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November 07, 2005 09:57 PM | General
November 7, 2005
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BEILEIN POSTGAME | PLAYER INTERVIEWS
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mike Gansey and Kevin Pittsnogle scored 17 points each to lead No. 14-ranked West Virginia to a 91-44 exhibition victory over Wheeling Jesuit Monday night at the WVU Coliseum.
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| West Virginia forward Frank Young leads the fast break during Monday night's exhibition game against Wheeling Jesuit at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, W.Va.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“We didn’t know what to expect,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “Although the score didn’t indicate it I loved Wheeling’s energy and the atmosphere in the Coliseum. It was much more productive than our game against the team from Mexico last year.”
Beilein was happy that his team has finally returned to the floor in game-type conditions in front of a crowd.
“This might sound crazy but guys like Kevin Pittsnogle, Mike Gansey and Joe Herber haven’t hit a three in front of a crowd for a long time and they hadn’t been out there and got tired and had to fight through things,” Beilein said. “It’s a great dress rehearsal for us.”
West Virginia overcame a cold shooting start to connect on 35 of its 74 field-goal attempts for 47.3 percent, including 14 of 34 from three-point distance. Forward Frank Young contributed 13 points and five rebounds for the Mountaineers.
“Frank is still working to get himself into game shape but he’s got a jump shot that is hard to get in front of because it’s way up here, he’s long at 6-6,” Beilein said. “He’s not used to playing a lot of minutes and I probably should have played him more tonight.”
There was a scary moment for WVU right at the end of the half when guard Patrick Beilein crashed into the standard making a pass to Pittsnogle. Beilein was helped off the court and needed stitches above his knee, but he is expected to be available for Saturday’s season opener against Louisiana-Monroe in the Guardians Classic at the WVU Coliseum.
“We think he’s going to be okay,” said the coach. “He’s got stitches above the knee – not on it. He just hit a part of the standard there that is a one in a million chance of hitting it and we’ll have to look at it and see if we don’t have to make some kind of repair to it.”
Beilein said there were many things his team can take from Monday night’s game.
“Every basket they scored we’ll look at on the film like we lost a two-point game,” Beilein said. “How did they score this basket? It was really good for our freshmen and now the game has really slowed down for them a little bit and they’re much more comfortable.”
The highlight of the night came midway through the first half when 6-foot-8-inch freshman forward Joe Alexander threw down a windmill dunk that brought the WVU student section to its feet.
“That play will probably work at a lot of places,” said Beilein of Alexander’s dunk. “As high as he was that will work at a lot of places … but he’s taking the slow boat to China. He’ll get to China, but he’s got to just slow down and let the game come to him a little bit.”
Rich Yahn scored 12 points and Matt Plunkett contributed 11 for Wheeling Jesuit, which brought a large and vocal group of fans to Morgantown with them.
“I was glad that of all the schools that when they allowed us to do this that it was pretty obvious (that West Virginia would play Wheeling Jesuit),” Beilein said. “Now if I was the coach at Penn State it might be a little different. They’re a state school and we wanted to do this with someone in the state.
“I don’t know in 15 years if we can spread this out among 15 different schools but we’ll try and find the right ones that is an easy trip and is worthwhile,” Beilein said.
An announced crowd of 4,069 witnessed the game.
