Bouncing Back
January 07, 2005 03:10 PM | General
January 7, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia looks to rebound from its worst loss in six years Saturday afternoon when it plays host to St. John’s at the WVU Coliseum.
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| Kevin Pittsnogle commits a foul during Wednesday night's 84-46 Mountaineer loss at Villanova.
AP photo |
The No. 21-rated Mountaineers (10-1, 0-1) suffered a 38-point defeat at Villanova Wednesday night – the school’s worst loss under Beilein and the worst since losing by 40 at Tennessee on Dec. 8, 1999.
“You can’t play St. John’s until you get rid of Villanova,” Beilein said. “We have gotten rid of the stat sheet and have gotten rid of all the memories of that and moved on. What I basically told them today was you’ve got to play like a combination of two teams: a team that was 10-0 at one time and a team that is 0-1 in the Big East.”
Villanova tore up West Virginia’s defense in the second half, shooting 60.7 percent from the field and out-rebounding the Mountaineers 43-26 for the game. On the flip side, West Virginia made just 15 of 55 field goal attempts for 27.3 percent including only six of 29 from three-point distance.
“Villanova is a very good basketball team and on that night they were the best basketball team that we’ve played and we’ve played two nationally ranked teams,” said Beilein.
On Saturday, West Virginia might be without the services of junior point guard J.D. Collins, who left the Villanova game in the first half with a sprained ankle. Collins did not practice Friday and is listed as a game-time decision by Beilein.
“He’s still got some swelling and he’s worked hard and this is where (trainer) Randy Meador is one of the best I’ve ever seen at getting kids ready to play but we’ll have to wait and see,” said Beilein.
Also, backup guard Patrick Beilein turned his ankle during the Villanova game and spent a portion of the second half with an ice bag on his ankle. However, Beilein was able to practice Friday and should be a go for the Red Storm.
“It looks like Pat is in okay shape – not 100 percent,” Beilein said.
St. John’s (6-5, 0-1) is undergoing a remodeling job under first-year coach Norm Roberts, who inherited a Red Storm program that has been besieged with controversy and dissention. St. John’s has elected not to participate in any post-season play this year as punishment for NCAA violations uncovered during Mike Jarvis’ tenure at St. John’s.
Still, Roberts has managed to repair St. John’s to the point that it knocked off nationally ranked N.C. State, 63-45, in Madison Square Garden on Dec. 30 and also shows victories over Wagner, Stony Brook, Virginia Tech, Marist and Canisius.
“Since the exam break when they’ve had time for Norm to coach and teach and things like that they’ve really made some major strides to be able to play without just anybody right now,” Beilein said.
St. John’s gave No. 6 Syracuse a tough battle in its Big East opener Wednesday night, losing 79-65 to the Orangemen.
“I see a team that is just getting better by the minute,” said Beilein. “They have tremendous quickness and we just had a lot of trouble against tremendous quickness. Hopefully we’ve learned some things so that we’re not out of the ballgame early.
Six-foot junior guard Daryll Hill leads St. John’s with averages of 18.5 points and 5.0 assists per game. Hill is shooting 40.8 percent overall from the floor and has made 11 of 32 from three-point range.
“He’s a great player and he’s worth the price of admission,” Beilein said of Hill. “He’s very much like the young man we played from St. Peter’s Keydren Clark. He can take over a game and get 30, 35 or 40 on us so it’s going to be tough for us to guard him.”
Six-foot-nine sophomore forward Lamont Hamilton is beginning to come into his own, averaging 13.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Hamilton is making 58.9 percent of his field goal tries and has a team-best 16 blocks.
Six-foot-eight junior college transfer Rodney Epperson is averaging 14 .1 points in seven games, but has not played since the Hofstra win while the school sorts out his academic status after transferring from Midland (Texas) JC.
Expected to join Hill and Hamilton in the Red Storm starting lineup are 6-foot-6 freshman forward Dexter Gray (7.8 ppg., 5.0 rpg.), 6-foot-1 freshman guard Eugene Lawrence (5.6 ppg., 3.4 rpg.) and 6-foot-2 freshman guard Cedric Jackson (6.1 ppg., 3.5 rpg.), a one-time WVU recruiting target.
If Collins can’t go for West Virginia, freshman Darris Nichols will earn his first college start in his place. Nichols scored four points in the Villanova loss and is averaging 4.9 points and 2.7 assists per game.
Senior Tyrone Sally leads West Virginia in scoring with an average of 12.7 points per game. Six-four forward Mike Gansey is averaging 11.8 points and 6.6 rebounds per contest while 6-foot-11 senior center D’or Fischer boosted his average to 10.1 points per game after scoring a team-high 14 points against Villanova.
Saturday’s game will tip off at 2 pm and will be televised by ESPN Regional. Stations carrying the game in West Virginia are Charter 22 (Charleston), WOAY (Beckley), WVFX (Clarksburg), WTOV (Steubenville, Ohio), WJAL (Chambersburg, Pa.) and ESPN Full Court.
Briefly: The Mountaineer Ticket Office has announced that about 1,000 tickets remain for West Virginia’s game Tuesday night against Marshall at the Charleston Civic Center. Fans wishing to purchase tickets for that game may do so by calling the Civic Center Box Office.
