Louisville Preview
February 24, 2006 05:52 PM | General
February 24, 2006
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| J.D. Collins |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –West Virginia and Louisville will meet for just the fifth time ever at the WVU Coliseum in a Saturday afternoon matinee. Last year the Cardinals defeated West Virginia 93-85 in overtime to advance to the NCAA Tournament Final Four.
This season both teams are in desperate need of a victory: No. 14 West Virginia has lost three straight conference games to Seton Hall, Connecticut and Syracuse while the Cardinals are 5-8 in Big East play and are sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble.
“They have a chance down the stretch to make things right, finish 8-8 in the league and get to New York and take a shot at an NCAA berth,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein.
Louisville’s non-conference victories haven’t done much for making a strong case for NCAA tournament consideration, the Cardinals beating the likes of Bellarmine, Tennessee-Martin, Southern Indiana, Prairie View, Arkansas State, Richmond, Akron, Chicago State, Middle Tennessee State, College of Charleston, Detroit, Fairleigh Dickinson and UC-Davis.
But Louisville (17-9) has played better of late, winning three of its last five (all at home) against Notre Dame, South Florida and most recently DePaul. The Cardinals downed the Blue Demons 65-53 without starting center David Padgett, who injured his left knee during practice on Monday and is lost for the season.
The 6-11 center was second on the team in scoring averaging 11.8 points per game while also grabbing a team best 6.0 rebounds per game.
Replacing Padgett in the starting lineup for the DePaul game was 6-9 freshman Brian Johnson, a Laurinburg, N.C., resident. Johnson made both of his field goal attempts for 5 points while also grabbing a team-best seven rebounds. He has played in 22 of Louisville’s 26 games and averages 2.7 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.
“Padgett’s a great player and I feel bad for him but Louisville just replaces him with All-American after All-American,” Beilein said. “They have some freshmen on the team that are terrific, terrific players. The other day I think their replacements together got 14 points and 12 rebounds.”
Six-three guard Taquan Dean is Louisville’s top scorer averaging 16 points per game. The Red Bank, N.J., resident scored 23 points on 7 of 17 shooting from 3-point distance in Louisville’s win over West Virginia in last year’s NCAA tournament.
Dean missed three games earlier this season with a high ankle sprain but has bounced back well over his last eight games, averaging 17.6 points, 3.5 assists and six rebounds per game. Dean’s best game during this stretch was a 21-point, nine-rebound effort against USF.
Six-three junior guard Brandon Jenkins is also a capable scorer on the perimeter, averaging 12 points per game while making 42.9 percent of his 3-point tries. Jenkins recently scored 20 in a win over Cincinnati and he leads the team with 45 steals.
“They are probably quicker at every position and that will be difficult for us from the standpoint,” Beilein said. “Coach Pitino is known for his different presses and there’s not one set press to attack: he makes you play ball and we hope we’re good in that area.”
Up front, 6-foot-8-inch, 255-pound sophomore Juan Palacios has given the Cardinals some much needed muscle in the paint averaging 9.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. Palacios scored 13 points on 6 of 8 shooting against West Virginia last year.
Five-eleven freshman Andre McGee rounds out Louisville’s starting five and averages 5.6 points and 1.8 rebounds per game.
Louisville is just 1-6 this year on the road, having only won at Providence back on Jan. 7.
On the other hand, West Virginia (18-8, 9-4) has been pretty good at the WVU Coliseum this year winning 11 of 13 games. The only two losses at home have come against LSU and No. 1-ranked Connecticut.
“Hopefully (being home) helps us,” Beilein said. “When we won eight in a row earlier in the season we had five of those at home. Then we played two teams that were rebuilding on the road to get those other two wins. I’d rather be home than away.”
Just eight points separate the Mountaineers from having two more wins against Connecticut and Syracuse. In both games, West Virginia had its chances down the stretch but it couldn’t come up with clutch baskets.
Beilein hopes five days worth of rest will be the right prescription for a team that has lost three of its last four in its most difficult stretch of games this season.
“Two days were just really rest,” said Beilein. “I sensed that that’s what we needed to do. It was really only about three and a half hour’s worth of practice and about two hour’s worth of film.”
Senior Kevin Pittsnogle recently moved into 11th place in career scoring with 1,565 points and leads the Mountaineers with an average of 19 points per game. The Martinsburg native scored a team-best 20 points in the Syracuse loss on Monday.
Guard Patrick Beilein came off the bench against Syracuse to pour in a season-high 18 points on six 3-point baskets to boost his scoring average to 8.1 points per game.
Six-four guard Mike Gansey had an off night at Syracuse scoring just 8 points, but ranks second to Pittsnogle on the team in scoring averaging 17.7 points per game. Despite his most recent struggles, Gansey is still shooting a team-best 57 percent from the floor.
Six-six guard Joe Herber is averaging 9.5 points per game and recently topped the 1,000-point mark for his career. Six-five forward Frank Young, like Gansey, has had a tough go of it lately and has seen his scoring average dip to 7.7 points per game.
Five-eleven senior J.D. Collins failed to score at Syracuse but is averaging 4.7 points and 3.9 assists per game. He is now eighth in career assists at WVU with 374.
West Virginia’s only win against Louisville came on March 20, 1959 in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament in Freedom Hall. The two teams have only met twice during the regular season in 1978 in Louisville and in 1980 in Morgantown – both Louisville victories.
Tip off is scheduled for 1:30 pm and the game will be televised nationally on CBS (Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel). Those outside the viewing area can purchase the game through CSTV.com XXL for $9.95.
There are no tickets remaining for the game.
Briefly: Louisville coach Rick Pitino has never coached at the WVU Coliseum, but he did play here once for Massachusetts on Dec. 2, 1972. The Mountaineers won the game 63-62 when UMass guard Al Skinner missed a free throw and West Virginia was able to drive the length of the court and win the game on a Jerome Anderson lay up.
