Post by elp525 on Mar 15, 2011 7:33:27 GMT -5
March 14, 2011
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - By the time West Virginia finds out who it will play and then wraps up what is sure to be a fairly intense day of workouts to prepare for Thursday's NCAA tournament opener in Tampa, gone should be the malady that worked against it in last week's Big East tournament.
The Mountaineers were sick, and that was more than a description of their on-court performance in a loss to Marquette.
That's why in the time between that one-and-done loss and when the NCAA brackets were announced Sunday night, West Virginia took it easy. There were days off and lighter practices, not necessarily to rest, but to recover.
"We were a little beat up. We were sick,'' coach Bob Huggins said. "Cam [Thoroughman] was really sick, Joe [Mazzulla] was a little bit sick in New York. We just need to get guys healed up. We did enough [in practice], I hope, to keep our legs.''
After West Virginia's 67-61 loss to Marquette on Wednesday night, several players talked about poor practices leading up to the game. Huggins admitted the practices were, indeed, rather awful by his standards.
"But when you've got nine guys and you get some guys sick and pale and don't feel very good, it's hard to have a good practice,'' said Huggins, who also mentioned Deniz Kilicli and Jonnie West among the ill last week.
Whatever the reason, though, West Virginia is intent upon putting both those practices and the most recent performance behind it. The Mountaineers need to do that one way or another by shortly after noon on Thursday, when they play either Clemson or Alabama-Birmingham at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa.
"Nobody's holding their heads down and everybody knows that this is a new season for us,'' forward Kevin Jones said. "We're starting 0-0. Hopefully we get to 6-0. That would be great for us.''
The sickness that went through the team wasn't the only reason Huggins wasn't particularly hard on his players in the days between the loss in the league tournament and now. There was also the matter of the unknown.
Leading up to Sunday's NCAA tournament selections, the Mountaineers (20-11) had no idea for whom they should prepare. And then revelation of the brackets didn't help much, either, when West Virginia was assigned a No. 5 seed and paired against a play-in game winner.
Clemson (21-11) and UAB (22-8) play late tonight (9 p.m., TruTV) in Dayton for the right to advance into the bracket against WVU.
"I don't know that we were easier on them. But what are you going to do? What are you going to prepare for?'' Huggins asked. "You don't have any idea what style of play is coming. You don't have any idea whether they throw it to bigs or if they're guard oriented. Do they play fast, play slow? You don't have any idea. So what are you going to do?
"You just try to be as prepared as you can. Don't be surprised.''
The makeup of West Virginia's roster would seem to indicate that surprises are not likely. This is a group with seniors who are playing in their fourth straight NCAA tournament and juniors who are playing in their third. In all, nine players on West Virginia's roster have combined for 53 games of NCAA tournament experience.
"I think when you have more seniors and the finality sets in, I think they're more focused,'' Huggins said. "And we're fortunate to have a bunch of seniors that this is their fourth NCAA tournament. So they kind of know a little bit more what to expect.''
And for those nine, and particularly the seniors, the goal now is to put one bad week behind them.
"We've had good days of practice and I think we've tried to forget about that. We're focused now solely on what we have in the future,'' Thoroughman said. "We can make all that go away and nobody will even talk about it if we make a run in the NCAA tournament.''
Briefly
By the way, Flowers, West and Thoroughman have a chance to become the first players in school history to play in four NCAA tournaments (assuming they play; Flowers and Thoroughman are starters, but West sometimes doesn't get off the bench).
The only time WVU appeared in four straight NCAA tournaments was the six straight from 1955-60. But no one played on more than three of those teams because freshmen were ineligible then.
Mazzulla would be included in the four-NCAA group, but he redshirted the 2008-09 season with a shoulder injury and did not play in the tournament.
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - By the time West Virginia finds out who it will play and then wraps up what is sure to be a fairly intense day of workouts to prepare for Thursday's NCAA tournament opener in Tampa, gone should be the malady that worked against it in last week's Big East tournament.
The Mountaineers were sick, and that was more than a description of their on-court performance in a loss to Marquette.
That's why in the time between that one-and-done loss and when the NCAA brackets were announced Sunday night, West Virginia took it easy. There were days off and lighter practices, not necessarily to rest, but to recover.
"We were a little beat up. We were sick,'' coach Bob Huggins said. "Cam [Thoroughman] was really sick, Joe [Mazzulla] was a little bit sick in New York. We just need to get guys healed up. We did enough [in practice], I hope, to keep our legs.''
After West Virginia's 67-61 loss to Marquette on Wednesday night, several players talked about poor practices leading up to the game. Huggins admitted the practices were, indeed, rather awful by his standards.
"But when you've got nine guys and you get some guys sick and pale and don't feel very good, it's hard to have a good practice,'' said Huggins, who also mentioned Deniz Kilicli and Jonnie West among the ill last week.
Whatever the reason, though, West Virginia is intent upon putting both those practices and the most recent performance behind it. The Mountaineers need to do that one way or another by shortly after noon on Thursday, when they play either Clemson or Alabama-Birmingham at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa.
"Nobody's holding their heads down and everybody knows that this is a new season for us,'' forward Kevin Jones said. "We're starting 0-0. Hopefully we get to 6-0. That would be great for us.''
The sickness that went through the team wasn't the only reason Huggins wasn't particularly hard on his players in the days between the loss in the league tournament and now. There was also the matter of the unknown.
Leading up to Sunday's NCAA tournament selections, the Mountaineers (20-11) had no idea for whom they should prepare. And then revelation of the brackets didn't help much, either, when West Virginia was assigned a No. 5 seed and paired against a play-in game winner.
Clemson (21-11) and UAB (22-8) play late tonight (9 p.m., TruTV) in Dayton for the right to advance into the bracket against WVU.
"I don't know that we were easier on them. But what are you going to do? What are you going to prepare for?'' Huggins asked. "You don't have any idea what style of play is coming. You don't have any idea whether they throw it to bigs or if they're guard oriented. Do they play fast, play slow? You don't have any idea. So what are you going to do?
"You just try to be as prepared as you can. Don't be surprised.''
The makeup of West Virginia's roster would seem to indicate that surprises are not likely. This is a group with seniors who are playing in their fourth straight NCAA tournament and juniors who are playing in their third. In all, nine players on West Virginia's roster have combined for 53 games of NCAA tournament experience.
"I think when you have more seniors and the finality sets in, I think they're more focused,'' Huggins said. "And we're fortunate to have a bunch of seniors that this is their fourth NCAA tournament. So they kind of know a little bit more what to expect.''
And for those nine, and particularly the seniors, the goal now is to put one bad week behind them.
"We've had good days of practice and I think we've tried to forget about that. We're focused now solely on what we have in the future,'' Thoroughman said. "We can make all that go away and nobody will even talk about it if we make a run in the NCAA tournament.''
Briefly
By the way, Flowers, West and Thoroughman have a chance to become the first players in school history to play in four NCAA tournaments (assuming they play; Flowers and Thoroughman are starters, but West sometimes doesn't get off the bench).
The only time WVU appeared in four straight NCAA tournaments was the six straight from 1955-60. But no one played on more than three of those teams because freshmen were ineligible then.
Mazzulla would be included in the four-NCAA group, but he redshirted the 2008-09 season with a shoulder injury and did not play in the tournament.
