Capital Classic Preview
January 23, 2007 03:15 PM | General
January 23, 2007
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Most of what you probably know about Wednesday night’s Chesapeake Energy Capital Classic revolves around Marshall’s two-game winning streak against West Virginia. How the 3s have fallen for the Herd and how the 3s didn’t fall for the Mountaineers.
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| Senior Frank Young is averaging 14.3 points per game and leads the Big East averaging 3.4 3s per game.
All-Pro Photography/Allison Toffle |
What you might not know is that this year Marshall (7-11) is only 20 points removed from having a 13-5 record against a very formidable schedule. The Thundering Herd have lost six games this year by six points or less against a schedule that features only one team with a losing record (Missouri-Kansas City).
The combined record of Marshall’s 18 opponents this year is 208-118, including a non-conference slate that is presently 147-91. Marshall has played two teams sitting at the top of its league standings (UNC Greensboro and Memphis) and five other teams that are second, including 14-5 Virginia Tech which Marshall defeated in Huntington, 59-58, on Dec. 30.
Given the level of competition Marshall has faced this year, it’s not surprising the Herd have won their last two C-USA games against 12-5 Tulsa and 8-8 Tulane.
Marshall is bringing a modest two-game winning streak into Charleston to face West Virginia Wednesday night. The past two seasons when Marshall knocked off West Virginia 58-52 in 2006 and 59-55 in 2005, the Herd took losing records into the Charleston Civic Center.
In 2005, Marshall lost four straight and owned a 2-10 overall record before knocking off No. 24 West Virginia by making 13 3-point shots. It was Ronny Dawn’s long bomb from well beyond the top of the key that snapped a 52-all tie.
A year later in 2006, Marshall limped into Charleston with a three-game losing streak and a 7-9 overall record. And once again the Herd bombed away with Tre Whitted and Markel Humphrey doing most of the damage. Humphrey and Whitted nailed huge 3s late in the game with the shot clock winding down and the No. 9-rated Mountaineers couldn’t connect on theirs, going a frigid 5 of 29 from behind the 3-pont arc.
“The four I’ve been a part of have been last-second games and we could have won all four and we could have lost all four,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein.
The 2006 loss was just the second time in school history that Marshall managed to knock off a Top 10-ranked team. West Virginia posted season lows in points (52), field goals (18) and 3-point field goals (5) against Marshall after coming off a memorable 60-56 win against No. 18 UCLA in Pauley Pavilion.
This year the circumstances are reversed. West Virginia heads to Charleston following one of its most disappointing performances of the season at Cincinnati, the Mountaineers seeing their 17-point first-half lead vanish and losing 96-83 to the Bearcats in overtime.
After making nine first-half 3s, WVU shooters went cold against Cincinnati and finished the game 15 of 40 from behind the arc. The Bearcats also had their way on the glass, pulling down 12 more boards for the game including 15 offensive rebounds.
“That was a tough one for our young team and a tough one for an old coach,” Beilein said.
Although West Virginia (14-4, 4-3) is interrupting its Big East schedule, the passion, enthusiasm and effort Marshall brings to the game is similar.
“It’s a tremendously emotional game down in Charleston every year,” Beilein said. “When you see the emotion down there and the amount of people that have an interest it’s a great game to play.”
Marshall has a trio of double-digit scorers in 6-5 forward Markel Humphrey (14.2 ppg.), 6-2 guard Mark Dorris (12.5 ppg.) and 6-4 guard Travis Aikens (11.7 ppg.).
Humphrey is pulling down a team best 6.3 rebounds per game.
Senior Frank Young is West Virginia’s top scorer averaging 14.3 points per game. The 6-5 forward leads the Big East averaging 3.4 3-pointers per game and is coming off a career-high 40 minutes played at Cincinnati last Saturday.
Six-eight sophomore forward Joe Alexander is averaging 11.9 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while 6-6 sophomore guard Alex Ruoff is averaging 10.4 points per contest. Ruoff is coming off a career-high 21 points at Cincinnati.
Wednesday’s game is the 35th meeting between the two schools. West Virginia is 11-4 against Marshall since the game was permanently moved to Charleston and is 24-10 overall against the Herd.
The contest is scheduled to tip off at 8 pm following the WVU-Marshall women’s game at 5:30 pm. Both games are being offered on the Internet on a pay-per-view basis by CSTV for just $9.95. Click Here for more information.
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Marshall takes on Houston in a C-USA match up at the Henderson Center Saturday night.
“I think that now that we’ve added UCLA to the second half of the schedule it’s probably tough doing both but I understand that there are things with the Legislature that mandate it,” Beilein said. “If that’s what we have to do then that’s what we have to do. I will always be a team guy with the University and we’ll do our best regardless.”
