Bring on the Huskies
December 30, 2006 08:41 AM | General
December 30, 2006
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the curious, West Virginia’s basketball season officially begins today when the Mountaineers take on No. 12-ranked Connecticut in the Big East opener at the WVU Coliseum.
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| West Virginia's skywalker Joe Alexander throws down two of his 14 points against Maryland Eastern Shore on Thursday night.
AP photo |
“It’s going to be a tough start in the Big East for us but it’s good to get it started by bringing in a great UConn team with a Hall of Fame coach into Morgantown, West Virginia,” said Mountaineer coach John Beilein. “I know our fans and our team are excited and I’m sure Jim is excited as well to get the Big East season rolling.”
West Virginia is off to a 10-1 start after easily beating Maryland Eastern Shore 95-49 on Thursday night. The Mountaineers’ only loss of the season was a 71-64 decision against Arkansas in the championship game of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 26.
Connecticut comes into the Coliseum with a perfect 11-0 record after depositing Coppin State 84-41 in Hartford on Wednesday night. The NBA draft completely gutted Coach Jim Calhoun’s roster and the veteran coach chose to bring his team loaded with freshmen and sophomores along with an 11-game home stand, much like West Virginia’s early season slate that featured just one true road game at Duquesne.
“I don’t know if we’re both in the same kind of boats but we’re both in new boats,” Beilein said. “They lost so much from last year and we lost so much from last year. Last year we both had a pretty good idea that we would be in post-season play. This year both teams are too young and too inexperienced to predict the future.”
Connecticut’s best non-conference victory of the year was probably against Mississippi, the Huskies beating the Rebels 77-59 in the championship game of the Hispanic College Fund Classic at the Hartford Civic Center.
UConn has a 7-foot-3-inch center in freshman Hasheem Thabeet who has blocked 48 shots in 11 games and is averaging 7.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Connecticut’s top scorer is 6-7 sophomore Jeff Adrien who averages 13.7 points per game.
Adrien is shooting 57.7 percent from the field and is leading the Huskies with an average of 10.1 rebounds per game.
Sophomore guard A.J. Price is averaging 13.5 points and has handed out a team-best 61 assists this year. Jerome Dyson, a 6-3, 190-pound freshman shooting guard from Rockville, Md., is averaging 13.4 points per game. Craig Austrie, a 6-3 sophomore guard from Stamford, Conn., comes off the bench and leads the Huskies with 13 3-point field goals.
“There are some things that we can’t defend that they do,” Beilein said. “You can get your hand and every part of your body in front of (former UConn standout) Ben Gordon and he is still able to make the jump shot.
“I’ve been through it all with them back with my Richmond teams against Richard Hamilton and things like that,” Beilein said. “We’ve got to hope that we play good enough defenses where they don’t play one of those games where you can’t stop Rudy Gay or someone like that. They seem like they’ve reloaded again as far as that goes.”
Like West Virginia whose defense is holding opponents to an average of 49.4 points per game and has forced an average of 21.4 turnovers per game, Connecticut also has a stifling defense. The Huskies are averaging 10.8 blocks and 8.6 steals per game while holding their opponents to 32.8 shooting percentage from the field.
Equally as impressive, in West Virginia’s 10 wins this season opponents are scoring an average of just 47.2 points per game. Senior forward Frank Young leads the Mountaineers with an average of 13.2 points per game, hitting 30 3-point baskets in his last eight games.
Sophomore forward Joe Alexander is averaging 12.6 points per game and is coming off his first career double-double against Maryland Eastern Shore, scoring 14 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
“I’m very curious to see where we are,” Beilein said. “We’ve had a couple of tests this year but other than that we’ve been fortunate to play very well against teams with injuries or teams that we just out-manned. It is going to be interesting to see how we do against a team with terrific talent.”
The game was announced a sell out on Friday despite many West Virginia fans already in Jacksonville, Fla., for the Gator Bowl and students away from campus for Christmas break.
“I made the statement to our team that I don’t think there are a whole lot of programs in the country that have a team going to a New Year’s Day bowl and are still selling out their home games,” Beilein said. “Just look the last couple of years with our George Washington game when we had 10-15,000 or maybe even 20,000 at the Gator Bowl and we still get 14,000 here.”
Tip off is set for 2 pm. ESPN2 (Scott Graham and Len Elmore) will carry the game live. MSN’s coverage begins with The Mountaineers Today at 1:30 pm. Fans can follow all of the action on the Internet through CSATV All Access or on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 158.
