Post by rainman on Dec 7, 2007 6:36:34 GMT -5
No time to rest
By Mickey Furfari
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN— The West Virginia University men’s basketball team doesn’t have much time to reflect on Wednesday night’s 88-59 blowout of Auburn in the SEC/Big East Invitational at Birmingham, Ala.
Duquesne (6-2), its next opponent, is coming off an oh-so-close near-upset of No. 12-ranked Pitt (8-0), the Dukes’ cross-town basketball rival, on Wednesday night at Palumbo Center.
While the Panthers never were behind in winning by 73-68, Duquesne overcame a 14-0 deficit at the start, battled back, and stayed within shouting distance most of the contest.
The Dukes trailed by 36-31 at halftime and came to within one point several times.
West Virginia will be hosting Duquesne at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Coliseum. WVU officials are hopeful of a large crowd. Almost 7,000 season tickets have been sold for the home games this season.
In making their record 6-1 under new head coach Bob Huggins, the Mountaineers put on perhaps their best overall performance in hammering Auburn.
They shot a sizzling 61.0 percent (36-59), scoring 44 points in each half and playing great defense. They also had 24 assists and only seven turnovers.
Auburn shot 50 percent (26-52) and managed a 31-25 edge in rebounds, but most of that came after Huggins had cleared the bench.
Alex Ruoff, 6-6 junior forward, led the charge with a career-high 28 points. He was 10-of-12 from the field, including 6-of-8 from three-point range, and also had two rebounds, three assists and three steals.
In the process, Ruoff became only the 11th Mountaineer all-time to make six three-point goals in a game.
“He works at it,” Huggins noted. “That’s why he’s successful. He shot it really well tonight.”
Joe Alexander, 6-8 junior forward, got 12 of his 17 points in the first half. He made 8 of 14 field-goal attempts and had three rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Alexander and Ruoff combined had more points than Auburn at the half when WVU led 44-27. The lead was 80-43 with 5:26 left when Huggins cleared the bench.
The coach said he thinks Alexander is starting to concentrate a lot more than he did earlier in the season — that he’s concentrating for a longer period of time.
“He was very, very good starting the game,” Huggins continued. “But he kind of lost interest in the second half, quite honestly. When he’s generally focused on it, he’s real good.”
Huggins said he chief concern Wednesday night was if the Tigers got penetration and some players got into foul trouble. But that didn’t turn out to be a problem.
He explained that Jamie Smalligan, the 7-0 senior center, played only a handful of minutes because it just wasn’t a good match-up for him. That’s because Auburn went with a small four-guard lineup.
“I’m not down on him by any shape or form,” Huggins stressed. “Duquesne has two big guys (6-10), so Jamie will see a lot of action on Saturday.”
Huggins thinks his team is getting steadily better in his system, but still needs to improve in some areas.
“They don’t guard the basketball enough yet,” he explained. “They tried to run some stuff early and couldn’t.
“We had some errors that they knew better. But it’s a day-to-day deal. They need to continue to get better. The more we do the right things, the more we’re going to do the right things.”
Ron Everhart, Fairmont native and Duquesne’s head coach, attributed the Dukes’ slow start against Pitt to his players being uptight and nervous.
“A lot of that was us,” he reasoned. “We forced things that weren’t there. And Pitt played us tough. …
“But we still had our chances. We just didn’t take advantage of them.”
Huggins said, “They’ve press full-court. They will trap you. They sub five guys at a time. We’re not going to sub five at a time. We’ll make sure we’ve got good legs on Saturday night.”
WVU has won 18 of its last 19 non-conference games and 23 of 25.
By Mickey Furfari
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN— The West Virginia University men’s basketball team doesn’t have much time to reflect on Wednesday night’s 88-59 blowout of Auburn in the SEC/Big East Invitational at Birmingham, Ala.
Duquesne (6-2), its next opponent, is coming off an oh-so-close near-upset of No. 12-ranked Pitt (8-0), the Dukes’ cross-town basketball rival, on Wednesday night at Palumbo Center.
While the Panthers never were behind in winning by 73-68, Duquesne overcame a 14-0 deficit at the start, battled back, and stayed within shouting distance most of the contest.
The Dukes trailed by 36-31 at halftime and came to within one point several times.
West Virginia will be hosting Duquesne at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Coliseum. WVU officials are hopeful of a large crowd. Almost 7,000 season tickets have been sold for the home games this season.
In making their record 6-1 under new head coach Bob Huggins, the Mountaineers put on perhaps their best overall performance in hammering Auburn.
They shot a sizzling 61.0 percent (36-59), scoring 44 points in each half and playing great defense. They also had 24 assists and only seven turnovers.
Auburn shot 50 percent (26-52) and managed a 31-25 edge in rebounds, but most of that came after Huggins had cleared the bench.
Alex Ruoff, 6-6 junior forward, led the charge with a career-high 28 points. He was 10-of-12 from the field, including 6-of-8 from three-point range, and also had two rebounds, three assists and three steals.
In the process, Ruoff became only the 11th Mountaineer all-time to make six three-point goals in a game.
“He works at it,” Huggins noted. “That’s why he’s successful. He shot it really well tonight.”
Joe Alexander, 6-8 junior forward, got 12 of his 17 points in the first half. He made 8 of 14 field-goal attempts and had three rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Alexander and Ruoff combined had more points than Auburn at the half when WVU led 44-27. The lead was 80-43 with 5:26 left when Huggins cleared the bench.
The coach said he thinks Alexander is starting to concentrate a lot more than he did earlier in the season — that he’s concentrating for a longer period of time.
“He was very, very good starting the game,” Huggins continued. “But he kind of lost interest in the second half, quite honestly. When he’s generally focused on it, he’s real good.”
Huggins said he chief concern Wednesday night was if the Tigers got penetration and some players got into foul trouble. But that didn’t turn out to be a problem.
He explained that Jamie Smalligan, the 7-0 senior center, played only a handful of minutes because it just wasn’t a good match-up for him. That’s because Auburn went with a small four-guard lineup.
“I’m not down on him by any shape or form,” Huggins stressed. “Duquesne has two big guys (6-10), so Jamie will see a lot of action on Saturday.”
Huggins thinks his team is getting steadily better in his system, but still needs to improve in some areas.
“They don’t guard the basketball enough yet,” he explained. “They tried to run some stuff early and couldn’t.
“We had some errors that they knew better. But it’s a day-to-day deal. They need to continue to get better. The more we do the right things, the more we’re going to do the right things.”
Ron Everhart, Fairmont native and Duquesne’s head coach, attributed the Dukes’ slow start against Pitt to his players being uptight and nervous.
“A lot of that was us,” he reasoned. “We forced things that weren’t there. And Pitt played us tough. …
“But we still had our chances. We just didn’t take advantage of them.”
Huggins said, “They’ve press full-court. They will trap you. They sub five guys at a time. We’re not going to sub five at a time. We’ll make sure we’ve got good legs on Saturday night.”
WVU has won 18 of its last 19 non-conference games and 23 of 25.
