Post by elp525 on Feb 10, 2011 5:55:45 GMT -5
February 9, 2011
Mired in shooting slump, Mountaineers place emphasis on getting the ball closer to rim
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - For more than an hour following Tuesday night's loss to Connecticut by West Virginia's women's basketball team, after the crowd had filed out of the Coliseum and cleaning crews banged around in the seating areas with brooms and garbage bags, the action on the floor never let up.
It was Truck Bryant, along with a couple of volunteers for rebound-and-return, working on his shot, mostly the one from 3-point range.
He might have been better served to work on his layups, because that's apparently what Bob Huggins has determined is West Virginia's only option at this point and the one he will continue to stress.
"After a while, you're like, 'Damn, somebody bank one in or something,'" Huggins said after Monday's 71-66 loss to No. 4 Pitt. "We were 4-for-17 from 3. And you know what? For the most part they were pretty good looks. [Pitt] goes 1-for-6 from 3 and they just pound it at you and pound it at you and pound it at you.''
With seven regular-season games remaining - beginning with a 4 p.m. Saturday home game against DePaul - it seems that is exactly what Huggins is hoping to do in order to somehow begin scoring some points. Monday's 66-point output against the Panthers was the sixth game in a row - and the ninth in the past 11 games - that West Virginia failed to score at least 70 points.
Granted, only three of those nine were losses, but fewer points puts even more of a burden on the Mountaineers' defense. And that's already what this team relies on to win games.
Thus the Monday reliance on Deniz Kilicli. The 6-foot-9, 270-pound sophomore scored a career-high 19 points. He did it almost exclusively with his difficult-to-fathom - much less defend - hook shot, usually from about five feet from the basket.
If the Mountaineers can't shoot the ball from the outside - and they have proven time and again that is the case - the only option to score is to get it closer. So that's the emphasis.
"We finally threw him the ball,'' Huggins said of Kilicli, who was 9-of-13 shooting and missed only two of those hooks. "We should have thrown him the ball in the Villanova game and we didn't.''
Kilicli, of course, can't be the only scoring option for West Virginia, but working the ball inside and trying to create opportunities for him to score - as well as Kevin Jones and even Cam Thoroughman - has to be the emphasis.
That's the reality because of the way the Mountaineers are shooting the ball of late.
Bryant, in the last 11 games dating back to Jan. 1, is 21-for-82 from the floor (25.6 percent) and 8-for-40 (20 percent) on 3-pointers.
Jones, while shooting a decent percentage overall (44.4 percent), has numbers that are skewed by his inside shots. Away from the basket he has been ice cold, shooting 24.3 percent on 3s (7-for-36 in the last 12 games, 19.4 percent). Until finally making one against Pitt, he had missed 10 straight free throws and nearly as many mid-range jump shots, which last season were automatic for him.
Casey Mitchell, in limited playing time since returning from a suspension, is 2-for-13 overall and 1-for-8 on 3-pointers.
John Flowers has been about as consistent as anyone of late, but he has his moments, too, like going 2-for-8 and 1-for-4 in recent losses to Louisville and Pitt.
And Joe Mazzulla, since going 8-for-12 in that loss at Louisville, is 5-for-20 since then. But his shots are more often than not drives to the basket. He's 3-for-18 from 3-point range, 1-for-15 outside of Louisville's KFC Yum! Center.
So for outside shooting options, that leaves Dalton Pepper and Jonnie West. Pepper has come on of late with more playing time and is perhaps the Mountaineer one would trust most with an outside shot these days. But West, because of defensive deficiencies, is little more than a stop-gap measure when all else fails.
Huggins, of course, won't simply abandon outside shooting. There has to be that threat or Kilicli and Jones won't have any room to work inside when defenses collapse on them.
Then again, the hope is that if and when that happens, it will create even easier outside shots for the perimeter players and perhaps they will start making some. It's not as if these guys have never been able to shoot.
Mitchell will eventually find the stroke that allowed him to average 22.3 points the first month of the season and shoot nearly 40 percent from 3-point range until mid-January. Bryant was shooting 42.4 percent from 3-point range through the first 11 games. Jones was a 40 percent 3-point shooter last season. And Flowers has become perhaps the best clutch shooter on the team.
But until someone finds the basket, getting closer looks is all the Mountaineers can try to do.
"He did a great job [against Pitt],'' Jones said of Kilicli. "And we need that. We need his post play if we're going to win. We have to get closer shots.''
