Post by rainman on Dec 8, 2007 8:18:06 GMT -5
WVU making upcoming foes uncomfortable
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN— When the announcement came down you knew right away that something was wrong, but then again, didn’t that figure, Big East media day being held in Madison Square Garden, home to everything that is wrong with basketball — the New York Knickerbockers.
The picks were in and West Virginia was selected to finish 10th among the league’s teams.
Tenth!
Tom Crean, the Marquette coach, took one look at that, shook his head and remarked:
“Bob Huggins isn’t going to finish 10th? What are they thinking?”
Indeed, what were they thinking?
The only rational answer, considering that Huggins is pushing toward his 600th career victory, is that he was inheriting a team recruiting by John Beilein to play for John Beilein that now had to make as difficult adjustment as any basketball team has ever made.
After watching Huggins’ style for only seven games so far, leading into tonight’s meeting at the Coliseum with Ron Everhart’s Duquesne team, and watching Beilein for his entire stay at West Virginia, the difference in styles is admittedly startling.
The best analogy that I can come up with would be that Beilein’s teams were the con artists of college basketball, robbing you blind while you didn’t even know you were being robbed. They were pickpockets or cyber thieves, seemingly unable to rebound, unwilling to dunk, scoring three points to every two you got.
A Huggins’ team, on the other hand, is more into mugging. They are physical far more than mental, they beat you down, they wear you down. When they are finished with you, you know it by the bumps, the bruises and the scoreboard.
The question that this coaching change seemed to present was could this team of three-card Monte dealers and shell game operators become characters that would have been played by James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson in those old black-and-white gangster movies?
Obviously, the feeling was that they couldn’t.
And that feeling was wrong.
What everyone seemed to misunderstand is that Beilein, like everyone else in college basketball, recruited athletes … good athletes. It wasn’t the system of backdoor cuts and 1-3-1 zones that won games. It was players.
The team that Huggins inherited had won 27 basketball games the previous season. It won the NIT, only the second WVU football or basketball team to win a national championship tournament.
And that team returned 72 percent of its scoring, losing only Frank Young and Rob Summers.
See, Huggins had talent waiting for him. The question was whether or not they would buy into his system and whether or not he could — or would — do anything to mold his system to the talent on hand.
Considering the results, they have and he did for WVU is leading the nation in scoring differential by outscoring its opponents by 31 points a game and was leading the nation in defensive field goal percentage going into the Auburn game, holding opponents to just 32.4 percent shooting.
Put another way, WVU certainly had adopted to playing Huggins’ in-your-face, physical, man-on-man on defense.
What can’t be forgotten is that this was a pretty good defensive team under Beilein in a different defense. In fact, through seven games a year ago, it actually had given up 22 fewer points than this year’s edition.
Huggins faced a tough task putting his defense in.
“Next year it will be easier because this year I had to teach a whole team. Next year I’ll have (Joe) Alexander and (Alex) Ruoff teaching the younger guys,” he said. “Second, it’s a physiological fact that it’s harder to break old habits than it is to learn a new one.”
But Huggins scoffs at the idea it couldn’t be done.
“It’s not rocket science. If it was, I wouldn’t be teaching it,” he said.
The theory is quite simple, actually. You stop the offense from doing what it wants to do.
“We’re going to take people out of what they want to run,” Huggins said.
His players echo the words.
“What we do is take you out of your offense. People like to be comfortable on offense. When we make it uncomfortable for them to do what they want, they start making mistakes,” Ruoff said after WVU had shut down a solid Winthrop team at home last weekend.
“You can’t do what you want to do,” added Alexander.
Jeff Lebo, the Auburn coach, wanted to get the ball to Korvotny Barber in WVU’s 88-59 victory in Birmingham on Wednesday. They couldn’t do it and Lebo knew it wasn’t because of poor offensive execution. It was defense.
“They were physical and they’re big,” he said. “We couldn’t get the ball into him at all. We couldn't get the ball to anybody.”
Now it’s Duquesne’s turn. Everhart has the Dukes flying high, one of the nation’s leading offensive teams and a team that lost narrowly to Pitt on Wednesday night.
