Men's Basketball: WVU Opens at Home
November 28, 2003 02:27 PM | General
November 28, 2003
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| Beilein |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Big East basketball fans will see a familiar face when Northeastern comes to town for a Saturday match up against West Virginia at the WVU Coliseum.
Former Miami point guard Marcus Barnes is now playing for Northeastern and he leads the Huskies in scoring with an average of 17 points per game. The 6-foot-2 junior guard scored 20 in losses to Rode Island and Bradley to start the season and added 11 in Northeastern’s first win of the year against Louisiana-Monroe on Tuesday, Nov. 25.
Northeastern (1-2) has a well-balanced lineup with four starters averaging double figures. In addition to Barnes, 6-foot guard Jose Juan Barea is averaging 16.3 points, 6-foot-5 guard Javorie Wilson is averaging 16 points and 6-foot-7 forward Sylbin Robinson is averaging 11.7 points per game.
“It’s going to be a very difficult game,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “Northeastern will win the American East – there’s no question in my mind. So we’re playing an NCAA-level team.
“They’ve got a great team and we anguished long and hard about playing this game because we knew it was going to be a tough game,” Beilein added. “At the same time we can’t be afraid to lose at this point. We’ve got to play to win and do the best we can.”
Beilein says the Northeastern team West Virginia is facing Saturday is very similar to some of the Canisius and Richmond teams he’s had in the past.
“All of their other guys are outstanding players. They would fit our system well because they’re all multi-dimensional guys who can shoot the ball well. They will give teams fits including higher level teams than in their own league because of match up problems they create,” said Beilein, who mentioned that Northeastern defeated Boston College last year.
Northeastern made the fourth-biggest one-year improvement in school history last year under Coach Ron Everhart, a Fairmont native. Two years ago the Huskies went 7-21 before turning that around last year by winning 16 of 31 games. Everhart came to Northeastern from McNeese State.
“Ron is a heckuva coach and he’s a local guy,” said Beilein.
West Virginia, meanwhile, is coming off a solid, 74-57 victory at James Madison last Monday night. The Mountaineers jumped out to a 20-point first-half lead before the Dukes trimmed the deficit to nine twice in the second half. Good free throw shooting down the stretch enabled West Virginia to post a comfortable 17-point road victory.
Drew Schifino led West Virginia with 27 points. Six-eleven center D'or Fischer contributed 14 points and a school-record eight blocks coming off the bench. Tyler Relph and Patrick Beilein also reach double figures off the bench (10 points each) to help the Mountaineers to its biggest road victory since winning at Miami, 85-54 in 1997.
“Even though we’re a veteran team a lot of teams at this level don’t play a road game until January. We went out and played a team on the road who was 1-0 and I think it was good for us to go through that. I don’t know if we win that game last year,” said Beilein.
Saturday’s game will tip off at 6 pm. Fans who also went to West Virginia’s football game against Temple have the opportunity of saving $6 off a basketball ticket by bringing your Temple football ticket stub to the Coliseum.
MSNsportsNET.com will carry the live radio broadcast through Yahoo! Sports beginning at 5:30 pm.
Following Saturday’s game, West Virginia takes on St. Louis on Tuesday, Dec. 2 in Charleston.
