Now They Count
November 10, 2006 03:56 PM | General
November 10, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The games start counting tonight for the West Virginia University men’s basketball team. The Mountaineers are coming off an 81-54 exhibition victory over Division II Fairmont State on Sunday night in Morgantown. West Virginia coach John Beilein is expecting a lot of mistakes from a youthful team that introduces four new starters tonight against Mount St. Mary’s.
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| Mountaineer fans will get their first look at forward Da'Sean Butler and the rest of the freshmen Friday night against Mount St. Mary's.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“We don’t want it to be as painful and make mistakes to where you lose the game, but certainly it can happen,” Beilein said. “The game experience … there is nothing like it and we’ll start getting it (tonight). With a young group I’d like to have one more week but we might as well throw it up and start learning.”
At tonight’s opening tip West Virginia is expected to start senior Frank Young and sophomore Joe Alexander at forwards, senior Rob Summers at center, with sophomore Alex Ruoff and junior Darris Nichols in the backcourt. Just Young (35 career starts) and Nichols (a pair of starts as a freshman) have starting experience.
“As far as game experience it’s probably as little of game experience as I’ve ever had in all of the years,” Beilein admitted. “As far as the foundation I don’t think we’re back to square one. The kids have a philosophy of how we play and they believe in how we play. Now making it work -- that’s the part that we don’t have in yet.”
The fifth-year West Virginia coach is anxious to see how his team reacts to playing another Division I team in front of a crowd at the Coliseum.
“We can’t put too much into any game right now but the little things within the game of competing and keeping the ball alive, of getting a tough rebound and sharing the ball: those are the things that give us confidence more than just the scoreboard,” he said.
Beilein said there were plenty of positives to build upon from his team’s pair of preseason games.
“I thought our effort areas for that part of the year were pretty good,” he said. “I thought we ran really well and I thought we sprinted the floor really well. There was a lot of confusion out there and there should be at this time of the year.”
Tonight’s game is schedule to tip off at 7 pm. Some members of last year’s NCAA tournament “Sweet 16” will be on hand to unveil the banner before the start of the game.
“We’ll all be out there. I hate taking our team out of its normal routine but this is a special thing,” Beilein said. “I’m glad that they’re going to be here and that the rest of our team will be able to see it because there are some very valuable members of that team that didn’t play a lot here as well: not just those five.
“If the younger kids could ever appreciate how that happened – the 35-point loss at St. Louis, Syracuse and Pitt. Northeastern we lost to here early … there was a lot of pain in raising that banner so I think that’s what I would like them to appreciate from it,” Beilein said.
Briefly:
“I think our teamwork will be good,” he said. “On any team you need a guy here or there that will emerge as a horse that can get tough baskets for you and Frank and Darris are the two guys we look to but there are an awful lot of people out there that need to step up as well.”
“I think we will probably play a lot of different defenses this year,” he said. “Obviously all through the year we’re trying to teach man-to-man defense because I do think we have a team that potentially if their minds can catch up with their bodies they can be a good man-to-man team.”
“We’re elated about John,” Beilein said. “It’s a bit of old news because of the fact that he committed last year but he’s a very athletic, 6-7 forward who really gets a lot of the blue collar, nuts-and-bolts-type of things done: rebounding and getting put-backs.
“He’s got skills enough to play in our system but we thought we needed a guy that really plays around the rim and he is a guy that slashes and does some things although he is also a good shooter,” Beilein said. “We think he’s going to be able to play a lot of different positions for us.”
West Virginia has one scholarship left to offer this year.
“I think we’ll look and see what our needs are,” Beilein said. “We certainly have a couple of people in mind right now. We have an offer on the table but we just have to wait and see what happens with that one and then see what our needs are if that one doesn’t work out.”
