Xavier Preview
March 16, 2007 09:15 PM | General
March 16, 2007
AUSTIN, Texas – It’s been 15 years since West Virginia has won an NCAA tournament game and Mountaineer coach Mike Carey believes that’s long enough. WVU faces No. 6-seeded Xavier in the first round of the NCAA women’s tournament Saturday night at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.
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| West Virginia coach Mike Carey looks at his practice schedule during a Friday afternoon workout in Austin, Texas.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“We hope we win this time,” Carey said Friday afternoon. “We didn’t win the first game last time. We had a tough draw and got Ohio State on their home floor. At least it’s on a neutral floor this time.”
West Virginia’s last NCAA tournament appearance and first under Carey came in 2004 when the Mountaineers dropped a 73-67 decision to Ohio State at St. John Arena.
This year, West Virginia earned an at-large berth after finishing fourth in the Big East, recording key road victories at Pitt and Louisville down the stretch. The Mountaineers bring a 20-10 overall record into the tournament.
“West Virginia is an excellent team,” said Xavier coach Kevin McGuff. “They are as good as any team I’ve watched this season. They are as talented as any team we’ve faced and they are well coached. It should be a great game.”
McGuff believes his 26-7 Xavier team is very similar to West Virginia.
“The team that is most similar to West Virginia is us,” he said. “Both teams are athletic and emphasize defense. If I had to pick an opponent, I would say Louisville (is the most similar). They lost a close game in the Big East tournament. They are very athletic and balanced inside and out.”
Carey cites Xavier’s experience as one of its best attributes.
“They have a lot of seniors and they’ve played a lot of basketball games,” Carey said. “They’re a very good basketball team. They’re very athletic, they get up and down the floor, and they have a lot of weapons.”
West Virginia’s sixth-year coach is hopeful a difficult non-conference schedule was enough to prepare his team for what it will face against Xavier Saturday night.
“We’ve seen different styles from Villanova – working the shot clock down to the last second -- to teams that get up and down the floor. We will get up and down the floor, but at times we will try to slow it down a bit, try to get it more under control.”
McGuff has been extremely impressed with West Virginia’s LaQuita Owens, who has scored 58 points in her last two games against Louisville.
“She’s a great player,” McGuff said. “She’s extremely dangerous. Having watched them on film, she’s probably as good a perimeter player as we have seen. When she gets going and is making shots, they are really, really difficult to play against. We have to beat her on the catch and challenge any outside shots that she is going to take.”
McGuff believes West Virginia will try to pack it in and double-down on his talented 6-5 forward Amber Harris, one of the country’s top freshmen.
“What I think they will do is crowd the paint and make it difficult for us to score inside,” McGuff said. “They get you to stand (in the paint). We’ve got to move the ball before we throw inside and make things happen.”
It’s been two weeks since West Virginia last played giving the team plenty of time to get healthy.
“Coming off the Big East tournament we backed off a little bit,” Carey said. “We had a lot of people that were ill -- a lot of sickness – people who were banged up., like everybody at this point in the season.
“In the middle of the week we picked it up a bit, and then we backed off a bit here. I think we’ll be healthy. I think we’ll be fresh. We’re looking forward to playing.”
Tip off is set for 8:07 pm. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
The winner will face the winner of LSU-UNC Asheville on Monday, March 20.
