Everything. Physical and mental toughness.
And it starts with the leadership at the top. Period.
Hartman's teams obviously had this.
The Asbury and Wooldridge eras eroded everything from the program and we see it today. Soft players, a lack of accountability, no serious emphasis on strength and conditioning, teams that were intimidated easily and played afraid on the road, a complete lack of composure in close winnable games. Players that quit. Every bit of it.
It took Huggins one year to radically change the culture and instill an attitude of toughness. He transformed a mindset. Players bought in. There was not choice but to not buy in.
Weakness was no longer acceptable. Losers excuses were no longer acceptable.
Instead there was a nastiness a street fight mentality in the way we guarded and rebounded. A team that was never intimidated, no matter who they faced and whatever arena they walked into. They became the intimidators. The games became a will of physicality, we broke people down. We were exactly what West Virginia is today.
Winning on the road is all about toughness.
The confidence and belief in the ability to finish close games is toughness.
A will to win is internal toughness.
I don't know who the next answer is to change the culture again, but I do know we've been missing it for a long time and it ain't going to magically appear anytime soon with this current head coach.
And it starts with the leadership at the top. Period.
Hartman's teams obviously had this.
The Asbury and Wooldridge eras eroded everything from the program and we see it today. Soft players, a lack of accountability, no serious emphasis on strength and conditioning, teams that were intimidated easily and played afraid on the road, a complete lack of composure in close winnable games. Players that quit. Every bit of it.
It took Huggins one year to radically change the culture and instill an attitude of toughness. He transformed a mindset. Players bought in. There was not choice but to not buy in.
Weakness was no longer acceptable. Losers excuses were no longer acceptable.
Instead there was a nastiness a street fight mentality in the way we guarded and rebounded. A team that was never intimidated, no matter who they faced and whatever arena they walked into. They became the intimidators. The games became a will of physicality, we broke people down. We were exactly what West Virginia is today.
Winning on the road is all about toughness.
The confidence and belief in the ability to finish close games is toughness.
A will to win is internal toughness.
I don't know who the next answer is to change the culture again, but I do know we've been missing it for a long time and it ain't going to magically appear anytime soon with this current head coach.
