Men's Basketball: WVU Picked 12th in Coaches' Poll
October 25, 2006 02:30 PM | General
October 25, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is back to being the hunter again this year. Predicted to finish fifth by the Big East coaches last year, the expectations are a little bit lower for the Mountaineers in 2007.
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| West Virginia coach John Beilein takes a sip of water between questions at Wednesday afternoon's Big East men's basketball media day in New York City.
Big East photo |
West Virginia was predicted to finish 12th in preseason polling announced today as part of the Big East basketball media day festivities in New York City.
The Mountaineers captured 72 poll points to place ahead of Cincinnati, Rutgers, Seton Hall and South Florida.
Pittsburgh, coming off a 25-8 season in 2006 and returning eight of its top 10 players, edged Georgetown for the top spot. The Hoyas have a pair of preseason all-Big East returners in Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert from a team that won 23 games and reached the NCAA tournament “Sweet 16” in 2006. Pitt captured 10 first-place votes while Georgetown accumulated four. Third-place Syracuse and No. 4 Marquette got the other two first-place votes.
Connecticut, Louisville, Villanova, DePaul, St. John’s and Providence were predicted to round out the top 10.
Notre Dame was predicted to finish 11th.
West Virginia, 22-11 last year, will field a completely remodeled team in 2007. The Mountaineers lost their top four scorers in Kevin Pittsnogle, Mike Gansey, Johannes Herber and Patrick Beilein and will be introducing eight new players to the program.
Senior forward Frank Young is the only returning starter, averaging 7.4 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. Junior Darris Nichols is expected to take up some of the scoring slack moving into a starting role at point guard after backing up J.D. Collins for the past two seasons.
Sophomores Alex Ruoff and Joe Alexander earned valuable experience last year along with former Penn State transfer Rob Summers, while Butler transfer Jamie Smalligan adds bulk and a deft shooting touch to the roster.
An eight-player freshmen class highlighted by a pair of 6-7 New Jersey forwards in Da’Sean Butler and Wellington Smith, Rhode Island player of the year Joe Mazzulla, and Illinois all-state guard Devan Bawinkel gives West Virginia a strong nucleus of young players to develop.
"We like the young kids that we have," said Mountaineer coach John Beilein. "We took a blueprint of what worked to take us to the Elite Eight and the Sweet 16 and we said, 'We don't need to change this -- let's just recruit to the system, tweak it as we need to, and try and win again.' That's our plan.
"We like the plan and we like the players, now they have to have the same intangibles our prior group had."
The general public will get its first opportunity to see the Mountaineers on Sunday, Nov. 5, against Fairmont State in an exhibition game. West Virginia opens the season on Friday, Nov. 10, against Mount St. Mary’s at the WVU Coliseum.
Big East Preseason Coaches’ Poll
1. Pitt (219)
2. Georgetown (212)
3. Syracuse (182)
4. Marquette (181)
5. Connecticut (173)
6. Louisville (149)
7. Villanova (146)
8. DePaul (134)
9. St. John’s (105)
10. Providence (102)
11. Notre Dame (80)
12. West Virginia (72)
13. Cincinnati (52)
14. Rutgers (49)
15. Seton Hall (42)
16. South Florida (22)
