Cincinnati Preview
January 30, 2008 11:45 AM | General
January 30, 2008
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In order to play in March you have to win games now, says West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. His Mountaineer basketball team faces an important game Wednesday night against Cincinnati at the WVU Coliseum.
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| Coach Bob Huggins faces his old team Cincinnati tonight at the WVU Coliseum.
AP photo |
“These guys have things that they want to accomplish this year and we have to win games to do it,” Huggins said.
West Virginia (15-5, 4-3) is coming off a tough, 58-57 loss to Georgetown at the Coliseum on Saturday night. The Mountaineers led for most of the game until Jessie Sapp’s 3-point basket with 6.2 seconds left gave the Hoyas a one-point lead. WVU had a chance to win it but Da’Sean Butler’s driving lay up attempt was blocked by Patrick Ewing, Jr. at the buzzer.
Cincinnati is coming off a pair of tough losses as well to Connecticut and Seton Hall to drop to 9-11 overall and 4-4 in the Big East. The Bearcats are just 1-7 on the road this season. Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin is 20-30 at Cincinnati and 89-54 overall. Cronin spent five years with Bob Huggins at Cincinnati from 1996-2001.
“I’ve always had a great connection with the city of Cincinnati,” Huggins said. “I’ve got a bunch of very dear friends there. I still go back there. I went back there when I was at Kansas State and did charity things. I was involved very much with the Emmanuel Center downtown. I lived there for 17 years and the city was great to me.”
Huggins is getting used to coaching against former assistant coaches. He says he has plans of facing Andy Kennedy at Mississippi and Frank Martin at Kansas State in the future.
“We’re going to play Ole Miss next year. We very well could play Kansas State next year in Las Vegas,” Huggins said. “Before I said we were going to Vegas I called Frank and he said that was great and that we would be able to spend some time together.
“I think what you learn over the years is if you play against people you like, as much as I detest losing, there is a little part of you that feels good for them,” Huggins said.
Huggins says he sees both similarities and differences in the system Mick Cronin is now running at Cincinnati.
“We all steal from each other,” Huggins said. “That’s the nature of the business. Mick’s put his own wrinkles in. He’s run some stuff that I’ve never seen Rick (Pitino) run before, certainly things that we’ve never run before.
“Their zone offense is what my dad ran. They still run some of the things that I ran at Cincinnati that I got from my dad,” Huggins said.
The majority of Cincinnati’s offense comes from 6-1 guard Deonta Vaughn, who averages 17.5 points per game. Vaughn is shooting 46.7 percent overall and leads the Bearcats with 56 3-point baskets.
“They run a lot of things for him and when they are not running initially for him he’s the second or third option,” Huggins said. “He has his hands on the ball a lot and he makes shots.”
Six-six, 225-pound forward John Williamson is averaging 9.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. Williamson is shooting 47.7 percent and has grabbed a team-best 45 offensive rebounds.
“His team still revolves around Vaughn and Williamson,” Huggins said. “He’s still relying on the guys that played a year ago for him and that’s what most coaches do.”
Yet eight different players have started at least one game for Cronin and 10 players are averaging at least 10 minutes per game.
“They play a lot of guys and I think he’s done a good job of getting the guys on the floor that are playing well that day,” Huggins said. “If you look he’s played a lot of those freshmen. They play a lot some games and not a lot the next and I’m sure that has a lot to do with how they practice and what he thought he could get from them.”
Huggins is hoping his team fares better at the free throw line against Cincinnati. Foul shots nearly cost the Mountaineers against Marshall last Wednesday night and it did wind up hurting West Virginia against Georgetown. The last two games West Virginia is just 23 of 51 from the line for 45 percent.
“You can’t just go in and reconstruct somebody’s shot,” Huggins explained. “I guess it’s akin to a golf swing. You don’t have somebody reconstruct your swing the day before the club championship. You’ll have too many thoughts going through your head and free throw shooting is the same way. I think we’ll be fine.”
Huggins is also hopeful that junior forward Joe Alexander’s ailing groin is fine Wednesday night.
“We held him yesterday,” Huggins said. “He got in at the end and did some shooting drills and did just a couple things early but it’s a day-to-day thing. There are days Joe comes in and feels pretty good and then there are days when he can hardly move. It’s just kind of a wait-and-see thing.”
Tip off is 7 pm. ESPN2 (Dave O’Brien and Doris Burke) will televise the game nationally. MSN’s pre-game coverage (Sirius Satellite 121) begins at 6:30 with the Mountaineers Today.
Tickets still remain and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office at 1-800-WVU GAME.
