Post by elp525 on Feb 18, 2011 8:13:32 GMT -5
Friday February 18, 2011
No. 7 Notre Dame and WVU have had to adjust since losing several of squad's key players
by Mike Casazza
Charleston Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia and Notre Dame find themselves in very different situations entering the final stretch of regular season games.
The Mountaineers have lost four of seven. The Fighting Irish have won seven in a row. Notre Dame is a lock for the NCAA Tournament. WVU needs wins as it plays four of its final five games against ranked teams.
Both, though, are defined by who isn't on the team.
Notre Dame (21-4, 10-3 Big East) was picked to finish seventh in the Big East men's basketball preseason coaches' poll, but enters the Coliseum Saturday (WOWK, 1 p.m.) ranked eighth in the Associated Press poll.
Tory Jackson and Luke Harangody were seniors last year and keys to the winningest senior class in the program's history. With them gone most figured the Irish would fade. They've instead thrived.
"They live to show people, 'Hey, we're pretty good too, all right, even though we lost this guy or that guy,' " Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey said. "There's a competitor's trait in this group of guys that likes to show they're still pretty good."
The Mountaineers lost a lot, too. Da'Sean Butler and Wellington Smith graduated. Devin Ebanks left school early for the NBA Draft.
WVU (16-9, 7-6) was still picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll, but has been ranked in three polls this season and is 3-3 as a ranked team and 2-4 against ranked opponents.
Butler, Smith and Ebanks are gone, but so, too, are replacements.
"In all honesty, what's affected us is losing our entire freshman class," WVU Coach Bob Huggins said. "You take away two guards and the length the other guys had and we can't do the things we really anticipated doing when you sit down and try to prepare for the season.
"That's hurt us more than anything. You're going to lose guys. We all knew Devin was going to leave. Da'Sean was a senior. Wells was a senior. You plan for that. What affected us was losing the new guys."
Scoring has been the issue for WVU, which has scored more than 66 points once in the past seven games and just twice in the past 10.
"We're kind of depending on some guys that helped score the ball a year ago for us and they're struggling right now," Huggins said. "We hope it's time they snap out it and start making shots."
The Mountaineers once won 37 consecutive games when allowing fewer than 70 points, but have dropped three of five such games, including Monday's 63-52 loss to Syracuse.
Casey Mitchell made seven 3-pointers and scored 23 points - five more points than his first three games back from suspension - and John Flowers added 10 points. The other seven players didn't reach double figures and shot 5-for-29.
Forward Kevin Jones found a groove in eight games in the middle of the year and scored 17 and 15 points three times and 19 and 13 once. In the nine games since, he's been in double figures four times and never with more than 16 points. He bottomed out with four points Monday.
Truck Bryant is 13-for-62 the past nine games and has one game in double figures - 11 points against DePaul.
"It hasn't been the most storybook year," Huggins said. "We lose Casey for three games in the middle of the conference season and try to bring him back and get him back in the flow and back in the rotation, but it's been one thing after the other."
Notre Dame has enjoyed a separate fate. Harangody was the Big East Player of the Year in 2008 and a three-time first-team all-conference player. He's the only player in league history to average 20 points and 10 rebounds in conference games in his career.
Senior guard Ben Hansbrough has taken over, though, and has had, according to Huggins, "one of the best years of any player in the league." Hansbrough averages 17.3 points and 4.1 assists and is shooting 41.1-percent from 3-point range.
The younger brother of former North Carolina All-American Tyler Hansbrough, Ben is a Mississippi State transfer who averaged 12 points and started every game for Notre Dame last season. He's a different player this season and Notre Dame is a different team than most expected.
"Ben Hansbrough's play and his leadership and his style of leadership have helped this group," Brey said. "He has an edge about him and a toughness about him and a borderline craziness about him - which I love - that, I think, has been contagious. He keeps pushing the bar higher and higher and doesn't let guys get in a comfort zone. He's helped us believe."
Notre Dame beat Georgia, California and Wisconsin to win the Old Spice Classic and then beat Gonzaga at home before entering Big East play. The Irish then started 3-3 with losses on the road against Syracuse, Marquette and St. John's, but also beat No. 4 Pitt at the Petersen Events Center.
"We've had some really good wins to date, but nothing like that one to be a jewel on the resume," Brey said. "Our road losses were places that are tough to play. We didn't overanalyze them. We just tried to be a little better concentrating for 40 minutes."
