Prepping for Pitt
January 13, 2003 01:33 PM | General
January 13, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Great balance is only one of the many attributes No. 3-ranked Pitt has in its favor.
 |
||
| Sophomore forward Tyrone Sally nailed a big three-point basket down the stretch at Georgetown and finished the game with nine points. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The Panthers also have one of the country’s best defenses, allowing just 56.5 points per game. Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum, West Virginia will get another opportunity to see how it measures up against one of the nation’s top basketball teams.
“Obviously we had a tough loss yesterday against Georgetown and we’ve only got one day to get ready for one of the best teams in the country in Pittsburgh,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein.
Pitt is coming off a tough, 70-63 win at Rutgers Sunday afternoon. Guard Brandin Knight scored 17 points and Julius Page and Ontario Lett each added 12 to help the Panthers improve to 12-1, 2-0.
Pitt doesn’t have one prolific scorer but instead has six players averaging right around 10 points per game. Page, a 6-foot-3 guard from Buffalo, N.Y., leads the Panthers with an average of 11.9 points per contest. Knight is averaging 11.7 points and 6.3 assists per game and is coming off a season last year in which he was named Big East player of the year.
Bruising 6-6, 265-pound Ontario Lett isn’t quite as talented as Georgetown’s Mike Sweetney, but he is big and strong enough to give West Virginia plenty of problems in the paint. Sweetney burned the Mountaineers for 35 points and 19 rebounds Sunday in an 84-82 overtime loss, and Panther coach Ben Howland will look to take advantage of West Virginia’s soft spot inside with Lett.
The Pensacola, Fla., native is averaging 11 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. Six-four, 229-pound guard Jaron Brown is averaging 9.3 points per game and teams with Knight in the backcourt.
Forward Donatas Zavackas is one of Pitt’s tallest starter standing 6-8, and averages 10.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Size comes off the bench in the form of 6-10 Toree Morris and 6-7 Chevy Troutman. Morris has started eight games and is averaging 5.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
Troutman has started two contests and is averaging 10.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. Six-two guard Carl Krauser spells Knight and Page in the backcourt and averages 6.5 points per game.
“You kind of pick your poison,” said Beilein. “We saw yesterday where we just got beat by a one-man team. (Pitt) poses problems in so many different ways its really hard for us to flip back and forth from putting so much attention on Sweetney to now really having to guard so many talented players.”
West Virginia, meanwhile, surprisingly held its own against an athletic Georgetown team Sunday afternoon at the MCI Center. WVU (9-4, 1-1) had a five-point lead with a minute to go before the Hoyas came back and eventually won it in overtime.
Sophomore Drew Schifino scored 25 points, grabbed nine rebounds, had four steals and handed out three assists in one of his best all-around games of the season. Freshman Kevin Pittsnogle scored 18 and freshman Joe Herber added 13.
“We have a bunch of young men and a coaching staff that is just focused on improvement. We’re just trying to compete and never give up every game all the way through until the end,” said Beilein. “That is the story thus far: we have an attitude that I’m very pleased with. I’m sure that there are going to be points in the season when I’m not pleased with their attitudes.”
A big crowd is expected for Tuesday’s game. Beilein says he’s more worried how it will affect his young team as opposed to making it difficult for the visiting Panthers.
“It’s going to be fun to be in that environment,” said Beilein. “I guess I worry more about how it affects our guys than Pitt. Their guys are cagey veterans – they’ve been to Georgia all ready. They’re probably more accustomed to a rowdy crowd than we may be.”
Tuesday’s game will be the 164th meeting between these two long-time Eastern rivals. West Virginia leads the series 89-74 and has actually won five of the last nine games in the series.
Last year Pitt claimed both games: 85-74 in Morgantown and 92-65 in the final game at old Fitzgerald Field House in Pittsburgh.
There are still tickets left for the game and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME.
ESPN2 will televise the contest, set to get underway at 7 p.m.
Notebook: West Virginia is 20-4 against Pitt in games played at the Coliseum …WVU’s last win in the series was a 69-68 victory at the Coliseum in 2001 … West Virginia’s game against nationally rated Pitt is the 151st meeting against a ranked team … WVU’s last effort against a ranked team was a successful one as the Mountaineers upset No. 8-rated Florida at the Charleston Civic Center ... if freshman center Kevin Pittsnogle can keep up his current three-point shooting pace, he will have the school record by the end of the season … Pittsnogle is shooting 58.5 percent from behind the three-point arc so far this year -- more than two percentage points higher than Vernon Odom’s 56.3 percentage shot in 1985 … Odom, a 6-foot-2 guard, attempted just 32 threes that season … West Virginia’s starting five of Tyrone Sally, Kevin Pittsnogle, Drew Schifino, Joe Herber and Jarmon Durisseau-Collins have a combined starting experience of just 120 games … by comparison, Pitt’s starting five of Brandin Knight, Julius Page, Ontario Lett, Donatas Zavackas and Jaron Brown have a combined 318 starts … Knight will be making his 100th career start as a Pitt Panther Tuesday.
