European Tour Recap
August 23, 2004 04:25 PM | General
August 23, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – John Beilein believes his team’s recently completed six-game trip to Europe served many purposes. Of course the obvious benefit is that he was able to get his team together for two weeks of organized practices. But he says there were other benefits, too.
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| Coach John Beilein believes team chemistry was one of the biggest benefits of West Virginia's 12-day tour of Europe
(All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“We got some people to play minutes and see how they’ve progressed since last year. We took some new players and were able to throw them in there and get them real playing time,” Beilein said.
According to the coach, perhaps the biggest by-product of the 12-day trip was the continued development of team chemistry.
“The team took another stride toward becoming a bigger and better family. We have pretty good chemistry on this team right now and like every family you’ll have bad days. People won’t get along and we’ll have things but this team shows a strong sense of commitment to each other.”
The Mountaineers finished the trip 4-2, with a pair of victories coming against the Dutch National Team and FC Baunach, a club team from Germany. WVU’s two losses came against a very experienced Czech National Team. The coach noted that the Czech’s were comprised of 22 to 32 year-olds and had “at least eight players on their roster 6-foot-9 or better.”
“They’ve been playing together as a national team for a while,” said Beilein. “I don’t now if I could put a level on them but they’re very experienced and they’re definitely Division I. Whether they’re top of the Big East I don’t know? They were talented that’s for sure.”
West Virginia led the first game against the Czech Nationals by 19 points before going cold in the second half.
“They went to a matchup zone and we got wide open shots and we didn’t have any legs or something because we missed seven or eight wide open ones,” said Beilein. “That was why we lost both of those games.”
The Mountaineers dropped the first contest in overtime 76-72, and fell by 10, 88-78, in the second. Six-six guard Joe Herber didn’t play in the second game against the Czech Nationals or the two games against the German club team because of a prior commitment playing for the German National Team.
“We thought we were only going to miss Joe for one game and then we ended up losing him for three. The team missed him very much but they also played very well without him,” said Beilein.
Among those filling the void was 6-foot-4 junior forward Mike Gansey, now eligible to play after sitting out last season after transferring from St. Bonaventure.
Gansey was the team’s top scorer for the tour averaging 15.6 points per game. The Olmstead Falls, Ohio, resident had a single-game scoring high of 22 points and reached double figures in all five games he played.
“When I would look at his numbers at the end of the game I was surprised. His numbers turned out to be very good,” said Beilein.
The coach admits Gansey still needs to get a better handle on some team concepts that he wasn’t able to learn while sitting out last season.
“He still had lots of problems learning his position at the top of the 2-3 zone, being the wing on the 1-3-1 zone or man-to-man and how we switch,” said Beilein.
Gansey was one of five players to finish the tour averaging double figures. Herber averaged 12.7 points per game, Patrick Beilein averaged 12.6, D’or Fischer averaged 11.4 and Tyrone Sally scored at a 10.0-points-per-game clip.
“We know that (Tyrone) is going to bring it every night and we know what he can do,” said Beilein. “We wanted to get Mike Gansey as much time as possible because he wasn’t able to practice our offenses and defenses last year.”
The coach was also encouraged by the progress made by sophomore shooting guard Frank Young, who contributed a team-high 21 points in the final game of the tour against FC Baunach.
“I thought Frank Young showed a continued ability to come off the bench and make shots,” said the coach. “Last year really Patrick was the only one who could consistently be able to do that.”
Beilein was also happy that Young was able to pick up the other forward position, making him a more versatile player for this coming season.
“It took him one week to learn the other forward position so he became an important part of our rotation,” he said.
In addition to Gansey and Young, Beilein was curious to see how sophomore Nick Patella would hold up as the backup point guard to starter J.D. Collins. The coach believes Patella made solid improvement.
“We decided to give him some big minutes in some games to see what he could do,” Beilein said. “He had some early struggles that were some rusty performances that he needed to shake out of him. As the week went on he became more solid with his decisions.”
Because the team arrived back in Morgantown on Saturday and had just a day before classes began Monday morning, Beilein gave them a break this week before starting individual workouts.
“This week is when we traditionally begin individual workouts, weight training, and they would be playing on their own at designated times,” Beilein said. “We have some recruits coming on campus in the next couple of weeks so I’m giving them some time off. Next week instead of going out on the court we’re going to have four of them at a time in the film room watching tape and exercising their minds.”
West Virginia is slated to begin preseason practice on Saturday, Oct. 16.
