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March 13, 2005 08:14 PM | General
March 13, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University men’s basketball team will be making its 19th NCAA tournament appearance and will face Missouri Valley Conference tournament winner Creighton Thursday in a first round game at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland.
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| Kathleen Beilein and the Mountaineer team watches the NCAA tournament selection show in the WVU Coliseum club area. The Mountaineers will face Creighton Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
“This is something we talk about every day and to have it finally happen is a great feeling,” said Mountaineer coach John Beilein.
The Mountaineers earned a No. 7 seed while Creighton was selected as a 10 seed. The winner will face the winner of the No. 2-seeded Wake Forest and No.15-seeded Tennessee Chattanooga game on Saturday.
“This is good for our fans but it is probably bad for our ticket people because we don’t get a large allotment of tickets so it will be very difficult to choose who gets those tickets,” Beilein said. “Any time you can have a bus ride … I don’t know if it’s an advantage … but it’s certainly convenient.”
West Virginia (21-10) is making its first NCAA appearance since its “Sweet 16” berth in 1998. The Mountaineers made a strong run in the Big East tournament, defeating Providence in the first round before upsetting No. 7 Boston College and No. 19 Villanova on successive days to face No. 16 Syracuse in the finals on Saturday.
Before West Virginia’s 68-59 loss to Orange yesterday, the Mountaineers had won seven of their last eight and nine of their last 11.
“After Providence I thought we were in really good shape and now after I looked at that board we would have been one of the last teams in if we had gotten in at all,” said Beilein.
Kevin Pittsnogle and Mike Gansey were named to the Big East all-tournament team. Gansey scored 22 in the Villanova win and added 21 in the upset of No. 1-seeded Boston College to boost his scoring average to 11.5 points per game. Pittsnogle knocked down 24 in a first-round win against Providence, contributed 17 against Boston College and added 18 in the Villanova victory. He averages 11.2 points per game.
West Virginia’s leading scorer Tyrone Sally missed the Boston College game with an intestinal virus and failed to score in 10 minutes of action in the semifinals against Villanova. But he recovered to lead WVU with 13 points in the Syracuse loss and is averaging 12.4 points per game.
Creighton enters the first round with a 23-10 overall record and an 11-7 mark in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Jays have won nine conference tournament titles and five of their last seven with their 75-57 triumph over Southwest Missouri State Monday night at the Savvis Center in St. Louis.
“People who follow college basketball know that Creighton is a very, very good basketball team,” said Beilein. “We’re very similar in how we play. I don’t know (Coach) Dana Altman other than to say hello to him but we have studied their films from before because we want to play how they play. It should be a great basketball game.”
Tournament MVP Johnny Mathies scored 14 points to lead Creighton against the Bears. Six-foot-eight freshman forward Dane Watts also scored 14 in the championship game.
Six-foot-three junior guard Nate Funk leads the Jays in scoring with an average of 17.6 points per game. Mathies, a 6-foot junior point guard, also averages double figures at 11.6 points per game.
Creighton has won eight straight and shows solid non-conference victories over Missouri and Nebraska of the Big 12 Conference, Ohio State of the Big Ten and a pair of wins over Wichita State, which toppled Providence.
“Don’t be fooled by the seven-10 seed because these are two teams that will be evenly matched,” Beilein said.
West Virginia is one of six Big East teams participating in the NCAA tournament. Connecticut earned a No. 2 seed and is playing in the Syracuse Regional, Syracuse was picked as a No. 4 seed and is playing in the Austin, Texas Regional, Boston College is a four seed and is playing in the Chicago Regional, Villanova is a No. 5 seed and is playing in the Syracuse Regional, Pitt is a No. 9 seed and is playing in the Albuquerque Regional along with No. 7-seeded West Virginia.
“Some of the seedings of some of the Big East teams I thought were lower but the gentlemen that do this are very thorough and sometimes it’s not a matter of seeding as much as they have to change seedings because they can’t have teams matching up against each other,” said Beilein. “People are maybe off one or two seeds at times as well.”
The Big East has the most teams in the tournament.
Beilein says his coaching staff has some Creighton tapes and will start scouting them immediately.
“We’ve virtually taped every game that has been on the air over the last two months so we do have Creighton film – we might have two or three and we’ll get two or three more,” Beilein said. “I think tomorrow we’ll try and make West Virginia better rather than worry about Creighton. Then the next two days we’ll really pour into Creighton and Creighton material.”
West Virginia has played Creighton once in 1932 losing 27-26 in Morgantown. The Mountaineers have also faced Dana Altman-coached teams when he was at Marshall.
Starting times and ticket information for the NCAA tournament first round are forthcoming.
