Second Season Begins
January 07, 2004 02:51 PM | General
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – West Virginia opens Big East play tonight at Notre Dame in the Joyce Center.
Traveling with the team you get a sense that it is kind of like opening day in baseball. West Virginia has really gone through a hard stretch of practices leading into tonight’s game and the kids are ready to play because they know this is the beginning of the second season.
The two teams playing tonight are very similar in many ways. The difference is we don’t have a Torin Francis or a Chris Thomas. Mike Brey is a Duke-style guy and they’ll come out and play some token press and try and get you spread out and into an up-tempo game.
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| According to Jay, Notre Dame is still looking to fill the void left by the graduation of guard Matt Carroll. (AP photo) |
They want to get the ball into Chris Thomas’ hands and try and push and kick the ball out. That’s why they were so successful last year because they had Danny Miller and Matt Carroll on those wings that could both really shoot the basketball.
This year Notre Dame has Chris Quinn, who is more of a point guard, Torrian Jones, who is more of a slasher, and Colin Falls, who is just a freshman, playing out on the wings. So I don’t really see the great shooters on the wings like they had last year.
On defense Notre Dame will mix a man with some two-three zone and will probably trap a little bit. If Drew Schifino gets hot I could even see them go a little box and one.
It’s too early to tell, but this doesn’t look like the same Notre Dame team of the past few years. You take Miller and Carroll out of the lineup and that was 33 points and there is just no way they can replace the shooting skills of those guys.
One thing that is developing with this year’s West Virginia team is the fact that the Mountaineers have to shoot the ball so well to win. There have been games this year where we have run out on teams because we shot the ball so well. But, because we’re struggling defending and rebounding, all of these teams have been able to get back into games because we have had little lulls where we don’t score for three or four minutes.
I've noticed that West Virginia has worked very hard over the break on defense. This staff really recognizes where the problems are and they’re working hard to try and sew them up.
Notre Dame believes this game tonight is very important for them. After West Virginia the Irish play games at Villanova and at Pitt before taking on defending national champion Syracuse on Saturday, Jan. 17.
I think tonight’s game is also a big one for junior Tyrone Sally. He has been in a slump for a while now. But at the same time, his minutes have still been in the 30s which means this coaching staff has not given up on him. They’ve given him every opportunity that can possibly be given to a player to perform. He is starting tonight and we’ll see how the minutes go.
Jerrah Young comes off the bench and he does some good things but he’s still just a freshman. You don’t want to put too many freshmen out there at one time. You’ve got a freshman point guard going (Tyler Relph) against an All-American with a lot of experience in Thomas so that will be one of the keys in tonight’s game.
I’m not sure the battle for the starting point guard position is over. Relph has started the last two games in place of sophomore J.D. Collins but Collins could very easily be back in there once we get deeper into the Big East schedule.
I rode out on the plane with Drew Schifino and he is feeling a lot better. He was slowed quite a bit with bronchitis during the Howard game and nearly failed to extended his streak of double-figure scoring games. Drew feels a lot stronger and he expects to have a good game time tonight.
There were some great games in the Big East last night. We saw the Connecticut finish at Rutgers and the Scarlet Knights played very well and made some foul shots at the end to keep them in it. Rutgers is 0-2 in the league despite playing well and could be facing an 0-3 start with Providence coming in on Saturday.
Boston College was able to hang on and beat Georgetown in the MCI Center last night. Craig Smith of Boston College hasn’t had a great start to the season but he played very well against the Hoyas Tuesday night. He scored 19 points in 10 minutes and finished the game with 24 to help the Eagles improve to 11-2. I think BC is a team to be reckoned with.
Virginia Tech kept the game at Pitt close for a while but the Hokies only have eight players and it was just a matter of time before Pitt wore them down. Pitt has the most wins in the country right now with 15.
