Post by rainman on Oct 12, 2007 6:25:56 GMT -5
Huggins brings change to WVU
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN— When he was a kid growing up just outside Cincinnati, Alex Ruoff had this pair of basketball shorts that he treasured.
They were red and black, colors of the University of Cincinnati. They had the Bearcat logo on them.
Alex Ruoff was Bearcat fan. He had wanted to attend Bob Huggins’ camp there, but said “it was too expensive.” So he settled for a pair of shorts.
Ruoff came to realize he would not play at Cincinnati. As he admitted the other day while he and his West Virginia University teammates were preparing for tonight’s 8 o’clock edition of Midnight Madness, “I know I’m not the type of player that Bob Huggins would recruit athletic-wise.”
Yet fate sometimes deals from the bottom of the deck, and when Ruoff takes the floor he may be wearing old gold and blue basketball shorts but he’ll be playing for Bob Huggins.
Following a season in which he won the NIT championship, only the second national championship WVU has ever won in a major sport, coach John Beilein pulled off the trickiest backdoor play of his coaching career, leaving for Michigan.
That, of course, sent WVU knocking on Huggins’ front door in Manhattan, Kansas, and offering the Kansas State coach the one job he could not turn down, a return to his alma mater to coach the team he had once captained.
True, it wasn’t packed with the same type of athletes he had in his heyday at Cincinnati where he would record most of his more than 500 college coaching victories, but Ruoff warns that what he does inherit is more athletic than anyone thinks and might just flourish in Huggins’ radically different system.
“We have a lot of sleepers, guys who no one gives give credit to for being athletic,” Ruoff noted. “The two guys who people notice are (Joe) Alexander and Wellington (Smith) as athletes, but our two point guards (Darris Nichols and Joe Mazulla) are lightning fast and our two freshmen are fast and Da’Sean Butler is more athletic than anybody.”
What’s more, they are more than just athletes, as is he, despite much self-deprecation.
“The way I look at it, Coach Beilein recruits players who can dribble, pass and shoot. That’s what makes that system work. If you’re a good coach — and Coach Huggins is — he’ll be able to use that. Our players can dribble, pass and shoot and are pretty intelligent. Any coach can use that to his advantage.”
Make no doubt you will not recognize what you see on the basketball court tonight or through the season. Gone is the 3-point pumping, precise passing, backdoor cutting offense that Beilein ran. In its place is an aggressive, board-crashing, fast-breaking offense that you will either love or hate, depending upon whether you like Sinatra or Ludicris.
But the biggest change won’t be on offense, even though you won’t be seeing 7-footer Jamie Smalligan popping out too often to shoot those 3s that had you oohing and ahing last year.
The biggest change is on defense, and if you don’t notice it, rest assured the players do.
While Beilein lived off his 1-3-1 zone or ran a passive man-on-man, Huggins will press and will play tough, physical one-on-one defense.
“Man-to-man defense is totally different. We never played this much man-to-man the whole time I was here,” said point guard Nichols. “This is pressure, in-your-face defense. There’s a lot of things he already taught us that I never knew. Little things. How to stay in front of your man, how not to get beat off the dribble.”
What he taught WVU is exactly what other teams like Pitt had done to them for years, things they hated to face.
“He’s teaching us stuff we used to complain about that others did to us,” Ruoff said, meaning physical stuff. “Hopefully, I won’t be fouling out of games. At practices I’m probably averaging 100 fouls a practice.”
This is not to say there won’t be offensive differences that are noticed. Consider, for example, that Nichols is talking about winning tonight’s slam dunk contest.
Nichols, the point guard, a man who has dunked only once in a game, that coming in his first game at WVU, an exhibition no less
But then Nichols’ entire game is about to undergo a radical change.
Under Beilein he was more a passer than a shooter. Now?
“He told me whenever I feel I need to make a play, to go get the ball, cross over a ball screen and get in the lane and penetrate,” Nichols said. “With Beilein you had to run a certain play for me to get in the lane.”
Huggins has so much in mind for Nichols that he even arranged for his former guard, NBA star Nick Van Excel to call him.
“He was telling me how Huggins was going to be and what he expects from the point guard. With Coach Huggins, it’s like one big family. He told me if I ever need anything to call him, talk to him about the season,” Nichols said.
And remember how important that assist-to-turnover ratio was to Beilein. Well, don’t look for Nichols to be worrying too much about that in this offense.
“It’s a big deal if the point guard turns the ball over, but this year I’m not expecting to lead the league in assist-turnover ratio. If I turn the ball over and we win, that’s fine. I know I’ll make more turnovers this year than last year because of the style of play,” he said.
Huggins had no trouble selling his team on his style of play. There is something about the man that demands your attention.
“He’s pretty intimidating,” Ruoff said. “He looks you right in the eye. He doesn’t look up or away. I don’t want to say anything to get me in trouble but he’s intimidating.”
