday to No. 3 Kansas.

His team did a decent job defensively but struggled to hit shots on the other side of the court. The Mountaineers shot only 35.1% from the field during the game, including a disappointing 4-for-20 from beyond the arc.

West Virginia has been underwhelming coming out of the Christmas break to start the Big 12 season. The team has lost all three games with poor shooting performances in all three games.

“You know when you’re flunking a class, you study more or you continue to flunk the class,” Huggins said. “If you’re continually don’t make a shot or if you’re continually aren’t consistent at the free throw line, if you consistently don’t make shots from where you know you’re gonna get shots from you’re probably gonna flunk the class.”

Against Kansas State on New Year’s Eve, the Mountaineers shot 41.3% from the field and have progressively shot worse over the next two games.

The lack of adjustments from his players during that span has confounded him, especially at the free throw line.

Over the past three games, West Virginia has shot 20-for-38, 17-for-28 and 18-for-28 from the charity stripe.

“I don’t know,” Huggins said. “I don’t know why it don’t bother ’em when they miss shots, and they don’t respond with coming back. You’re not over exerting yourself to shoot free throws, especially when you got managers in their rebounding for you.”

“I thought we had solved that problem,” Huggins added. “Obviously, I was wrong again.”