Basketball Notebook
December 02, 2008 04:56 PM | General
December 2, 2008
OLE MISS GAME NOTES
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| Bob Huggins |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Simply put, West Virginia University would not be playing a basketball game in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday night against the University of Mississippi if not for the relationship Bob Huggins has developed over the years with Andy Kennedy.
Kennedy worked for Huggins as an assistant coach at Cincinnati for four years and he served a year as the school’s interim coach during Huggins’ absence.
“He did a great job,” said Huggins. “Those are my guys so absolutely I followed them. I didn’t go around and be a distraction. I followed them and watched them when they were on TV and listened to them when they weren’t on TV. Andy did an incredible job under very difficult circumstances.”
Huggins knew from the moment he watched Kennedy work on Gene Bartow’s staff at Alabama-Birmingham that he was destined to be an outstanding coach.
“I think he has a great way with people,” Huggins said. “Andy is really good with players and we knew he would be able to recruit for us. With his experience under Coach Bartow, I knew he would do a good job on the floor. I’ve coached this game for a long time and a lot of guys don’t have the feel that Andy has.”
Huggins admits Kennedy has a different personality on the floor.
“Andy is very much his own guy,” Huggins said. “I think it’s a terrible mistake if you try to coach to somebody else’s personality. I think defensively they’ve done a lot of things that we have done for a long time and they use some aspects of our offense.
“But Andy is going to take his guys and do what’s best for them and that’s the mark of a good coach,” Huggins said. “There are too many people in this business that try to make people fit our system instead of making the system fit them. And I think Andy does a great job of making the system fit his players.”
Ole Miss is 5-1 so far this year with its lone loss coming against Utah in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 21. Guards David Huertas and Chris Warren have combined to average nearly 42 points per game.
“Their guards are terrific,” Huggins said. “Andy does a good job, and they ball screen a lot. They get the ball in the lane, they shoot the 3; I think they are a terrific transition team and they play multiple defenses to try to keep you off-balance.”
Huggins is particularly impressed with the 6-foot-5-inch Huertas.
“David Huertas was recruited by everyone in the country. He went to Florida and then transferred and really blossomed under Andy,” Huggins said. “When we were at Cincinnati, AK recruited Devan Downey and I think he saw a lot of Chris Warren in Devan Downey. He has the ability to push the ball and he’s a one-man fast break – just like Devan was.”
Game time Wednesday night is 9 pm.
Briefly:
“It came down to the way they stacked so many players around the rim and we had to make perimeter shots,” Huggins explained.
The coach believes it is critical that his team’s free throw shooting improve as well.
“I think we all knew that if our free throw shooting didn’t improve it was going to bite us at some point,” Huggins said. “They were 23 of 25 and we were 10 of 17. I think what happens is you lose your aggression because you don’t what to go to the foul line.
“We’re going to have to be more assertive and I thought we may have gotten a bit tentative,” Huggins said.
Andy Kennedy has faced West Virginia twice as the interim coach at Cincinnati, losing 66-57 in Morgantown and winning 78-75 in Cincinnati during the 2005-06 season.
