Florida to Invade Charleston
December 03, 2002 01:57 PM | General
Tuesday, December 3, 2002
Tuesday’s game against No. 7-ranked Florida is an excellent opportunity for West Virginia to get a clearer picture of its basketball team and a chance for people in the southern part of the state to see some outstanding collegiate basketball.
The contest will feature the return of guard Brett Nelson to Charleston. One of the big keys to the game will be how well West Virginia handles the basketball. So far through three games the Mountaineers have done an outstanding job holding on to the ball, having turned it over just 24 times. West Virginia’s 42-24 assist-to-turnover ratio is outstanding.
But West Virginia will have a much stiffer challenge against a Florida team that has forced 89 turnovers in five games. They’re going to put quicker and better athletes on the floor and they are going to try and score from their defense.
Because of that, West Virginia is going to have to try and handle Florida’s press. The Mountaineers are going to have to be patient and watch out that they don’t get caught up in some of Florida’s runs.
As far as using this game as a measuring stick, I think it is still premature. You hear some mixed reaction about whether this is a good game or a bad game for West Virginia right now. I’m hearing both sides, but it really hasn’t been a bad schedule to start out with.
You open at home, play a road game and then come back home. Now you’re at a neutral court against one of the top-ranked teams in the country. That allows Coach John Beilein a chance to evaluate his team in some of the areas in which he is trying to prepare his team for in conference play.
Florida is a pretty big club. This may sound strange, but I think West Virginia must be concerned about not trying to just outscore this club because Florida is deep and they always like four shooters on the floor at one time.
West Virginia is going to have to try and play their game – not run clock necessarily – but make sure they run their offense and take good shots.
So far I like the way Drew Schifino is developing. He is working with a world of confidence. I think he has a real, real good chance of being one of the conference’s top scorers before he leaves here.
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| MSN's Jay Jacobs believes freshman Patrick Beilein has been one of West Virginia's steadiest players. |
The starting lineup John Beilein sends out for the Florida game will probably have three freshmen and two sophomores. I see this more as a situation where those five have played the best rather than a design to let the underclassmen gain experience down the road.
Statistically, Kevin Pittsnogle has outplayed Chaz Briggs and that’s why he is starting. Kevin is averaging 27 minutes a game and that’s a lot for a freshman. But his 14.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per game prove that he should be on the floor.
Will he get into a tougher situation against Florida? I think he will be all right because he will be able to pull Florida’s big guys like Matt Bonner outside where he won’t have to post him up.
Tyrone Sally has been seeing more time at the three position because he is rebounding better and because Josh Yeager is not getting to the foul line. Yeager has shot one free throw in three games and that is one thing Beilein wanted was to have Yeager get to the line more often.
Perhaps the team’s steadiest player has been Patrick Beilein. If you go through his stats, he’s given the team a solid seven points per game, he’s playing 19 minutes per game, he’s shooting 40 percent from three-point distance and he’s handling the ball the way they want him to.
And although he’s playing a tough position and not scoring a lot of points yet, the coaching staff has been happy with the play of Jarmon Durisseau-Collins at point guard. He’s getting better with each game, too.
Tuesday’s game tips off at 7 p.m. I hope to see you there.
