Oklahoma Preview
December 28, 2007 10:58 AM | General
December 28, 2007
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the first time this year West Virginia is going to have to deal with a big and talented front line when the Mountaineers meet Oklahoma on Saturday evening at the Charleston Civic Center.
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| West Virginia coach Bob Huggins reacts to an official's call during last Saturday's game against Canisius in Buffalo, N.Y.
AP photo |
The 9-3 Sooners start a pair of bigs standing 6-10 or taller in senior Longar Longar and freshman Blake Griffin. Both are averaging double digits in scoring and have combined to grab 15 rebounds per game. Huggins is expecting a lot of high-low stuff from Oklahoma on Saturday.
“We played against Longar Longar last year and he has grown tremendously,” Huggins said. “Blake Griffin is just an incredible talent.”
Griffin is leading the team in both scoring and rebounding with averages of 13.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. Longar averages 12.7 points and 6.7 boards per game, while 6-foot-6-inch guard Tony Crocker averages 12.3 points and is shooting 50 percent from 3-point range this season.
Oklahoma has played a much more difficult schedule than West Virginia to date, having faced Memphis, USC, Arkansas and Gonzaga. The Sooners have won back-to-back games against Arkansas and Gonzaga, knocking off the No. 20-rated Zags, 72-68, eight days ago in Oklahoma City.
Longar led Oklahoma with 16 points, while Griffin and Crocker scored 15 points each. The Sooners had a 35-25 advantage on the glass against Gonzaga.
“They’re running the same things, changing defenses and pretty much doing what Jeff (Capel) does,” Huggins said.
West Virginia (10-1) has had a week off after beating Canisius, 77-54 in Buffalo last Saturday. The No. 23-rated Mountaineers have had an opportunity to get back into the gym and work on things that need to be fixed before getting into the heart of their schedule.
“The way our schedule works out we honestly have a lot of time here without students but this has been good for us,” Huggins said. “We’ve got more work in. We tried to fix some things that we needed to fix. Without the students here we can really spent a lot more time in the gym.”
Huggins was pleased with his team’s effort and execution in practice on Thursday.
“They were good yesterday. They were really good yesterday,” he commented. “I would anticipate that they will be as good today as they were yesterday.”
West Virginia is expected to start four players averaging double figures led by 6-6 guard Alex Ruoff’s 16 points-per-game average. Six-eight junior Joe Alexander is averaging 15.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, 6-7 forward Da’Sean Butler shows averages of 12.8 points and 5.2 rebounds while 6-3 guard Darris Nichols is averaging 11.1 points per game. Seven-foot center Jamie Smalligan is the other starter. He is coming off a five-point, five-rebound performance in 14 minutes of action against Canisius last weekend.
The Mountaineers are averaging 86.1 points per game and are shooting 50.7 percent from the floor as a team. West Virginia is also out-rebounding its opponents by 6.1 boards per game, but Huggins believes his team will be tested mightily on the glass by Oklahoma on Saturday.
“We have to continually work on rebounding,” he said. “If we give them second shots, they may get thirds and fourths.”
The game has already been announced a sell out. ESPN2 (Scott Graham and Len Elmore) will televise the contest nationally. Satellite radio users can listen to the game on Sirius channel 114. Internet users can access the MSN broadcast through MSNsportsNET.com.
Tip off is slated for 6 p.m.
