IUPUI Preview
December 16, 2003 03:34 PM | General
December 16, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University coach John Beilein has treated Mountaineer fans to a wide variety of opponents so far this year.
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| Tyler Relph scored nine points and handed out three assists off the bench last Saturday against Duquesne. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
In the course of the last three weeks West Virginia has faced athletic teams like Northeastern and George Washington, powerful front lines like Maryland, and half-court precision teams like Saint Louis.
Wednesday night West Virginia encounters some more variety in the form of IUPUI. The Jaguars don’t start a player standing taller than 6-feet-6, but all five starters weigh more than 200 pounds including two 240-pound forwards.
IUPUI comes into Wednesday’s game with a 4-2 record, having lost its last two games to Vanderbilt and most recently to No. 25 Dayton.
“Vandy has a good team this year and that game was a two or three-point game with five or six minutes to go,” said Beilein.
Against the Flyers last Saturday, IUPUI overcame a nine-point halftime deficit to nearly pull off the upset.
Six-four, 240-pound forward Odell Bradley scored 19 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds against Dayton. Six-six forward Brandon Cole contributed 17 points and 7 rebounds and 6-foot-2, 210-pound junior guard Akeem Clark fired in 15 points.
“They create mismatch problems,” said Beilein. “They have a heck of a team.”
Bradley is the Jaguar’s top scorer averaging 22.7 points per game. He has made 45 of 101 field goal attempts for 44.6 percent and has made 5 of 21 three-point field goal attempts. Cole averages 14.7 points per game and is making a team-best 50.8 percent of his field goal attempts. Cole is 19 of 40 from behind the three-point arc for 47.5 percent.
Clark, who averages 13.3 points per game, and 6-foot-2 junior guard Johnny Miller, a 11.2 points-per-game scorer, round out IUPUI’s double-digit point producers.
IUPUI’s four wins this year have come against St. Francis, Ind., Wisconsin-Green Bay, Tri-State University and Lipscomb.
“Despite their size they are ferocious rebounders,” said Beilein. “They’re very athletic and they’ve got a bunch of guys in that 6-foot-3, 205-pound range who go after the backboard.”
Last year IUPUI won the Mid-Continent and advanced to NCAA tournament play under veteran coach Ron Hunter. Now in his 10th season, Hunter shows a 140-126 career record.
“They’re Northeastern,” said Beilein of IUPUI in reference to the team West Virginia lost 91-84 at the Coliseum earlier this year. “They shoot it from three incredibly and they’ve got a Charles Barkley-type of guying (Bradley) playing at the center who also handles like he’s a point guard.”
West Virginia is coming off a hard-fought 88-84 overtime victory over Duquesne Saturday night. The Mountaineers were behind by 16 points in the first half before rallying.
Forward Drew Schifino scored 27 of his game-high 29 points in the second half to lead WVU, now 4-2. Schifino boosted his average back over the 20-point mark at 21.3 points per game. Schifino comes into Wednesday night’s game needing just 18 points to become West Virginia’s 40th 1,000-point scorer.
He is the only Mountaineer player averaging double figures.
Six-ten center Kevin Pittsnogle averages 9.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game, while 6-foot-7 forward Tyrone Sally averages 9.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Six-eleven center D’or Fischer comes off the bench to average 9.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
Eight West Virginia players average better than 5.2 points per game.
Tip off is set for 7 pm and fans can follow MSN’s pre-game coverage on the Internet beginning at 6:30 pm.
Briefly ...
“We wanted to just get him in there and go,” said the coach. “I would assume he is going to play (tomorrow) but is he ready to play major minutes yet? I don’t think so. Once we told him we were not redshirting him we realized how much he missed as we were teaching the top eight or nine players. Now he’s playing catch up. So we don’t want him to lose his confidence. We’ll slowly bring him in there.”
Other top 64 RPI teams include Providence (10), Boston College (15), Syracuse (26), Connecticut (37) and Villanova (60). West Virginia’s RPI is 74th this week.
