MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A half-hour before Monday’s practice, Tarik Phillip was working up a pre-practice sweat, hoisting jumper after jumper as a team manager fed him passes.
Then came time for the contact portion, the manager whacking Phillip with pads as the guard attacked the rim.
Both drills are typical of the early-arriving Phillip, whose extra work paid off during his game-winning flurry Saturday at Texas Tech. He buried a step-in 3-pointer from the left wing and finished a layup while being fouled for a three-point play.
Those 20 points were a career-high and rallied WVU to an 80-76 win, but even such a clutch performance might have paled to the game Phillip played in a double-overtime victory at Kansas State on Jan.