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN— When he was a kid growing up just outside Cincinnati, Alex Ruoff had this pair of basketball shorts that he treasured.
They were red and black, colors of the University of Cincinnati. They had the Bearcat logo on them.
Alex Ruoff was Bearcat fan. He had wanted to attend Bob Huggins’ camp there, but said “it was too expensive.” So he settled for a pair of shorts.
Ruoff came to realize he would not play at Cincinnati. As he admitted the other day while he and his West Virginia University teammates were preparing for tonight’s 8 o’clock edition of Midnight Madness, “I know I’m not the type of player that Bob Huggins would recruit athletic-wise.”
Yet fate sometimes deals from the bottom of the deck, and when Ruoff takes the floor he may be wearing old gold and blue basketball shorts but he’ll be playing for Bob Huggins.
Following a season in which he won the NIT championship, only the second national championship WVU has ever won in a major sport, coach John Beilein pulled off the trickiest backdoor play of his coaching career, leaving for Michigan.
That, of course, sent WVU knocking on Huggins’ front door in Manhattan, Kansas, and offering the Kansas State coach the one job he could not turn down, a return to his alma mater to coach the team he had once captained.
True, it wasn’t packed with the same type of athletes he had in his heyday at Cincinnati where he would record most of his more than 500 college coaching victories, but Ruoff warns that what he does inherit is more athletic than anyone thinks and might just flourish in Huggins’ radically different system.
“We have a lot of sleepers, guys who no one gives give credit to for being athletic,” Ruoff noted. “The two guys who people notice are (Joe) Alexander and Wellington (Smith) as athletes, but our two point guards (Darris Nichols and Joe Mazulla) are lightning fast and our two freshmen are fast and Da’Sean Butler is more athletic than anybody.”
What’s more, they are more than just athletes, as is he, despite much self-deprecation.
“The way I look at it, Coach Beilein recruits players who can dribble, pass and shoot. That’s what makes that system work. If you’re a good coach — and Coach Huggins is — he’ll be able to use that. Our players can dribble, pass and shoot and are pretty intelligent. Any coach can use that to his advantage.”
Make no doubt you will not recognize what you see on the basketball court tonight or through the season. Gone is the 3-point pumping, precise passing, backdoor cutting offense that Beilein ran. In its place is an aggressive, board-crashing, fast-breaking offense that you will either love or hate, depending upon whether you like Sinatra or Ludicris.
But the biggest change won’t be on offense, even though you won’t be seeing 7-footer Jamie Smalligan popping out too often to shoot those 3s that had you oohing and ahing last year.
The biggest change is on defense, and if you don’t notice it, rest assured the players do.
While Beilein lived off his 1-3-1 zone or ran a passive man-on-man, Huggins will press and will play tough, physical one-on-one defense.
“Man-to-man defense is totally different. We never played this much man-to-man the whole time I was here,” said point guard Nichols. “This is pressure, in-your-face defense. There’s a lot of things he already taught us that I never knew. Little things. How to stay in front of your man, how not to get beat off the dribble.”
What he taught WVU is exactly what other teams like Pitt had done to them for years, things they hated to face.
“He’s teaching us stuff we used to complain about that others did to us,” Ruoff said, meaning physical stuff. “Hopefully, I won’t be fouling out of games. At practices I’m probably averaging 100 fouls a practice.”
This is not to say there won’t be offensive differences that are noticed. Consider, for example, that Nichols is talking about winning tonight’s slam dunk contest.
Nichols, the point guard, a man who has dunked only once in a game, that coming in his first game at WVU, an exhibition no less
But then Nichols’ entire game is about to undergo a radical change.
Under Beilein he was more a passer than a shooter. Now?
“He told me whenever I feel I need to make a play, to go get the ball, cross over a ball screen and get in the lane and penetrate,” Nichols said. “With Beilein you had to run a certain play for me to get in the lane.”
Huggins has so much in mind for Nichols that he even arranged for his former guard, NBA star Nick Van Excel to call him.
“He was telling me how Huggins was going to be and what he expects from the point guard. With Coach Huggins, it’s like one big family. He told me if I ever need anything to call him, talk to him about the season,” Nichols said.
And remember how important that assist-to-turnover ratio was to Beilein. Well, don’t look for Nichols to be worrying too much about that in this offense.
“It’s a big deal if the point guard turns the ball over, but this year I’m not expecting to lead the league in assist-turnover ratio. If I turn the ball over and we win, that’s fine. I know I’ll make more turnovers this year than last year because of the style of play,” he said.
Huggins had no trouble selling his team on his style of play. There is something about the man that demands your attention.
“He’s pretty intimidating,” Ruoff said. “He looks you right in the eye. He doesn’t look up or away. I don’t want to say anything to get me in trouble but he’s intimidating.”
