USF Preview
January 16, 2007 05:35 PM | General
January 16, 2007
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After a pair of road losses last week at Notre Dame and Marquette, West Virginia is pleased to be back at the WVU Coliseum where the Mountaineers have forged a 9-0 record so far this season.
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| West Virginia's Frank Young leads the Big East in 3-point field goals averaging 3.4 per game.
AP photo |
Wednesday night West Virginia takes on South Florida in a 7 pm game that will be televised by ESPN Plus (WCHS, WOAY, WVFX, WTOV, WTAP and WJAL locally).
South Florida comes into the game with a 10-8 record and a 1-3 mark in Big East play. The Bulls got 21 points and 15 rebounds from 6-9, 270-pound center Kentrell Gransberry in a 74-59 home win over Cincinnati last Saturday.
“He reminds me of the strong Pitt, Cincinnati-type centers have had in the past,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein.
Gransberry transferred from LSU last season and became eligible in mid-December. The junior scored 24 in his South Florida debut against Norfolk State and has reached double figures in 10 of 11 games so far this year.
South Florida also has the services of 6-3 freshman guard Chris Howard, who missed the entire 2005-06 campaign with two knee injuries. Howard scored 8 points and handed out 10 assists in the Cincinnati win.
“The two kids that transferred in have been a huge change for them,” Beilein said. “You look at their scores last year and they were out of two or three games and they beat a “Sweet 16” team in Georgetown the last game of the year.”
West Virginia also had a rough time against the Bulls in Tampa last year, holding off South Florida 57-53.
“They were a tough out for anybody that played them last year and I don’t think that that is going to last too long,” Beilein said. “They look to me like a team that is going to be in the middle of the pack in the Big East.”
Which is where West Virginia (13-3, 3-2) is at right now in the Big East after a pair of road losses makes its record 3-2 in conference play.
The Mountaineers were 5 of 22 from 3-point range in last Saturday’s 81-63 loss at Marquette. The Golden Eagles’ 81 points were the most WVU has allowed in a road loss since giving up 84 at Villanova on Jan. 5, 2005.
“Anybody who watched Marquette last night (against Louisville) knows they’re good and they should be good because they have four players coming back from a team that went to the NCAA tournament last year,” Beilein said.
Despite the cold shooting performance at Marquette, West Virginia is still averaging 68.4 points per game in league games, which is a point off last year’s 69.8-points-per-game average in Big East play.
“It is tough to score in this league but if we can keep up that 68-point average then we’ll be pretty good,” Beilein said.
Wednesday night’s game is a Dairy Mart 2 for 1. Fans can stop by any local Dairy Mart and pick up a coupon that can be redeemed at the Mountaineer Ticket Office prior to the game.
Briefly:
“If we can turn teams over we’ve been usually pretty good,” Beilein said. “Now we got Marquette to turn it over but we gave it back to them on many occasions because of their incredible speed, quickness and experience.”
“We were fortunate enough to give them a day off on Sunday and yesterday with the holiday we were able to practice twice but one of them was just film and weight training,” he said. “We’re pretty young. I don’t worry about being fresh just yet. I never buy into the idea that travel makes it harder to play. We have to be very careful not to use that as a crutch. That’s the way life is and we deal with it.”
