St. John's Preview
February 10, 2004 03:43 PM | General
February 10, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – St. John’s is bringing a shell of its former team to Morgantown to face West Virginia Wednesday night.
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| West Virginia coach John Beilein says his team must remain focused against St. John's on Wednesday. (AP photo) |
St. John’s (5-15, 0-8) continues to get its house in order this week after a trip to Pitt last Thursday resulted in the expulsion of three players and the suspension of three more for violating team rules.
According to Newsday, forward Grady Reynolds has already been expelled from school and Elijah Ingram and Abe Keita will know their fates Tuesday afternoon. What prompted this disciplinary action was a visit to a Pittsburgh strip club that resulted in three players being accused of taking a woman back to their hotel room. It has been reported that Ingram, Keita and Reynolds were the three players directly involved in the incident.
Two other players, Lamont Hamilton and Mohamed Diakite, were suspended from the team but are not expected to be expelled from school for their behavior. A third player, Tyler Jones, was suspended from the team for breaking curfew but is still practicing because his involvement was less than his teammates. The New York Post reported Tuesday that Jones’ suspension could be lifted for Wednesday’s game against West Virginia.
Things began to slip for the Red Storm after Coach Mike Jarvis and his son Mike Jarvis III were fired on Dec. 19. No coaches were added to the staff after their dismissal, leaving the program in the hands of interim coach Kevin Clark and assistant Dermon Player.
On Monday upon the recommendation of former coach Lou Carnesecca, Ron Rutledge joined the coaching staff on a volunteer basis to help finish out the season. The New York Post also reported that St. John’s will bus to Morgantown for its game against West Virginia instead of spending the night in a hotel.
With Jones back in the fold, St. John’s will now have five scholarship players available to play against the Mountaineers. West Virginia coach John Beilein is aware of their problems and is going to keep his team focused on the task at hand.
“I will be very animated with my team going into this game,” said Beilein. “We’re going to focus very small on what we’re trying to accomplish instead of focusing on, ‘Hey these guys are down a few players and you’ve got to play well and don’t take them lightly.’”
Darryl Hill and Andre Stanley played 40 minutes in the Red Storm’s 89-61 loss to Boston College last Saturday and each contributed 16 points. Phil Missere, a 6-foot-8 junior forward, scored 13 points.
Against West Virginia St. John’s is expected to start a lineup consisting of Missere and 6-foot-9 senior Kyle Cuffe at forwards, 7-foot-3, 308-pound senior Curtis Johnson at center, and Hill and Stanley in the backcourt.
The remaining available players are Jones, freshman guard Devin Mayo, junior guard Joe MacDonald, and sophomore guard Nigel Roach.
St. John’s has dropped two straight conference games since beating UCLA on Jan. 31, and is winless in Big East play this season. The Red Storm’s five wins have come against Stony Brook, St. Francis, N.Y., Holy Cross, Niagara and UCLA.
Two weeks ago West Virginia defeated St. John’s 73-64 in Jamaica, N.Y. In that game Tyrone Sally scored 24 points to lead four double-figure Mountaineer scorers. Patrick Beilein came off the bench to score 13, Joe Herber added 12, and Kevin Pittsnogle contributed 10. West Virginia shot 54.3 percent from the floor and made 8 of 22 three-point field goal attempts.
Ingram led St. John’s with 19 points and Hill added 15.
Despite its depleted roster, Beilein says beating St. John’s a second time will be a chore.
“There are two different scenarios and the one that always worries you is you go to their place first and you beat them,” he said. “Your team can have a false sense of security and that is certainly double considering the situation St. John’s is in right now.”
Beilein points out that Georgetown may have had a false sense of security when it came to Morgantown to play West Virginia without its top scorer Drew Schifino.
“You have to understand that this is college basketball and yeah they’re down scholarship players, but they still have players,” he said. “You can still lose so you better have the effort.”
Because St. John’s is now a dramatically different team than it was just two weeks ago, Beilein and his coaching staff has to prepare much more diligently for Wednesday’s game.
“I spent some time looking at the last time we played them trying to break down what the simplest things they can show us from what they did,” said Beilein. “I watched the Boston College game yesterday and so we’ve got some things. It’s almost like playing the first game of the year again.”
West Virginia (12-8, 4-5) needs another victory to stay in the middle of the Big East pack and remain in contention for one of 12 spots for the Big East tournament. The Mountaineers dropped an 88-58 decision at Connecticut last Saturday.
West Virginia only trailed the Huskies by five at halftime and the deficit was a respectable 12 points midway through the second half before UConn broke loose.
“There was a lack of attention to detail and focus when the crowd got going a little bit,” said Beilein of his team’s second-half collapse. “Things weren’t going our way just enough to open the flood gates. Sometimes it’s just one missed assignment or one time your hands weren’t up or you missed a layup because you weren’t strong with it. Those little things when you’re on the road can multiply very quickly.”
Pittsnogle paced West Virginia with 17 points and has scored 41 in his last two games against Seton Hall and Connecticut. D’or Fischer and Joe Herber scored 10 each.
Fischer remains the only WVU player scoring double figures at 10.2 points per game. The 6-foot-11 junior leads the team with an average of 7.1 rebounds per game and has also blocked a school-record 80 shots.
Sally, Pittsnogle, Beilein and Herber each average better than eight points per game.
West Virginia snapped a four-game losing streak to St. John’s with the win two weeks ago. St. John’s has a 15-11 record in all-time series play but the Mountaineers are 6-2 against St. John’s in games played in Morgantown.
Tip off is set for 7 pm and there is no live television for the game. MSN’s radio coverage begins at 6:30 pm and fans can tune into the Internet broadcast through Yahoo! Sports.
Notebook: Joe Herber is the only current Mountaineer to start every game of his career … West Virginia is 7-1 in games decided by five points or less … WVU has forced 42 steals in its last five games and had a season-high 15 steals and forced 21 turnovers in the win at St. John’s on Jan. 28 … Kevin Pittsnogle has now assumed the team lead in Big East scoring, averaging 11.4 points in nine conference games … Tyrone Sally (10.7), D’or Fischer (10.4) and Patrick Beilein (10.3) are also averaging double figures in league play … West Virginia is ranked ninth in blocked shots in the latest NCAA stats at 5.9 per game … Wednesday night’s game against St. John’s is the last game this year not televised … the remaining six games will be televised by ESPN Regional.
