UM Invades Coliseum
January 06, 2003 04:37 PM | General
January 6, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – This is probably not the best time to be playing the Miami Hurricanes.
 |
||
| Miami forward Darius Rice hit the shot to send the North Carolina game into overtime and finished with 17 points. (AP photo) |
West Virginia (8-3) opens its 2003 Big East basketball season Tuesday night against a Miami team coming off an impressive 64-61 overtime victory over North Carolina Saturday night.
“They’re so athletic and they have such a great inside-outside combination with (James) Jones and (Darius) Rice that it is very, very difficult to play them,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “It’s one of those games where we might get out-rebounded two-to-one and that’s really hard. It’s one thing to get out-rebounded, but they are just so much more athletic than we are and so much bigger that the ball is going to have to bounce right to us.”
Rice, a 6-foot-10 forward, nailed a three-pointer at the end of regulation and provided the only field goal in overtime to help UM (7-4) notch its seventh victory of the season. Six-eight Jones led Miami with 21 points while Rice added 17.
“I’m really looking forward to playing them,” said West Virginia freshman center Kevin Pittsnogle. “(Jones and Rice) are big guys that can play.”
Jones, a senior forward from Miami, Fla., leads the team in scoring with an average of 18.8 points per game. He is also averaging 7.4 rebounds while shooting 49.7 percent from the field.
Rice compliments Jones with an average of 16.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Miami is also expected to start 6-2 Robert Hite (8.3 ppg.), 6-1 Michael Simmons (2.2 ppg.) and 5-11 Armondo Surratt (5.7 ppg.) at guards.
As a team, the Hurricanes are averaging 74.5 points per game and allowing their opponents almost 10 points less at 64.7.
“They’re a pretty tall team, they’re pretty interchangeable, they have big men that can shoot pretty well and they like to run up and down the floor,” said West Virginia guard Joe Herber. “We have to get back on transition defense and we have to rebound because they crash the boards with four people.”
The North Carolina victory is the third straight for a streaking Miami team looking to hit conference play in full stride. UM also counts wins over Central Florida and Lehigh after dropping four of five to Florida Atlantic, Florida State, Charlotte and Florida. Miami’s only victory during that bad five-game stretch came against Arkansas Pine Bluff on Dec. 18.
The West Virginia game is particularly important to Miami because the Hurricanes have conference games coming up at Connecticut and at Seton Hall to start the league season.
West Virginia, meanwhile, is licking its wounds after a disappointing 75-45 loss at St. Louis last Saturday that dropped its overall record to 8-3.
 |
||
| West Virginia coach John Beilein is concerned about Miami's inside-outside combination of James Jones and Darius Rice. (AP photo) |
“The big thing for us from here on out is bouncing back from bad losses, if there is such a thing as a good loss bouncing back, and obviously bouncing back after wins too,” said Beilein.
The Mountaineers had no answer for the Billikens’ inside game, being out-rebounded 32-19 and allowing St. Louis to shoot 56.7 percent from the field.
Six-three forward Drew Schifino was the only WVU player to reach double figures with a game-high 22 points and he leads the Mountaineers with an average 19.1 points per game. The Pittsburgh resident currently ranks seventh in the Big East in scoring.
Six-ten freshman forward Kevin Pittsnogle, who went scoreless in the St. Louis game, is the only other WVU player averaging double figures at 10.6 points per game.
“Obviously the book on Kevin now is that he is a tremendous shooter,” said Beilein. “As a team we’ll read how people are playing him and he’ll get better at it. It’s all going to help us down the road.”
Tuesday’s game is a Dairy Mart High Five event, meaning fans can get a certificate at participating Dairy Mart stores that may be redeemed at the WVU Coliseum for $5.
The game will air on the Big East television network and can also be heard live on the Internet at MSNsportsNET.com. Tip off is slated for 7 p.m.
“We’re into it now and it’s going to be very difficult for us but we knew that and we’ve just got to face up to it and do our best,” admitted Beilein.
Following the Miami game, West Virginia takes to the road to face Georgetown on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Game Notes: Miami has won five straight games and leads the all-time series by a 6-5 count … West Virginia and Miami didn’t play last year and the last time these two teams met was in Miami at the end of the 2000-01 season when the Hurricanes defeated the Mountaineers, 73-66 in the waning seconds of the game … West Virginia led that game at halftime, 38-36 … Tuesday’s contest against Miami is the first televised game for the Mountaineers on ESPN Regional Television this season … a total of 13 conference games will air on ESPN Regional this year … with its 8-3 non-conference record with one game left against Marshall, West Virginia is assured of its 12th straight winning record outside of league play … the last time WVU failed to produce a winning non-league record was 1991 when the Mountaineers went 4-4 … West Virginia is 2-5 in Big East opening games … the last time WVU started Big East play with a victory was the 1998-99 season when the Mountaineers downed Syracuse, 73-59 in Morgantown … forward Drew Schifino leads West Virginia with 11 double-figure scoring games and three 20-point games.
