Men's Basketball: WVU to Face Montana
November 23, 2006 09:55 AM | General
November 23, 2006
GAME NOTES
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| Joe Alexander |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s first three games at home were successful, and now tonight the Mountaineers find out what kind of road team they have.
West Virginia (3-0) takes on Montana (1-2) in the first round of the Old Spice Classic to be played at The Milk House in Orlando, Fla., tonight at 9:30 pm. ESPN2 (Dave Barnett and Fran Fraschilla) will televise the game nationally.
West Virginia coach John Beilein will use the trip as a way for his team to get to know themselves better.
“This is a bonding thing for the team to go on the road,” Beilein said. “Here I am telling them, ‘OK this is how we dress on a plane. This is how we conduct ourselves in a hotel.’ Those are things that we have to go over. It’s a road game but it’s neutral so that when we do have our first road game that we go there and at least experience what it’s like to do that.”
The Mountaineers have won all three games this year by holding its opponents to less than 43 points. West Virginia has forced 73 turnovers and has a slight rebounding edge in its three victories over Mount St. Mary’s, Slippery Rock and Canisius.
The offense is still a work in progress. West Virginia is averaging 67.7 points per game and is shooting 44.2 percent overall and 31.8 percent from 3-point range. The Mountaineers are also averaging more than 10 turnovers per game.
“It just takes a while to pick up all the reads,” said Beilein. “While we’re figuring it out we have to hang our hat on defense.”
Beilein is once again expected to start Frank Young and Joe Alexander at forward, Rob Summers at center, and Alex Ruoff and Darris Nichols at guard.
Alexander and freshman Da’Sean Butler led the team in scoring averaging 11.3 points per game. Nichols is averaging 9.3 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.
Montana has all five starters back from last year’s team that was 24-7 and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Coach Wayne Tinkle is in his first season guiding the Grizzlies after serving as an assistant coach on Montana’s basketball staff last year.
Montana beat Montana State Northern 83-42 and shows losses to Utah Valley State (74-57) and Wyoming (76-71).
Six-eight junior Andrew Strait leads Montana in scoring averaging 17.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.
West Virginia will face either Virginia Tech or Western Michigan on Friday. If the Mountaineers win they will play at 5 pm on ESPN2. If they lose, they will play at 7 pm on ESPNU.
The final game of the Old Spice Classic is Sunday.
MSN’s pre-game coverage begins with the Mountaineers Today at 9 pm.
