Super Sunday
January 24, 2003 09:38 PM | General
January 25, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is facing a desperate Rutgers basketball team Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
 |
||
| Freshman Kevin Pittsnogle scored 14 points in West Virginia's 65-61 win over Marshall Wednesday. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The Scarlet Knights, 8-8 this year under second-year coach Gary Waters, have gotten off to a 0-4 start in Big East play for the first time since joining the league for the 1995-96 season.
Rutgers realizes it must make a move soon.
“The next two games are the key to our season,” noted Waters Monday night of his team’s upcoming contests against West Virginia and Syracuse. “It’s not a problem yet. But if we lose the next two games it’s a problem because there’s a chance you might not climb out of that. Then you’re fighting just to make the Big East tournament.”
The Knights' troubles this year have come as a complete surprise. Last year Waters directed Rutgers to an 18-13 record in his first season after coming from Kent State. Rutgers posted a surprising 8-8 record in Big East play and finished fifth in the West division standings ahead of Seton Hall and West Virginia.
Four starters from last year’s team, including top scorers Jerome Coleman and Ricky Shields are back, making Rutgers’ tough times this season all the more puzzling.
Although an NCAA tournament berth this year seemed to be a stretch, another NIT bid wasn’t out of the question. Now Rutgers is playing for its postseason lives.
After beginning the year 8-3, Rutgers has lost five straight games to LaSalle, Pitt, Notre Dame, Villanova and Georgetown. After Monday night’s 76-66 loss to Georgetown, Waters insisted he isn’t ready to push the panic button just yet.
“There are 12 games left. There’s still time. Let’s see what happens in the next few games,” he told the Newark Star-Ledger.
If last year’s West Virginia performance is any indication, then perhaps Waters sees an opportunity waiting for his basketball team in Morgantown.
West Virginia was absolutely awful against Rutgers in a 77-59 loss to the Knights last Jan. 27. In that game, the Mountaineers shot just 29.1 percent from the field, were three of 13 from three-point distance (23.1 percent), and committed 17 turnovers.
That performance really greased West Virginia’s skid toward the bottom of the Big East standings on the way to the worst season in school history.
Shields was particularly damaging against WVU, scoring a game-high 20 points and grabbing six rebounds. In two wins against West Virginia last season, Sheilds averaged 20.5 points and 3.0 assists.
This year the 6-foot-4 sophomore guard ranks second on the team in scoring with an average of 13.6 points per game.
Coleman is Rutgers’ top point producer averaging 17.1 points per game. However, the senior is shooting just 34.5 percent from the field, making 92 of 267 field goal attempts. Coleman has taken 109 more shots than his next closest teammate Shields (158). In Jerome’s last performance against Georgetown, he made just five of 22 field goal attempts.
Coleman, who took 15 three-point shots against Georgetown, says he’ll stop shooting threes if he’s not making them.
“If I’m not hitting, I’m not going to take more than six or seven a game,” he said after Monday night’s game. “I’m hurting the team by taking more.”
Six-ten, 215-pound Herve Lamizana is also averaging double figures at 10.4 points per game. Lamizana has the talent to be a top-of-the-line Big East player but hasn’t been able to string together a series of good games.
Waters says his team’s tough early schedule has worked against it. After opening with No. 2-ranked Pitt, the Knights also faced No. 16 Notre Dame and streaking Villanova. After losing a tough game to the Wildcats, his team had just two days to prepare for a road trip to Georgetown. Despite that he’s seen some positive signs.
“We’ve played well for stretches against some very good teams,” he said. “That’s why I think we have a chance to get this thing straightened out over the next 12 games.”
Meanwhile West Virginia, now 10-6, rebounded from its three-game losing streak by stepping outside of league play to defeat Marshall, 65-61 Wednesday night in Charleston. Sophomore Drew Schifino scored 21 for the Mountaineers and is averaging a shade under 20 points per game at 19.9.
Freshman center Kevin Pittsnogle contributed 14 against the Thundering Herd and is averaging 12.1 points per game.
As is the case with Rutgers, Sunday’s game is critical for any postseason aspirations West Virginia may entertain. WVU is 1-3 in conference play and a victory over Rutgers would give the Mountaineers a two-game advantage in the win column in its quest to stay out of the West division cellar. The last place teams in both divisions are not invited to the Big East tournament.
Ahead of West Virginia and Rutgers is Seton Hall with a 2-4 record. After a non-conference game against Manhattan, Seton Hall travels to Georgetown next Wednesday. The Pirates have already beaten the Hoyas at home, 68-54 on Jan. 14.
Rutgers and Seton Hall meet on Sunday, Feb. 2.
Sunday’s West Virginia-Rutgers game will tip off at 3 p.m. MSN’s Internet coverage begins at 2:30 p.m.
Good tickets still remain for the contest.
Game Notes: Sunday’s game is the 61st time these two teams have met in basketball. West Virginia owns a 36-24 record in series play and an 8-5 mark since the two teams joined the Big East conference. The Mountaineers have won four of the last six meetings, but Rutgers took both games last season. Including last year’s win, Rutgers has only won five times ever at the WVU Coliseum. If the last six West Virginia-Rutgers games are any indication, then don’t expect a high scoring affair Sunday. The most points scored by the winning team were 77 by Rutgers in a 77-59 victory in Piscataway last year. This season West Virginia is averaging 68.9 points per game and Rutgers is averaging 68.5. In the ‘what if’ category: what if Rutgers still had guards Dahntay Jones (Duke), Todd Billet (Virginia) and Luis Flores (Manhattan)? Rutgers coach Gary Waters’ first recruiting class is turning out to be a big dud, too. Six-seven freshman forward Cortez Davis recently left school for personal reasons, 6-9 junior college forward Harry Good transferred due to a lack of playing time, and 6-8 forward Adrian Hill is still serving a team-imposed suspension. Rutgers was already thin up front with the transfer of forward Eugene Dabney last spring.
