Post by elp525 on Feb 15, 2011 9:10:26 GMT -5
February 14, 2011
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - There were plenty of reasons West Virginia wound up losing 63-52 to No. 17 Syracuse Monday night at the Carrier Dome. For many of those reasons, Syracuse deserves some of the credit for making things difficult for the Mountaineers.
But all in all, the blame for this loss falls squarely on the Mountaineers.
West Virginia attacked Syracuse's zone just the way it wanted to, but couldn't make the shots it got.
The Mountaineers turned the ball over 16 times against a fairly passive zone.
And, worst of all, WVU got lazy on defense.
"We've got to get back to playing defense the way we were,'' said forward John Flowers. "We had our problems on offense and I think we got comfortable after the first half, but the thing we can't do is slack off on defense.''
Indeed, while West Virginia had plenty of offensive problems Monday night (Casey Mitchell and Flowers shot a combined 12-of-21 and everyone else was 5-of-26), the Mountaineers still might have survived. They have, after all, made a living off of defense and rebounding the last month of the season.
But in this one, some of the Syracuse numbers were downright embarrassing. The worst was fast-break points. The Orange had 19. West Virginia had none.
In other words, in the half court the Mountaineers handled Syracuse effectively, save for a couple of sneak-along-the-baseline dunks that drew the ire of coach Bob Huggins. But those fast-break points - especially ones off the 16 West Virginia turnovers - were huge.
"I'm surprised we turned the ball over as much as we did, seeing that they sit back there in that 2-3 zone,'' Flowers said.
Indeed, it was not easy to figure out.
The problem, though, was that in trying to navigate through or around that zone the Mountaineers got lazy at times. On consecutive possessions in the second half, Cam Thoroughman had two passes that he was trying to lob over the defense picked off. Mitchell had five turnovers himself.
"And if we turn the ball over 16 times, we're not going to win,'' Huggins said. "You don't expect Cam to throw it like that twice, especially considering that he was allegedly a guard in high school.''
nn
The road from here on out gets no easier for West Virginia, although at least in the short term, the frequency of difficult opponents slacks off a bit.
The Mountaineers have only one game in the next nine days - at home against No. 8 Notre Dame on Saturday. After that are road trips to No. 4 Pitt and Rutgers in a span of four days, then home games at the end of the regular season against No. 10 Connecticut and No. 16 Louisville.
The Mountaineers are now 4-5 in their last nine games.
Monday night's loss also extended to nine WVU's losing streak against Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. Oddly, though, it snapped a two-game winning streak for the Mountaineers here. They beat Washington and Kentucky here in the NCAA tournament last March.
While West Virginia has generally not fared well here (3-10 all time after Monday's loss), Huggins has been more successful. He's now 4-2 in this building. Along with his 2-2 record here (two NCAA tourney wins and two losses to SU) with WVU, Huggins' 1993 Cincinnati team beat Coppin State and New Mexico State here in the NCAA tournament's first round.
Huggins also has another meeting of record with SU coach Jim Boeheim in Syracuse, but not at the Carrier Dome. In 1976-77, Boeheim was in his first season as the Syracuse coach and Huggins was a senior at WVU. He had 11 points in an 86-71 loss at Manley Field House.
nn
BRIEFLY: Just for the record, Monday night's game here was the 100th of the Big East season. There are 46 remaining. The Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden begins three weeks from today.
Despite a 4-5 record over the last nine games, West Virginia continues to hang around the Associated Press Top 25. After two straight weeks at No. 25, the Mountaineers on Monday fell only to No. 26.
West Virginia has faced three Top 25 opponents in its last four games and is scheduled to face four more in the last five regular-season games. Assuming the four ranked opponents remaining on the schedule stay in the Top 25 until they face WVU, it will officially mark the toughest nine-game stretch in school in history. No other Mountaineer team has ever faced seven ranked opponents in a span of nine games.
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - There were plenty of reasons West Virginia wound up losing 63-52 to No. 17 Syracuse Monday night at the Carrier Dome. For many of those reasons, Syracuse deserves some of the credit for making things difficult for the Mountaineers.
But all in all, the blame for this loss falls squarely on the Mountaineers.
West Virginia attacked Syracuse's zone just the way it wanted to, but couldn't make the shots it got.
The Mountaineers turned the ball over 16 times against a fairly passive zone.
And, worst of all, WVU got lazy on defense.
"We've got to get back to playing defense the way we were,'' said forward John Flowers. "We had our problems on offense and I think we got comfortable after the first half, but the thing we can't do is slack off on defense.''
Indeed, while West Virginia had plenty of offensive problems Monday night (Casey Mitchell and Flowers shot a combined 12-of-21 and everyone else was 5-of-26), the Mountaineers still might have survived. They have, after all, made a living off of defense and rebounding the last month of the season.
But in this one, some of the Syracuse numbers were downright embarrassing. The worst was fast-break points. The Orange had 19. West Virginia had none.
In other words, in the half court the Mountaineers handled Syracuse effectively, save for a couple of sneak-along-the-baseline dunks that drew the ire of coach Bob Huggins. But those fast-break points - especially ones off the 16 West Virginia turnovers - were huge.
"I'm surprised we turned the ball over as much as we did, seeing that they sit back there in that 2-3 zone,'' Flowers said.
Indeed, it was not easy to figure out.
The problem, though, was that in trying to navigate through or around that zone the Mountaineers got lazy at times. On consecutive possessions in the second half, Cam Thoroughman had two passes that he was trying to lob over the defense picked off. Mitchell had five turnovers himself.
"And if we turn the ball over 16 times, we're not going to win,'' Huggins said. "You don't expect Cam to throw it like that twice, especially considering that he was allegedly a guard in high school.''
nn
The road from here on out gets no easier for West Virginia, although at least in the short term, the frequency of difficult opponents slacks off a bit.
The Mountaineers have only one game in the next nine days - at home against No. 8 Notre Dame on Saturday. After that are road trips to No. 4 Pitt and Rutgers in a span of four days, then home games at the end of the regular season against No. 10 Connecticut and No. 16 Louisville.
The Mountaineers are now 4-5 in their last nine games.
Monday night's loss also extended to nine WVU's losing streak against Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. Oddly, though, it snapped a two-game winning streak for the Mountaineers here. They beat Washington and Kentucky here in the NCAA tournament last March.
While West Virginia has generally not fared well here (3-10 all time after Monday's loss), Huggins has been more successful. He's now 4-2 in this building. Along with his 2-2 record here (two NCAA tourney wins and two losses to SU) with WVU, Huggins' 1993 Cincinnati team beat Coppin State and New Mexico State here in the NCAA tournament's first round.
Huggins also has another meeting of record with SU coach Jim Boeheim in Syracuse, but not at the Carrier Dome. In 1976-77, Boeheim was in his first season as the Syracuse coach and Huggins was a senior at WVU. He had 11 points in an 86-71 loss at Manley Field House.
nn
BRIEFLY: Just for the record, Monday night's game here was the 100th of the Big East season. There are 46 remaining. The Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden begins three weeks from today.
Despite a 4-5 record over the last nine games, West Virginia continues to hang around the Associated Press Top 25. After two straight weeks at No. 25, the Mountaineers on Monday fell only to No. 26.
West Virginia has faced three Top 25 opponents in its last four games and is scheduled to face four more in the last five regular-season games. Assuming the four ranked opponents remaining on the schedule stay in the Top 25 until they face WVU, it will officially mark the toughest nine-game stretch in school in history. No other Mountaineer team has ever faced seven ranked opponents in a span of nine games.
