WVU coach Bob Huggins provided some added motivation for his Mountaineers ahead of their game against Iowa State.

Huggins distributed copies of a newspaper headline that read “Mess Virginia” and questioned his team’s toughness to his players. That added some motivation, Huggins said after beating Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum.

“Trying to wear a white hat,” Huggins said, trying to hold back his feelings on that article. “I’ve been wearing a black one all these years.”

Whatever the reason, West Virginia stormed into Hilton Coliseum and thoroughly blew away the Cyclones in a few pivotal categories that led to an ISU loss.

After leading by as many as 15 in the first half, Iowa State saw its lead dwindle. West Virginia took a lead, Iowa State tied it up, but couldn’t find enough to come through with a win.

Here are five takeaways from the loss:

1. Rebounding

Iowa State got pounded on the glass, losing the battle of the boards, 43-26. The Cyclones nearly allowed the Mountaineers more offensive rebounds (17) than the Cyclones had defensive rebounds (18).

When asked what allowed West Virginia to come back from a 15-point deficit, Abdel Nader’s answer was pretty direct.

“Offensive rebounding,” Nader said.

McKay and Nader combined for nine total rebounds, while West Virginia’s Devin Williams pulled down 18 by himself. McKay had four total rebounds and zero defensive rebounds. 

“It was tough boxing out those guys,” Morris said. “I mean, we fought. We fought. Sometimes it’s just the roll of the ball and tonight it was West Virginia’s night.”

2. Press Virginia

Huggins referred to a newspaper article that nicknamed his team “Mess Virginia,” but the Mountaineers are much more commonly called “Press Virginia” because of their full-court press and constant ball pressure.

That was on full display against Iowa State. The Cyclones handled the pressure with ease for most of the first half, and built up a lead in doing so, but the pressure caught up to them.

Iowa State turned the ball over 16 times, some of which led to easy scores for West Virginia.

“I think they just sped us up the whole game, got us out of what we wanted to do,” Morris said. “They caused a lot of turnovers that led to buckets on the other end. I don’t care what kind of team you play at this level, you turn the ball over and they go score down there, it’s tough on everybody.”

3. Morris vs. Press

The team as a whole struggled with the press at times, but Morris thrived. Morris has always been known for his ball security, but it becomes even more impressive given the pressure he faced.

Morris dished out 10 assists and had zero turnovers against ‘Press Virginia’ in the 39 minutes he played.

“I don’t know what number [he would be ranked], but he’s got to be one of the best point guards in America,” Huggins said of Morris after the game.

4. Fouls

A side effect of West Virginia’s constant pressure defense is typically a lot of fouls. The Mountaineers are third in the nation with 24.2 fouls per game. Iowa State, however, has the fewest fouls per game in the country at 14.9 per contest.

For whatever reason, that was not the case Tuesday night. West Virginia still racked up its fair share of fouls with 19, but Iowa State had an unusually high 20 fouls in the game.

5. Free-throw woes

With fouls comes free throws. West Virginia hit on 17-of-22 free throws.

“They made free throws down the stretch,” Prohm said of the Mountaineers.

Iowa State, on the other hand, did not. The Cyclones finished the game 11-of-19 from the line. Not great, but not awful either. The real issues came in the second half, when Iowa State shot just 6-for-13 — under 50 percent — to close the game.