2008 Capital Classic
January 22, 2008 02:48 PM | General
January 22, 2008
MEN'S GAME NOTES | WOMEN'S GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia steps outside of conference play one final time to face Marshall in the 2008 Chesapeake Energy Capital Classic Wednesday night in Charleston.
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| John Flowers earned his first career start at South Florida last Sunday in place of injured forward Joe Alexander.
AP photo |
This year will be the first time since 2004 that both teams enter the game with winning records. West Virginia is 14-4 and is near the top of the Big East standings with a 4-2 conference mark.
First-year Coach Donnie Jones has led the Herd to a 10-6 record that includes wins over Princeton, San Diego, Winthrop, Rice and most recently, UAB. Marshall is in the middle of the Conference USA standings with a 2-2 league record with victories over Rice and UAB and losses to No. 1 Memphis and East Carolina.
“They’re playing really, really hard,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “They don’t do like some people do when things aren’t going well and fold. They play harder. They’re going to try and go rebound every ball. I think Donnie has done a great job with them.”
Markel Humphrey leads Marshall in scoring averaging 14.2 points per game, but the 6-5 junior forward missed last Saturday’s win over UAB with a foot injury. Marshall was also without 6-3 senior guard Taurean Marshall against the Blazers.
“(Humphrey) is good – he’s really good,” said Huggins. “I watched him on tape against Louisville and he’s as good as anyone in college basketball the way he played against Louisville.”
Taking Humphrey’s and Marshall’s places in the starting lineup were 7-foot sophomore forward Robbie Jackson and 6-4 guard Adam Williams. Jackson played a total of 10 minutes and failed to score, while Williams played 17 minutes and also didn’t register a point.
Guard Mark Dorris picked up the scoring slack for Marshall, scoring 15 points on 6 of 15 shooting. Guard Darryl Merthie added 12 while Tyler Wilkerson and Matt Walls came off the bench to score 11 and 10 points respectively.
Dorris is averaging 13.4 points per game and has made 27 3-point baskets – second best on the team. Six-six forward Tirrell Baines is averaging 11.9 points and a team-best 6.7 rebounds per game.
“He’s active, he rebounds the ball. He can score it in the post and he can step out and make shots,” Huggins said of Baines. “I think he’s a really good player. He can play in our league.”
If Humphrey cannot go against West Virginia, it is expected that Jones will once again use a three-guard lineup with Jackson and Baines underneath.
West Virginia is coming off a 69-52 road win at South Florida last Sunday without the services of 6-8 forward Joe Alexander, who re-aggravated a groin injury last Thursday night against St. John’s. Alexander is averaging 15.8 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.
“We’re a little banged up but I think everyone is at this time of year,” said Huggins.
Six-seven freshman John Flowers made his first start against South Florida and finished the game with 5 points and four rebounds in 25 minutes of action. Huggins said either Flowers or Wellington Smith will start in Alexander’s place if Alexander can’t play against Marshall.
“It kind of depends on match ups,” Huggins said. “John is going to play 25 minutes whether he starts or not.”
The Mountaineers got 20 points off the bench from guard Joe Mazzulla and Smith, as well as 15 points each from Da’Sean Butler and Darris Nichols in the USF victory.
Leading scorer Alex Ruoff was held to 14 points – two below his season average of 16.1 points per game. Ruoff is shooting 50 percent overall for the season (95 of 190) including 60 of 132 from 3-point range for 45.5 percent. Ruoff also leads the team with 62 assists.
Butler shows averages of 12.9 points and 5.7 rebounds per game while shooting 53.1 percent from the floor. Nichols is averaging 11.1 points per game.
“I would have hoped we would have shot it a little better than we have at this point but in most cases we’ve held our own on the glass and defensively I think we’ve played pretty well,” Huggins said. “We’re holding people to 60 points a game and we ought to score more than 60.”
West Virginia is 3-2 in road games so far this year and 2-2 at neutral sites. Marshall is 9-2 this year at home and is just 1-4 away from the Henderson Center.
West Virginia and Marshall are meeting for the 36th time with the Mountaineers owning a 12-4 record against the Thundering Herd since the two began playing annually in Charleston. WVU has won eight of the last 11, but Marshall has claimed two of the last three.
The game will be televised on the Capital Classic Network (John Sanders and Frank Giardina) and will air on WOWK (Charleston), WVNS (Beckley), WBOY (Clarksburg), WTRF (Wheeling), WJAL (Chambersburg, Pa.) and online on a pay-per-view basis through MSNsportsNET.com.
Sirius Satellite Radio listeners can pick up the MSN broadcast on channel 119.
Tip off follows the WVU-Marshall women’s game at 8 pm.
