Pitt Preview
February 06, 2007 03:03 PM | General
February 7, 2007
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia and Pitt will meet for the 172nd time in basketball’s version of the “Backyard Brawl” Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown.
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| West Virginia and Pitt will be playing for the 172nd time Wednesday night in Morgantown.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
The Panthers have been idle for the last nine days having last played on Jan. 29, knocking off Villanova 65-59 on the road. Pitt, 20-3, 8-1, sits at the top of the Big East standings and is currently ranked sixth in one poll and seventh in another.
“When I saw (the lay off) on the schedule I was wondering what we were going to do for the nine days but we planned it out well and I made it very clear to the guys what our goals were during the week,” said Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon.
Two of Pitt’s three losses this year have come on the road and all three defeats have been against very good basketball teams: Wisconsin, Oklahoma State and Marquette.
This year’s Pitt team has three key senior contributors in 7-foot center Aaron Gray, 6-3 guard Antonio Graves and 6-10 forward Levon Kendall. Mike Cook has also given the Panthers a big boost, scoring a season-high 18 points against Georgetown and averaging 10.7 points per game. Levance Fields has handed out a tem-high 109 assists to go with a 9.7 points-per-game average. Pitt has used the same starting five for all 23 games this season.
“It’s always hard preparing for Pitt because they do such a great job,” said Mountaineer coach John Beilein. “It’s like the Vince Lombardi teams. You know a bit of what they’re going to do but you just can’t stop it and it’s hard to score on them. What this team continues to have is more and more experience playing every single day as a unit with very unselfish players. That’s made them special.”
Dixon says 18-4 West Virginia is much the same way. He knows what the Mountaineers plan on doing against his team Wednesday night.
“The thing about them is you know what you’re going to get. There aren’t going to be any surprises,” Dixon said. “You know they are going to play the 1-31-, you know they are going to play the 2-3 zone and you know they are going to play the man-to-man. You know they are going to use their switching man-to-man.
“You know the set of plays that they are going to run. You know what you’re going to get and they execute it very well,” Dixon said.
While Pitt’s 20-3 record isn’t much of a surprise, West Virginia having an 18-4 record and being in the thick of the Big East race has caught those outside of Morgantown off guard. WVU had to find replacements for five of its top six players from a year ago, turning to unknowns like Alex Ruoff, Joe Alexander and Rob Summers.
Dixon again draws an interesting parallel.
“They’re new but it is kind of like Aaron and Levon in that they were in the system, at the school, and they were good players just waiting their turn,” the Pitt coach said. “You’ve got a Summers who is playing more now. You’ve got a Ruoff and Alexander who didn’t play at all but they were in school and were comfortable with the system and are putting up numbers and getting the minutes to go with it.
“We’ve always heard about Alexander, how talented he was and that he didn’t play much last year and the same with Ruoff,” Dixon said. “It’s not surprising that they are doing a good job.”
Both teams have been extremely adept at handling the basketball. For the style that they play, Pitt has a terrific 435-276 assist-to-turnover ratio. West Virginia’s is nearly as good at 386-253.
“To think that there are two teams that play so well handling the ball and passing the ball it’s pretty unique and rare and doing it in different ways with different styles of play,” said Dixon.
Even though the game has major conference implications, not to mention local bragging rights, both coaches have downplayed its importance. Pitt has a three-game home stand coming up against Providence, Louisville and Washington, while West Virginia plays host to UCLA on Saturday before going to Georgetown next Monday.
“The thing about our conference is it’s so strong,” Dixon said. “Part of our success and the reason we have the winning percentage that we have over the last six years is we know every game is going to be a tough game. We don’t get too up for one game and too down for another.”
Beilein concurs.
“Yes it’s Pitt and it’s a league game,” he said. “But we’ve just got to keep going and plodding through like we have been all year and not put any more importance on one game than another.”
Tip off is set for 7:30 pm and the game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Pittsburgh (Dave Ryan and Bucky Waters).
A limited number of tickets are still available as of Tuesday morning and they can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME.
