Basketball Notebook
February 23, 2006 03:11 PM | General
February 23, 2006
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| John Beilein |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In a span of seven days West Virginia coach John Beilein will have matched wits on the basketball court against Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim and Rick Pitino. It’s Hall of Fame brainpower the likes of which no other conference in the country can boast.
Beilein admits going up against the very best coaches in the country was one of the things he was looking for when he made the jump from Richmond and the Atlantic 10 Conference to West Virginia and the Big East Conference four and a half years ago.
“That’s what you always dream of as a coach is to be able to be on a stage with those guys and trying to match up and seeing if your guys are as well prepared as they always have their teams,” Beilein said Thursday afternoon.
However, Beilein admits it’s more about coaching against their players than it is matching wits against each other.
“It’s very rarely coaching against them: it’s always against the team,” Beilein said. “You do that in preparation where we’re trying to recall their tendencies or what other impressions whether it’s (assistants) Jerry (Dunn) or Mike Maker.
“When the game goes I’m not down there thinking about what he’s doing. I’m thinking more about my team and what adjustments we can make to what their players are doing. I very rarely think about what the other coach is doing during the game.”
The one common thread among the three, according to Beilein, is their uncanny feel for winning that is reflective in their impressive winning percentages.
“They have a feel for how to lead a team and how to push them just far enough where they’re still hungry but they don’t become worn down during the season,” he said.
Speaking of worn down, Beilein was able to give his tired team two days off their legs for the first time since Christmas.
“We went very light after the late trip back from Syracuse on Tuesday. We took (Wednesday) off and we’ll just go right back to where we’ve been with a good two-hour practice on Thursday and a shorter one on Friday,” Beilein said.
Briefly:
“It was painful at times,” he said. “I finally watched it this summer. I’ve watched bits and pieces of the whole game several times this week and it was a tremendous basketball game and they just kept coming back. Their offense made it very difficult for us to hang on and win.
“It was a great basketball game and it brought back memories of when we were shooting so well from the outside a great moment in West Virginia history. I just wish it could have ended up in a win.”
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| Jerry Dunn |
“If you look at how we’ve done since Jerry has joined our staff it has been nothing but upward. We went to the NIT his first year here and we went to the Elite Eight last year,” Beilein said.
When needed, Dunn has been able to provide a head coach’s perspective on the sidelines and in the locker room.
“He brings a sense of confidence to what we do for our players. He looks at the big picture as well as anyone as far as looking at the kids’ attitudes and are they tired? -- things that sometimes you don’t notice as a head coach,” Beilein said. “At the same he has a knack for detail … some microscopic thing that we’ve let go. He’s got almost as many years of coaching experience as I do but from different mentors so he brings a lot to it that I have never realized before.”
Beilein and Dunn first met years ago when a group of coaches from the Northeast used to get together in different areas and just talk basketball.
“He was in a little bit of a coaching symposium that we used to have every year where we’d meet in different areas … New York or Pennsylvania and we’d just talk: whether it was the Penn coaches, LaSalle coaches or Division III coaches,” Beilein said. “He and I, both through mutual friends, went to that and basically he and I were always the only two that went every year. That’s how we got to know each other.”
“I feel bad for Padgett; it’s a tough thing but it sounds like they’re doing the right thing if they can get him healthy for his future years in college and pro ball,” Beilein said. “Both backups appear to me to be guys where they just plug in another great player. Both of these young men were tremendous recruits and were just waiting there for this opportunity. There is a drop off in experience but not a drop off in talent from what I see.”
Louisville (17-9, 5-8) used more of a perimeter-oriented lineup against the Blue Demons and wound up making 11 of 23 from 3-point distance. Beilein says this is nothing new from what he’s seen from Pitino’s teams this year.
“They have been playing with three quick players quite a bit. Whether you call them guards at 6-2 or 6-6, they’re all good perimeter players,” Beilein said. “They’re pretty consistent with having a skilled four-man and the two big kids played 37 of the 40 minutes together.”
That being said, Beilein isn’t quite sure what Pitino will have up his sleeve for West Virginia Saturday afternoon.
“We’re coaching against an icon in the business,” said West Virginia’s coach. “We’ll just try and do the best we can to find a way to defend them and score against them.”
A big match up problem for West Virginia will be 6-3 guard Taquan Dean, who is averaging 16 points per game despite being hampered all season by nagging injuries. He scored 11 in the DePaul win on Wednesday night.
“You have to get a hand in his face all the time and of course they run some great stuff to keep you from doing that,” Beilein said. “He’s a tremendous shooter and his assist numbers are good. If he gets it going against us he can be a one-man team for them and they certainly have a lot of other talent. He could carry them the whole game, too, if he gets it going.”
