St. John's Preview
January 27, 2004 03:29 PM | General
January 27, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach John Beilein doesn’t buy the notion that St. John’s is off its mark this year.
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| Guard Joe Herber is coming off one of his strongest performances of the year, scoring 10 points, grabbing 8 rebounds and handing out 7 assists against Boston College last Saturday. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Despite losing its 12th game of the season last Saturday at Rutgers and dropping to 0-6 in Big East play, Beilein believes St. John’s (4-12) is a very dangerous basketball team. Beilein points to down-to-the-wire losses to Syracuse, Miami, Villanova, Georgetown and Rutgers as ample proof.
“They are a very athletic team with quick guards,” said Beilein about the Red Storm. “They get in the lanes very well and their big men are extremely athletic. They’ve got great quickness all over the floor.”
For St. John’s, cracks began forming in the foundation when the school was forced to dismiss forward Willie Shaw for violating team rules at the beginning of the season. Shortly thereafter, St. John’s president Father Donald Harrington fired Coach Mike Jarvis before Christmas.
Jarvis became the third Red Storm coach to have his contract prematurely terminated since Louie Carnasecca retired in 1992. In succession, St. John’s has fired Brian Maloney, Fran Fraschilla and now Jarvis.
That leaves the program in the hands of interim coach Kevin Clark, who has gone 2-8 since coaching his first game against Georgia Tech on Feb. 21. Odds are Clark won’t get the job after this season, meaning his lame duck status is an obstacle he must try and overcome.
Beilein thinks it’s possible, “Chemistry is very important and they’re certainly playing with good teams but they haven’t been able to close them out. It’s difficult to do sometimes when you don’t have the right personnel or not the right blend yet. Last year they didn’t have this at times and then at the end of the year they found it.”
After losing to Boston College in the second round of the Big East tournament, St. John’s won five straight to capture the 2003 NIT championship and finish the year with a 21-13 record.
Three key contributors are back from that team including 6-foot-7, 212-pound forward Grady Reynolds, 6-foot, 165-pound guard Elijah Ingram and 6-foot-9, 236-pound forward Kyle Cuffe.
Reynolds has been St. John’s most consistent player, averaging 13.1 points and shooting 48 percent in 34.3 minutes of action. Reynolds is the only Red Storm player to start all 16 games.
Ingram has taken a team-high 196 shots and is making 34.7 percent of them. He does average 12.4 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.
Cuffe is averaging 10.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game and has taken 40 three-point shots, third-most on the team. Cuffe is shooting just 44.9 percent overall.
A new player in the mix for St. John’s is 6-foot, 163-pound guard Darryll Hill from nearby Queens. Hill had to sit out last year for academic shortcomings but has managed to pick up where he left off in high school, averaging 11.2 points and 3.6 assists per game. Hill was once a recruiting target of West Virginia’s previous coaching staff.
Six-ten senior center Abe Keita got the starting nod against Rutgers and played 10 minutes, scoring 2 points on 1 of 3 shooting. Six-three senior Andre Stanley is the top backcourt reserve, averaging 7.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game; 6-foot-9 freshman Lamont Jordan has played in all 16 games and is averaging 5.6 points and 4.2 rebounds as the top big man off the bench.
“They have some size and they’re quick enough to guard on the perimeter,” said Beilein of St. John’s.
West Virginia, meanwhile, is coming off a promising performance against Boston College last Saturday at the WVU Coliseum. The Mountaineers got 18 points from junior Tyrone Sally and 14 off the bench from Patrick Beilein to down the Eagles, 65-62. WVU boosted its record to 10-6 overall and 2-3 in Big East play.
West Virginia has dropped four straight to St. John’s with the last victory coming in Morgantown during the 1997-98 season. The Mountaineers are 1-3 at Alumni Hall with its only victory being a 90-77 decision on Jan. 12, 1997.
Game time is set for 7:30 pm and the contest will be televised locally on Fox Sports Pittsburgh. The game can also be seen on Fox SportsNet New York, the New England Sports Network and through ESPN Full Court.
Notebook: Tyrone Sally is the only remaining West Virginia player to have played against St. John’s. Sally scored 7 points in 12 minutes of action against the Red Storm in Madison Square Garden in a 72-53 St. John’s victory on Jan. 5, 2002 … Sally has scored double figures in four of his last five games and is averaging 12.2 points over that span …Wet Virginia is now 7-2 when it holds opponents to less than 70 points … West Virginia is hunting for its first conference road win of the season and the first since beating Rutgers, 52-46 last year in Piscataway … West Virginia went 2-6 in conference road games last year and is just 8-34 in Big East road games over the last five seasons … West Virginia’s best conference road record came in 1996-97 when the Mountaineers went 4-4 … Joe Herber is the only Mountaineer player to have started every game of his career (45).
