Confidence Booster
December 11, 2003 12:57 PM | General
December 11, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s 78-77 overtime victory over Maryland is looking a whole lot better now. Wednesday night the Terps upset No. 1-ranked Florida in Gainesville in overtime, lifting Maryland’s overall record to 5-2.
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| West Virginia coach John Beilein wasn't surprised by Maryland's upset of No. 1-ranked Florida Wednesdya night. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“I’m never surprised by anything anymore,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein when asked Thursday during his Big East coaches conference call if he was surprised by the result.
In practice Thursday morning, Beilein already used the Maryland victory as an example to his team.
“I told our team, ‘We’ve got to work hard every day because we just proved that on many nights this year we will be able to play with very, very good basketball teams,’” he said.
Beilein believes his team made progress in games last week against Saint Louis, George Washington and Maryland.
“Even though we were 2-1 and we would have liked to have beat GW, we did beat a pretty good Saint Louis team in Charleston and a couple of days later traveled to D.C. and played two teams in kind of a hostile environment. I thought we made major steps to get better,” he said.
West Virginia shot the ball well against both Saint Louis and Maryland, and if not for a slow start against George Washington, the Mountaineers might have been able to pull that game out, too.
“I think we now have an appreciation of what it is like to beat a team like Maryland. Saint Louis, George Washington and Maryland are as good as some of the teams we’re going to see in the Big East this year so it was a good 2-1 week for us,” said Beilein.
West Virginia has spent this week taking final exams and resumes play this Saturday at the Coliseum against a 2-2 Duquesne team that shows wins over Prairie View and Loyola, Md., and losses to Siena and Pitt.
Beilein has already watched several tapes on the Dukes and is impressed with what he’s seen.
“The look like they have found some chemistry with their squad,” he said. “I know how important it is to have people who want to play together and it looks like they’re getting that now.”
Last year Duquesne defeated West Virginia, 86-82 in Pittsburgh. Six-nine, 255-pound center Ron Dokes scored 29 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Dukes. He returns this year and is fourth on the team in scoring averaging eight points per game.
Six-eight guard Jimmy Tricco and 6-foot-7 forward Elijah Palmer, combined to score 27 points in last year’s game.
Palmer is Duquesne’s leading scorer averaging 15.2 points per game. Tricco is the other Duquesne player averaging double figures at 12.5 points per game.
Bryant McAllister, a 6-foot-3 sophomore guard from West Mifflin High School, is averaging 8.2 points per game. He is the son of Bryant McAllister Sr., a former running back for Don Nehlen at WVU in the early 1980s.
Drew Schifino, who scored a career-high 33 points in last year’s game against Duquesne, is averaging a team-best 19.8 points per game. Sophomore forward Kevin Pittsnogle has overcome a slow start to score double figures in each of his last three games and is averaging 9.8 points per game. Six Mountaineer players are averaging 7.2 points per game or more.
Saturday’s game will be the 79th time these two bordering rivals have met on the hardwood. West Virginia owns a slim 42-36 advantage. Duquesne has won four of the last five meetings; West Virginia’s lone win since 1999 came in 2000 in Pittsburgh. Two years ago the Dukes defeated West Virginia 68-61 at the WVU Coliseum. It was Duquesne’s first win in Morgantown since the 1979-80 season when the Dukes captured a 49-38 decision.
Saturday’s game will tip off at 7 pm and plenty of good tickets still remain. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging onto www.shopwvu.com.
