MORGANTOWN - There seems little doubt that West Virginia's most difficult assignment in its pre-Big East basketball schedule comes tonight at the Coliseum when No. 15 Mississippi comes calling.
MORGANTOWN - There seems little doubt that West Virginia's most difficult assignment in its pre-Big East basketball schedule comes tonight at the Coliseum when No. 15 Mississippi comes calling.
So what did Bob Huggins focus his attention on in the days leading up to it? Well, he looked backwards.
He did it with good reason, of course. The last time the Mountaineers (8-0) played they looked like anything but the No. 6 team in the country, having been pressed nearly into submission by a mediocre Cleveland State team on Saturday. West Virginia finally pulled that one out when it barely broke the Vikings' press and got a layup from Da'Sean Butler just before the buzzer to win 80-78.
Suffice it to say that when Huggins did his review, that last play wasn't the focus. Rather, it was every instance when the Mountaineers struggled.
"We watched two hours and 40 minutes of tape,'' the West Virginia coach said. "You know, in all the years I've been coaching, I've only had one guy who said it wasn't him, that it was somebody wearing his number that just looked like him.''
In other words, seeing is believing. And what the Mountaineers saw in all that tape apparently registered.
"Yeah, these guys were pretty good,'' Huggins said wryly. "They acknowledge it was them.''
The question remains, though, whether or not they can correct the mistakes that certainly every team on WVU's schedule will see and try to take advantage of in the coming weeks and months. Tonight's 7:30 game (ESPN2) against Ole Miss could be a great barometer given that the 10-1 Rebels are a quick, guard-oriented team that would seem tailor-made to test the Mountaineers where they now seem the weakest.
It doesn't hurt that Mississippi is coached by Andy Kennedy, who knows Huggins' style as well as anyone after serving on his staff at Cincinnati.
"The guy can coach and he has great athletes inside,'' Huggins said of Kennedy, who was Huggins' interim successor when the former was forced out at Cincinnati in 2005. "And their three perimeter guys are as good as anybody's in the country - anybody's.''
The best of those three is cat-quick junior point guard Chris Warren, who had 20 points and four assists a year ago when WVU defeated Mississippi 80-78 in Oxford. Warren averages 18.3 points and is joined in the backcourt by 6-foot-5 shooters Terrico White (16.6 points per game) and Eniel Polynice (10.0). Inside the Rebels have 6-7, 230-pound sophomore Murphy Holloway (11.8) and 6-8 freshman Reginald Buckner (4.9). Holloway is making 61 percent of his field goals.
In truth, Mississippi isn't normally a hard-pressing team. For instance, in last year's game in Oxford, the Rebels had just three steals and forced only 10 WVU turnovers. But given West Virginia's recent problems in that area and Mississippi's talent on the outside, it would be foolish to believe the Rebels won't at least throw a press or two out there to see what happens.
MORGANTOWN - There seems little doubt that West Virginia's most difficult assignment in its pre-Big East basketball schedule comes tonight at the Coliseum when No. 15 Mississippi comes calling.
So what did Bob Huggins focus his attention on in the days leading up to it? Well, he looked backwards.
He did it with good reason, of course. The last time the Mountaineers (8-0) played they looked like anything but the No. 6 team in the country, having been pressed nearly into submission by a mediocre Cleveland State team on Saturday. West Virginia finally pulled that one out when it barely broke the Vikings' press and got a layup from Da'Sean Butler just before the buzzer to win 80-78.
Suffice it to say that when Huggins did his review, that last play wasn't the focus. Rather, it was every instance when the Mountaineers struggled.
"We watched two hours and 40 minutes of tape,'' the West Virginia coach said. "You know, in all the years I've been coaching, I've only had one guy who said it wasn't him, that it was somebody wearing his number that just looked like him.''
In other words, seeing is believing. And what the Mountaineers saw in all that tape apparently registered.
"Yeah, these guys were pretty good,'' Huggins said wryly. "They acknowledge it was them.''
The question remains, though, whether or not they can correct the mistakes that certainly every team on WVU's schedule will see and try to take advantage of in the coming weeks and months. Tonight's 7:30 game (ESPN2) against Ole Miss could be a great barometer given that the 10-1 Rebels are a quick, guard-oriented team that would seem tailor-made to test the Mountaineers where they now seem the weakest.
It doesn't hurt that Mississippi is coached by Andy Kennedy, who knows Huggins' style as well as anyone after serving on his staff at Cincinnati.
"The guy can coach and he has great athletes inside,'' Huggins said of Kennedy, who was Huggins' interim successor when the former was forced out at Cincinnati in 2005. "And their three perimeter guys are as good as anybody's in the country - anybody's.''
The best of those three is cat-quick junior point guard Chris Warren, who had 20 points and four assists a year ago when WVU defeated Mississippi 80-78 in Oxford. Warren averages 18.3 points and is joined in the backcourt by 6-foot-5 shooters Terrico White (16.6 points per game) and Eniel Polynice (10.0). Inside the Rebels have 6-7, 230-pound sophomore Murphy Holloway (11.8) and 6-8 freshman Reginald Buckner (4.9). Holloway is making 61 percent of his field goals.
In truth, Mississippi isn't normally a hard-pressing team. For instance, in last year's game in Oxford, the Rebels had just three steals and forced only 10 WVU turnovers. But given West Virginia's recent problems in that area and Mississippi's talent on the outside, it would be foolish to believe the Rebels won't at least throw a press or two out there to see what happens.
"Watch them play Villanova,'' Huggins said, referring to Mississippi's only loss of the season, 79-67 in the finals of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off a month ago. "Villanova is as good as it gets on the perimeter and [the Rebels] are just as good.''
Huggins, though, is convinced that if his team hasn't completely solved its difficulties against pressure, the Mountaineers will at least be much improved after all that film study.
"We're not going to have those problems this game,'' he said.
Part of that should be a matter of personnel. Huggins said that backup point guard Joe Mazzulla, who played just three minutes at Cleveland State because of his injured shoulder, should be able to play more. And shooting guard Casey Mitchell, who has missed the past two games with a knee injury, has returned to practice and could be available.
Briefly
Tonight's game is the beginning of a rather brutal stretch of four games in 10 days against teams with a combined record of 36-5 going into Tuesday night. After Ole Miss comes the Big East opener at Seton Hall (8-1) on Saturday, a home game with Marquette (8-3) next Tuesday and a trip to No. 4 Purdue (10-0) on New Year's Day.
The game at Seton Hall is not only the first Big East game of the season, according to the league it is the only Division I game scheduled that day. The 3:30 p.m. contest will be televised nationally by CBS.
West Virginia has won 29 straight home games in the month of December and 28 consecutive non-conference home games overall. The last non-conference home loss was 71-68 in overtime to LSU in late November of 2005, and the last December home loss to a non-league team was a 2003 upset at the hands of Northeastern.
Mississippi has played just one other game this season on an opponent's home floor, winning 79-57 at Arkansas State. Including neutral-court games, the Rebels are 4-1 away from home, including wins over Indiana and Kansas State in Puerto Rico.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
Post a comment