Notre Dame Preview
February 18, 2003 11:24 AM | General
February 18, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Being a native of upstate New York, West Virginia University basketball coach John Beilein is no stranger to bad snowstorms.
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| Notre Dame guard Chris Thomas drives by West Virginia's Jarmon Durisseau-Collins during the first meeting between these two in South Bend On Jan. 29. (AP photo) |
Once while coaching a JV basketball team in 1977, Beilein and his team made their way through four-feet of snow to have basketball practice.
“There weren’t all of those four-wheel-drive vehicles then but a majority of our kids had snow mobiles and we still had practice,” said Beilein. “You’ve got to practice and keep it going.”
Sunday night’s snowstorm that dumped almost 30 inches in and around Morgantown did nothing to keep his team from working out Monday. While work crews continue to shovel off parking lots and clear roadways, his team is putting the finishing touches on its game-plan to take on No. 10-ranked Notre Dame in a matchup that could boost West Virginia’s postseason chances. The Mountaineers come into tonight's game with a 13-9 overall record.
“Notre Dame has an RPI of four,” said Beilein. “I don’t usually do this but I had some time to look at this and our next four games are all top 40 RPI teams. When you’ve been in the mid-major leagues as I was for all those years you’re dying because you can’t play enough high RPI games to improve your chances of postseason play. Now be careful what you ask for because we’ve got all the RPIs we need right now.”
Notre Dame (19-5, 7-3) will certainly be a handful for a Mountaineer team coming off an important road win at Rutgers Saturday night.
Almost a month ago on Jan. 29, Notre Dame pulled away from West Virginia early in the second half to register an easy 88-69 victory.
The Irish pounded West Virginia on the boards 51-27 and made 24 of 27 free throws.
“On one of their plays Matt Carroll went to the basket, missed the shot, went out of bounds and came back in and got the ball while a couple of our guys were leaking up the floor,” said Beilein. “We need to rebound like a pack of wolves against a couple of bears because we’re so small.”
For one of the few times this year, West Virginia actually out-rebounded its opponent last Saturday at Rutgers with a 36-34 advantage.
West Virginia didn’t shoot the ball particularly well and the Mountaineers made just two field goals over the remaining 12:10. Still, West Virginia was able to record one of its most important wins of the year.
“When we got off to 10-0 and 15-5 deficits I though we were in a world of trouble,” said Beilein. “Then we made a couple of shots, they missed a couple and all of the sudden we regained our confidence that Pitt and Syracuse had taken away from us.”
Notre Dame is coming off a tough, 82-80 loss at Syracuse on Saturday and the Irish have lost their last two on the road. Notre Dame is tied with Pitt in second place in the Big East West with a 7-3 record, a half-game behind 8-3 Syracuse.
For Notre Dame to win the West division, it must defeat West Virginia at the Coliseum tonight. Notre Dame has had plenty of recent success against West Virginia, winning the last nine in a row. WVU’s last win against the Irish came during the 1998-99 season when the Mountaineers claimed an 85-80 victory in Morgantown.
Notre Dame coach Mike Brey is a perfect 4-0 against West Virginia.
Senior guard Matt Carroll continues to lead the Irish in scoring with an average of 20.6 points per game. Backcourt mate Chris Thomas is averaging 18 points, while forward Dan Miller (14.0 ppg.) and center Torin Francis (10.3 ppg.) are also averaging double figures.
Notre Dame’s other starter is expected to be sophomore forward Jordan Cornette who is averaging 2.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.
Tuesday night’s game is set to start at 7 p.m. and despite the heavy snowfall, the Mountaineer Ticket Office is currently open to take advance orders for tonight’s game. Tickets can be purchased by calling toll-free 1-800-WVU GAME.
ESPN Regional television (Jay Randolph and Bob Wenzel) is carrying the game that will air on local affiliates WVFX (Clarksburg), WLPX (Charleston) and WJAL (Chambersburg, Pa.).
MSN radio will also begin its coverage at 6:30 p.m. with the pre-game show.
Notebook: For the second time this season, West Virginia has rebounded after losing miserably on the road. At St. Louis on Jan. 4, West Virginia lost 75-45 before recovering to beat Miami, 68-63 in its Big East opener. Last Saturday West Virginia once again came back after a 30-point road loss. The Mountaineers lost 82-46 at Pitt Wednesday before downing Rutgers, 52-46. It was WVU’s second-straight conference road win after losing 12 in a row dating back to the 2001 season … Notre Dame is gunning for its fourth-straight 20-win season with a win tonight at West Virginia. The last time that happened was 1988-89 … The No. 10-ranked Irish are the fourth ranked opponent West Virginia has faced this year and the sixth game against a ranked team … Notre Dame is 18-7 against West Virginia and owns a 9-3 record against the Mountaineers since joining the Big East … West Virginia’s Drew Schifino reached the 20-point mark for the 12th time this season at Rutgers and is closing in on 500 points for the year. The Pittsburgh native needs just 38 more points to hit the 500-point mark for the first time since forward Calvin Bowman scored 509 points in 2001. Schifino still needs 191 points to crack the school’s single-season top 10. Occupying 10th place is Rod Thorn, who scored 652 points in 1963.
