Notre Dame Preview
January 06, 2004 12:40 PM | General
January 6, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – As far as West Virginia coach John Beilein is concerned the preseason is over. Now the real games begin when the Mountaineers open Big East play at Notre Dame on Wednesday night.
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| With Notre Dame allowing opponents to shoot 40.7 percent from three-point distance, WVU shooters like Tyler Relph could make a difference Wednesday night. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“Right now I’m curious to see how much better we’ve gotten over the last month. I think we’ll get an answer to that,” he said during Monday’s teleconference.
This year Notre Dame isn’t quite as intimidating as it’s been in the past but the Fighting Irish are still very good, particularly in South Bend where they are 40-12 since Mike Brey took over the Notre Dame coaching duties.
“I thought last year there was a lot of excitement in that building,” said Beilein of Notre Dame’s 88-69 win. “I don’t know if it’s the most difficult because there are some others that are really overwhelming as well but I think Notre Dame is as tough as any of them.”
The Irish improved to 6-3 overall with an 84-69 win over Morehead State on Sunday, Dec. 28. In addition to Morehead State, Notre Dame’s six wins have come against Northern Illinois, Mount St. Mary’s, DePaul, American and Quinnipiac; Notre Dame’s three losses have been against Indiana, Marquette and Central Michigan.
In the Morehead State win 10 days ago, Chris Thomas scored 23 points and Torin Francis added 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead Notre Dame to its fourth straight victory.
Thomas, now a junior, is once again leading Notre Dame in scoring averaging 18.8 points per game. Thomas has reached the 20-point mark in four of his last six games including a season-high 28 against American on Dec. 21.
Francis, a 6-foot-10, 252-pound sophomore, has posted double doubles in five games this year and 15 in 43 career games. He is averaging 16.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game and also leads the team with an average of 2.3 blocks per game.
The rest of Notre Dame’s offense among its starting five has been spread equally between forward Jordan Cornette and guards Torrian Jones and Colin Falls. Cornette, a 6-foot-9, 236-pound junior, is averaging 6.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. Jones, a 6-foot-4 senior, is averaging 7.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game while Falls, a 6-foot-4 freshman, is averaging 6.7 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.
Six-one sophomore Chris Quinn started the first five games of the season and has since come off the bench. He is averaging 14.2 points per game and is shooting an impressive 46.0 percent from three-point distance.
Notre Dame rarely goes deeper than eight players; forwards Rick Cornett and Tom Timmermans are both averaging about nine minutes per game.
The Irish could get a big boost in the paint if 6-foot-8 freshman Omari Isreal is completely recovered from off season knee surgery. The South Bend Tribune reports that Isreal’s rehabilitation is ahead of schedule but he has yet to see game action against teams that would have helped him gain some confidence before league play begins.
Statistically, Notre Dame shoots the ball pretty well making 43.6 percent of its field goal attempts and is very effective when it reaches the foul line, making 78.7 percent of its free throws. But the Irish have been the worst team in the Big East defending the three-point shot, allowing opponents to make 40.7 percent of their threes and have also had difficulty rebounding being out-rebounded by an average of more than one per game.
But Notre Dame’s rebounding woes pale in comparison to West Virginia -- the conference’s worst rebounding team with a rebounding margin of minus 7.1 per game. West Virginia did out-rebound an opponent for the first time this year in its last game against Howard, a 51-37 Mountaineer victory.
West Virginia (7-3) comes to the Joyce Center having won five of its last six games; the only loss during that stretch was a 70-57 decision to No. 15 Florida in Miami.
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| Drew Schifino's 48-game consecutive double-figure scoring streak is the most in WVU history. Jerry West previously held the record with 45. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Junior forward Drew Schifino barely managed to extend his consecutive double-figure scoring streak to 48 games against Howard, scoring his 10th point with 57 seconds left in the contest. Schifino’s streak is the longest of its kind in the nation.
The Pittsburgh native is averaging a team-best 18.5 points per game. Despite scoring 21 two games ago against IPFW, Schifino has only managed to average 14.3 points per game over West Virginia’s last four contests.
Some of the scoring slack has been picked up by 6-foot-11 junior center D’or Fischer, who ranks second on the team with an average of 10.4 points per game. Fischer has reached double figures in five of his last six games including a season-high 17 against IUPUI. Fischer scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in West Virginia’s last game against Howard on Tuesday, Dec. 30.
Fischer is the team’s top rebounder averaging 7.7 boards per game and also is tied for second in the Big East with Providence’s Marcus Douthit with an average of 3.7 blocks per game.
“The blocked shots have not surprised me one bit,” said Beilein. “His inside scoring right now is something that we really like. His offensive rebounds have provided us with a couple of wins where we don’t win if he doesn’t get three or four and put them back in for us. Surprised? No but I’m pleased. He still has a lot of ground to make up for but he’s working at it.”
Against Howard the Mountaineers used a starting lineup consisting of Schifino and junior Tyrone Sally at forward, sophomore Kevin Pittsnogle at center, and Joe Herber and Tyler Relph at guards.
Relph was making his second career start in place of J.D. Collins, who started 37 straight games before the IPFW game on Sunday, Dec. 28.
“I told the team it looks like we may have a starting 10: Everybody just hang in there,” Beilein said. “It’s not important who starts. It’s important that we win the game and what you can bring to the team.
“The only way we can get to a solid five is by throwing people in there and saying, ‘Okay what have you got? Let’s see if you can get more minutes and work your way into the starting lineup,’” Beilein continued. “The only way we can do that is by going forward and finding out who continues to pick up scouting reports? Who picks up the little nuances in our offense and who plays hard and smart?”
One area that Beilein and his coaching staff will continue to look at closely is the four spot. Junior Tyrone Sally has struggled in West Virginia’s last four games, making just 4 of 21 field goal attempts. Sally has grabbed 9 rebounds in West Virginia’s last two games, though.
“It’s an area we’re working on very hard right now,” said Beilein. “Whether we go small and play Joe or whether we play more with Jerrah (Young), whether we play Tyrone who has been a starter for a long time, or whether we go big with Kevin we’re evaluating it every day. Jerrah Young is coming on strong and he’s playing very well in practice.”
Notre Dame has won eight straight against West Virginia dating back to a loss in Morgantown on Feb. 14, 1999; West Virginia’s last win at the Joyce Center came on Jan. 27, 1996.
Game time is 7 pm and the contest will be televised by ESPN Regional. Local stations carrying the telecast are WVFX in Clarksburg, WOAY in Beckley, WTOV in the Northern Panhandle, WJAL in the Eastern Panhandle and Charter 22 in Charleston and Parkersburg.
Notebook ...
“He’s shooting almost 40 percent from three,” said Beilein. “He’s playing less minutes but almost all of our guys are playing less minutes than they did last year. If you look at our center position right now we’re getting 20 and maybe over 10 rebounds a game at that position.”
“We grade after every game,” he said. “We grade every shot they took and a guy gets a plus or a minus as far as they blocked out or at least look at his man and his man didn’t come in (and get the rebound). The guys actually run the next day if they didn’t do that. The attention to detail is the biggest thing we’re doing right now.
“Some guys we don’t care if they never get a rebound as long as their man doesn’t get it,” he added.
“TV at this point is not as interested in seeing a West Virginia-Virginia Tech game as they are a Pitt-Syracuse game,” Beilein reasoned. “So that comes into play twice it looks like to me. If that’s the case it’s almost like scheduling in football where it gives teams opportunities to move up and get into that pack. If that is the way they try to do it in years to come hopefully we’re in that mix playing the tougher games on TV.”
