GW Preview
December 05, 2003 03:34 PM | General
December 5, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two old rivals renew acquaintances Saturday afternoon in Washington, D.C., when West Virginia takes on George Washington in the first game of the BB&T Classic at the MCI Center.
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| Sophomore Kevin Pittsnogle is coming off his best offensive performance of the season against St. Louis. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
This will be the 92nd time these old Southern Conference and Atlantic 10 combatants have faced each other on the hardwood and the first time since the 1994-95 season when West Virginia was still a member of the Atlantic 10.
This year, the Colonials are 4-1 under third-year coach Karl Hobbs, a former Connecticut aide under Jim Calhoun. George Washington shows wins over Charlotte (which defeated Syracuse in the Carrier Dome), Florida International, Appalachian State and William & Mary. GW most recently lost at Appalachian State, 80-77.
In that game, the 3-4 Mountaineers shot 50 percent from the floor to clip GW at the end.
“This is a very good team, Karl is in his third year there and he’s really starting to put the pieces of the puzzle into place. Now they have experience too,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein of George Washington.
“They’re similar to Northeastern (a 91-84 winner at West Virginia last Saturday) in that they want to make it an up-tempo game,” added West Virginia junior guard Drew Schifino. “They like to run and score a lot of points.”
George Washington’s top player is 5-foot-10 junior guard T.J. Thompson, who scored a team-high 22 against Appalachian State and comes into the West Virginia game averaging 16.6 points per game.
Six-eight sophomore forward Mike Hall compliments Thompson inside averaging 10.6 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.
The Colonials are also expected to start 6-foot-9, 186-pound sophomore Omar Williams at forward, 6-foot-6, 254-pound junior Tamal Forchion at center, and 6-foot-4, 220-pound freshman Carl Elliot at the other guard spot opposite Thompson.
“George Washington will really try to control the tempo and try and push it,” said Beilein. “We don’t mind that. We don’t want to get wild but when you play at a higher speed usually you get better shots. What we have to do is to take care of the ball.”
West Virginia is coming off a solid, 66-57 victory against St. Louis Tuesday night in Charleston. The Mountaineers got 18 points from Schifino and 12 points, eight rebounds and three blocks off the bench from D’or Fischer.
The 6-foot-11 junior is averaging 11.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.7 blocks in three games.
Schifino is West Virginia’s top scorer average 21.7 points per game. The 6-foot-3 junior extended his streak of consecutive double-figure scoring games to 41 – the second most in the country behind Seton Hall’s Andre Barrett with 43.
Schifino is expected to be joined in the West Virginia starting lineup by 6-foot-7 junior forward Tyrone Sally, 6-foot-10 sophomore center Kevin Pittsnogle, 6-foot-6 sophomore guard Joe Herber, and 5-foot-10 sophomore guard J.D. Collins, who is coming off season highs of seven points and seven assists against St. Louis.
Saturday’s game is set to get underway at 1 pm. On Sunday the Mountaineers will play either Gonzaga or Maryland, ranked No. 24 and No. 25 respectively in the most recent USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll.
“You’ve got George Washington which is going to be a good team in the Atlantic 10 and then you’ve got Maryland and Gonzaga which are both in the Top 25, so you’ve got four good teams at this tournament,” said Schifino.
Notes:
“They haven’t been a big part of the day-to-day practices,” he said. “They don’t know a lot of our little things. They know George Washington’s plays and St. Louis’ plays better than they know our plays. We’re waiting for exam period to make a decision on them.”
Beilein doesn’t expect either to play this weekend in the BB&T Classic.
“We have to be proactive with our defense,” he said. “We were just sort of in places instead of being in places in order to make plays. We’ve been getting from point A to point B and teaching all of the rotations. Now they’ve got to get to point B and make a difference when they get to point B.”
“Anything that is a bus ride is an easy trip for us,” he said. “When you have to travel by airplane it’s nice but it takes longer than going by bus sometimes. You have to get to the airport two hours ahead of time and you’ve got to come back. Anything that involves a bus trip we should look at.”