No. 7 Notre Dame and WVU have had to adjust since losing several of squad's key players
by Mike Casazza
Charleston Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia and Notre Dame find themselves in very different situations entering the final stretch of regular season games.
The Mountaineers have lost four of seven. The Fighting Irish have won seven in a row. Notre Dame is a lock for the NCAA Tournament. WVU needs wins as it plays four of its final five games against ranked teams.
Both, though, are defined by who isn't on the team.
Notre Dame (21-4, 10-3 Big East) was picked to finish seventh in the Big East men's basketball preseason coaches' poll, but enters the Coliseum Saturday (WOWK, 1 p.m.) ranked eighth in the Associated Press poll.
Tory Jackson and Luke Harangody were seniors last year and keys to the winningest senior class in the program's history. With them gone most figured the Irish would fade. They've instead thrived.
"They live to show people, 'Hey, we're pretty good too, all right, even though we lost this guy or that guy,' " Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey said. "There's a competitor's trait in this group of guys that likes to show they're still pretty good."
The Mountaineers lost a lot, too. Da'Sean Butler and Wellington Smith graduated. Devin Ebanks left school early for the NBA Draft.
WVU (16-9, 7-6) was still picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll, but has been ranked in three polls this season and is 3-3 as a ranked team and 2-4 against ranked opponents.
Butler, Smith and Ebanks are gone, but so, too, are replacements.
"In all honesty, what's affected us is losing our entire freshman class," WVU Coach Bob Huggins said. "You take away two guards and the length the other guys had and we can't do the things we really anticipated doing when you sit down and try to prepare for the season.
"That's hurt us more than anything. You're going to lose guys. We all knew Devin was going to leave. Da'Sean was a senior. Wells was a senior. You plan for that. What affected us was losing the new guys."
Scoring has been the issue for WVU, which has scored more than 66 points once in the past seven games and just twice in the past 10.
"We're kind of depending on some guys that helped score the ball a year ago for us and they're struggling right now," Huggins said. "We hope it's time they snap out it and start making shots."
The Mountaineers once won 37 consecutive games when allowing fewer than 70 points, but have dropped three of five such games, including Monday's 63-52 loss to Syracuse.
Casey Mitchell made seven 3-pointers and scored 23 points - five more points than his first three games back from suspension - and John Flowers added 10 points. The other seven players didn't reach double figures and shot 5-for-29.
Forward Kevin Jones found a groove in eight games in the middle of the year and scored 17 and 15 points three times and 19 and 13 once. In the nine games since, he's been in double figures four times and never with more than 16 points. He bottomed out with four points Monday.
Truck Bryant is 13-for-62 the past nine games and has one game in double figures - 11 points against DePaul.
"It hasn't been the most storybook year," Huggins said. "We lose Casey for three games in the middle of the conference season and try to bring him back and get him back in the flow and back in the rotation, but it's been one thing after the other."
Notre Dame has enjoyed a separate fate. Harangody was the Big East Player of the Year in 2008 and a three-time first-team all-conference player. He's the only player in league history to average 20 points and 10 rebounds in conference games in his career.
Senior guard Ben Hansbrough has taken over, though, and has had, according to Huggins, "one of the best years of any player in the league." Hansbrough averages 17.3 points and 4.1 assists and is shooting 41.1-percent from 3-point range.
The younger brother of former North Carolina All-American Tyler Hansbrough, Ben is a Mississippi State transfer who averaged 12 points and started every game for Notre Dame last season. He's a different player this season and Notre Dame is a different team than most expected.
"Ben Hansbrough's play and his leadership and his style of leadership have helped this group," Brey said. "He has an edge about him and a toughness about him and a borderline craziness about him - which I love - that, I think, has been contagious. He keeps pushing the bar higher and higher and doesn't let guys get in a comfort zone. He's helped us believe."
Notre Dame beat Georgia, California and Wisconsin to win the Old Spice Classic and then beat Gonzaga at home before entering Big East play. The Irish then started 3-3 with losses on the road against Syracuse, Marquette and St. John's, but also beat No. 4 Pitt at the Petersen Events Center.
"We've had some really good wins to date, but nothing like that one to be a jewel on the resume," Brey said. "Our road losses were places that are tough to play. We didn't overanalyze them. We just tried to be a little better concentrating for 40 minutes."