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN— When the announcement came down you knew right away that something was wrong, but then again, didn’t that figure, Big East media day being held in Madison Square Garden, home to everything that is wrong with basketball — the New York Knickerbockers.
The picks were in and West Virginia was selected to finish 10th among the league’s teams.
Tenth!
Tom Crean, the Marquette coach, took one look at that, shook his head and remarked:
“Bob Huggins isn’t going to finish 10th? What are they thinking?”
Indeed, what were they thinking?
The only rational answer, considering that Huggins is pushing toward his 600th career victory, is that he was inheriting a team recruiting by John Beilein to play for John Beilein that now had to make as difficult adjustment as any basketball team has ever made.
After watching Huggins’ style for only seven games so far, leading into tonight’s meeting at the Coliseum with Ron Everhart’s Duquesne team, and watching Beilein for his entire stay at West Virginia, the difference in styles is admittedly startling.
The best analogy that I can come up with would be that Beilein’s teams were the con artists of college basketball, robbing you blind while you didn’t even know you were being robbed. They were pickpockets or cyber thieves, seemingly unable to rebound, unwilling to dunk, scoring three points to every two you got.
A Huggins’ team, on the other hand, is more into mugging. They are physical far more than mental, they beat you down, they wear you down. When they are finished with you, you know it by the bumps, the bruises and the scoreboard.
The question that this coaching change seemed to present was could this team of three-card Monte dealers and shell game operators become characters that would have been played by James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson in those old black-and-white gangster movies?
Obviously, the feeling was that they couldn’t.
And that feeling was wrong.
What everyone seemed to misunderstand is that Beilein, like everyone else in college basketball, recruited athletes … good athletes. It wasn’t the system of backdoor cuts and 1-3-1 zones that won games. It was players.
The team that Huggins inherited had won 27 basketball games the previous season. It won the NIT, only the second WVU football or basketball team to win a national championship tournament.
And that team returned 72 percent of its scoring, losing only Frank Young and Rob Summers.
See, Huggins had talent waiting for him. The question was whether or not they would buy into his system and whether or not he could — or would — do anything to mold his system to the talent on hand.
Considering the results, they have and he did for WVU is leading the nation in scoring differential by outscoring its opponents by 31 points a game and was leading the nation in defensive field goal percentage going into the Auburn game, holding opponents to just 32.4 percent shooting.
Put another way, WVU certainly had adopted to playing Huggins’ in-your-face, physical, man-on-man on defense.
What can’t be forgotten is that this was a pretty good defensive team under Beilein in a different defense. In fact, through seven games a year ago, it actually had given up 22 fewer points than this year’s edition.
Huggins faced a tough task putting his defense in.
“Next year it will be easier because this year I had to teach a whole team. Next year I’ll have (Joe) Alexander and (Alex) Ruoff teaching the younger guys,” he said. “Second, it’s a physiological fact that it’s harder to break old habits than it is to learn a new one.”
But Huggins scoffs at the idea it couldn’t be done.
“It’s not rocket science. If it was, I wouldn’t be teaching it,” he said.
The theory is quite simple, actually. You stop the offense from doing what it wants to do.
“We’re going to take people out of what they want to run,” Huggins said.
His players echo the words.
“What we do is take you out of your offense. People like to be comfortable on offense. When we make it uncomfortable for them to do what they want, they start making mistakes,” Ruoff said after WVU had shut down a solid Winthrop team at home last weekend.
“You can’t do what you want to do,” added Alexander.
Jeff Lebo, the Auburn coach, wanted to get the ball to Korvotny Barber in WVU’s 88-59 victory in Birmingham on Wednesday. They couldn’t do it and Lebo knew it wasn’t because of poor offensive execution. It was defense.
“They were physical and they’re big,” he said. “We couldn’t get the ball into him at all. We couldn't get the ball to anybody.”
Now it’s Duquesne’s turn. Everhart has the Dukes flying high, one of the nation’s leading offensive teams and a team that lost narrowly to Pitt on Wednesday night.
