UNLV Preview
December 27, 2002 01:41 PM | General
December 27, 2002
LAS VEGAS – There will be no Siegfried and Roy for West Virginia University coach John Beilein and his Mountaineer basketball team this weekend.
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| West Virginia freshman guard Joe Herber drives to the basket during last Saturday's win over Tennessee. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The coach says his team is on a business trip to Las Vegas to meet host UNLV in the second game of the Jim Thorpe Classic in the Thomas & Mack Center Saturday night. SMU plays Gardner-Webb in the first game.
“This is a great opportunity for the team to be here and bond a little bit,” he said. “We’ll have our curfews but I don’t expect it to be a big distraction.”
Beilein is anxious to see how his young team fares on the road in a difficult environment.
“Teams are more apt to lose their composure when they’re on the road and just make enough mistakes to making an even game to being down by six,” he said. “Teams might shoot foul shots at home also for whatever reasons. As a result there is definitely an advantage for the home team.”
West Virginia’s first foray on the road was not a positive experience for the Mountaineers.
“The Duquesne game was certainly not a good example of what we need to do to win on the road, but I really don’t know them enough to know what type of road team we are,” said Beilein. “How our freshman react will be huge.”
The 7-1 Mountaineers are coming off an impressive 65-62, come-from-behind victory over Tennessee last Saturday. West Virginia trailed by 16 points in the first half before catching fire in the second half. The Volunteers only managed to score 19 second-half points in losing for the second straight year to West Virginia.
Sophomore Drew Schifino scored 28 points and freshman Kevin Pittsnogle added 15, including the team’s last five to win the game.
UNLV, meanwhile, fell to 6-2 after a 77-66 loss to Stanford last Saturday. The Rebels show victories over Portland State, Alabama-Birmingham, Washington, Nevada-Reno, Bradley and Tennessee-Martin, and losses to Wisconsin and Stanford.
Six-two senior guard Marcus Banks leads the ‘Runnin Rebels with an average of 19.9 points per game. He scored a season-high 35 against Nevada-Reno and added 30 in a win against UAB.
“Marcus Banks is as good a guard as we’re going to see all year,” said Beilein. “He can just score on his own.”
UNLV also has a formidable tandem inside in 6-foot-10 Dalron Johnson and 6-8, 250-pound, J.K. Edwards. Johnson is averaging 16 points and 7.1 rebounds per game while Edwards is averaging 11.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per contest.
“Johnson is 6-10 but he’s more of a perimeter guy. He averages 16 points per game and is the real deal,” said Beilein.
“Charlie Spoonhour is an extremely solid coach,” Beilein added. “They are playing a little bit more up-tempo than his teams at St. Louis or Southwest Missouri State. But they are still going to be tough defensively and if we can shoot it well against them then we can stay in the game longer.”
Tipoff for the game is 11:05 ET and the contest can be heard live on the Internet at MSNsportsNET.com.
West Virginia completes the two-game trip with a Sunday contest against 1-7 Gardner-Webb. That game will tipoff at 8:05 ET.