Mired in shooting slump, Mountaineers place emphasis on getting the ball closer to rim
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - For more than an hour following Tuesday night's loss to Connecticut by West Virginia's women's basketball team, after the crowd had filed out of the Coliseum and cleaning crews banged around in the seating areas with brooms and garbage bags, the action on the floor never let up.
It was Truck Bryant, along with a couple of volunteers for rebound-and-return, working on his shot, mostly the one from 3-point range.
He might have been better served to work on his layups, because that's apparently what Bob Huggins has determined is West Virginia's only option at this point and the one he will continue to stress.
"After a while, you're like, 'Damn, somebody bank one in or something,'" Huggins said after Monday's 71-66 loss to No. 4 Pitt. "We were 4-for-17 from 3. And you know what? For the most part they were pretty good looks. [Pitt] goes 1-for-6 from 3 and they just pound it at you and pound it at you and pound it at you.''
With seven regular-season games remaining - beginning with a 4 p.m. Saturday home game against DePaul - it seems that is exactly what Huggins is hoping to do in order to somehow begin scoring some points. Monday's 66-point output against the Panthers was the sixth game in a row - and the ninth in the past 11 games - that West Virginia failed to score at least 70 points.
Granted, only three of those nine were losses, but fewer points puts even more of a burden on the Mountaineers' defense. And that's already what this team relies on to win games.
Thus the Monday reliance on Deniz Kilicli. The 6-foot-9, 270-pound sophomore scored a career-high 19 points. He did it almost exclusively with his difficult-to-fathom - much less defend - hook shot, usually from about five feet from the basket.
If the Mountaineers can't shoot the ball from the outside - and they have proven time and again that is the case - the only option to score is to get it closer. So that's the emphasis.
"We finally threw him the ball,'' Huggins said of Kilicli, who was 9-of-13 shooting and missed only two of those hooks. "We should have thrown him the ball in the Villanova game and we didn't.''
Kilicli, of course, can't be the only scoring option for West Virginia, but working the ball inside and trying to create opportunities for him to score - as well as Kevin Jones and even Cam Thoroughman - has to be the emphasis.
That's the reality because of the way the Mountaineers are shooting the ball of late.
Bryant, in the last 11 games dating back to Jan. 1, is 21-for-82 from the floor (25.6 percent) and 8-for-40 (20 percent) on 3-pointers.
Jones, while shooting a decent percentage overall (44.4 percent), has numbers that are skewed by his inside shots. Away from the basket he has been ice cold, shooting 24.3 percent on 3s (7-for-36 in the last 12 games, 19.4 percent). Until finally making one against Pitt, he had missed 10 straight free throws and nearly as many mid-range jump shots, which last season were automatic for him.
Casey Mitchell, in limited playing time since returning from a suspension, is 2-for-13 overall and 1-for-8 on 3-pointers.
John Flowers has been about as consistent as anyone of late, but he has his moments, too, like going 2-for-8 and 1-for-4 in recent losses to Louisville and Pitt.
And Joe Mazzulla, since going 8-for-12 in that loss at Louisville, is 5-for-20 since then. But his shots are more often than not drives to the basket. He's 3-for-18 from 3-point range, 1-for-15 outside of Louisville's KFC Yum! Center.
So for outside shooting options, that leaves Dalton Pepper and Jonnie West. Pepper has come on of late with more playing time and is perhaps the Mountaineer one would trust most with an outside shot these days. But West, because of defensive deficiencies, is little more than a stop-gap measure when all else fails.
Huggins, of course, won't simply abandon outside shooting. There has to be that threat or Kilicli and Jones won't have any room to work inside when defenses collapse on them.
Then again, the hope is that if and when that happens, it will create even easier outside shots for the perimeter players and perhaps they will start making some. It's not as if these guys have never been able to shoot.
Mitchell will eventually find the stroke that allowed him to average 22.3 points the first month of the season and shoot nearly 40 percent from 3-point range until mid-January. Bryant was shooting 42.4 percent from 3-point range through the first 11 games. Jones was a 40 percent 3-point shooter last season. And Flowers has become perhaps the best clutch shooter on the team.
But until someone finds the basket, getting closer looks is all the Mountaineers can try to do.
"He did a great job [against Pitt],'' Jones said of Kilicli. "And we need that. We need his post play if we're going to win. We have to get closer shots.''
