True Value
December 21, 2008 10:18 AM | General
December 21, 2008
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| Ruoff |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Saturday’s surprisingly easy 82-46 victory over a very solid Miami University team showed the true value of Alex Ruoff to the West Virginia University basketball team.
After sitting out West Virginia’s last two games against Davidson (68-65 loss) and Duquesne (68-63 win) with a shoulder injury, Ruoff returned to the lineup Saturday and helped the Mountaineers with a stat line that showed 15 points, eight assists, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks while logging a team-high 35 minutes.
Just getting half those numbers from Ruoff and West Virginia defeats Davidson and has a much easier time at Duquesne last weekend.
“Defensively I thought he was really good,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “(Michael) Bramos is a heck of a player and I thought Alex forced him to go deeper than he wanted to go.”
Bramos came into Saturday’s game on a streak of scoring at least 26 points in each of his last four games. On Saturday Ruoff held him to 5 of 13 shooting and 14 points.
At 6-6, Ruoff causes problems on defense with his long arms and great instincts. On offense his threat to hit the 3 forces defenses to come out and guard him and that opens things up for his teammates. He also provides a calming influence on the floor for freshman point guard Truck Bryant, sometimes taking over the point when Huggins wants to run a specific play or attack a certain area of the defense.
During Ruoff’s absence, West Virginia’s leading scorer Da’Sean Butler was mired in a 10 of 34 shooting slump in games against Davidson and Duquesne as teams were free to focus more attention on Butler.
Yesterday with Ruoff back out on the floor, Butler had a career day scoring 28 points on 11 of 17 shooting to go with five rebounds. Butler was 5 of 7 from 3-point range. That was partly because Ruoff hit a pair of early 3s that forced Miami to come out and guard him.
“Ruoff and those guys … they are awful good,” said Miami coach Charlie Cole. “They are a lot better than I thought they were. I knew Alex was good. Butler, I’ll tell you what, he’s a pretty good player. And the rest of their team is pretty good, too.”
Huggins said all offensive options are on the table when Ruoff is on the floor.
“He makes a huge difference because they have to guard him. It opens up so many more things,” Huggins said. “It opens up driving lanes for us. It opens up more cutting lanes for us and he passes the ball. He’s someone we can run offense through because he passes the ball and he does a good job of reading the defense and looking at more than just one option.”
However, what really impressed Huggins was Ruoff’s work on the defensive end of the floor.
“He just does a lot of little things. He anticipates things well defensively. I told him when he hurt his shoulder, ‘You know if anybody would have said you’re going to end up being our best perimeter defender they would have thought whoever said that was insane.’ He’s really worked,” Huggins said. “Alex comes out everyday and has a great work ethic and he’s gotten better and better. Guys who put time in and work at it on a daily basis do get better.”
The reason West Virginia is so effective defensively is because the Mountaineers have four players of similar size out there when Ruoff is back out on the floor.
“They have a great advantage. At least four of them are all the same size so they can switch,” Cole explained. “They have the ideal situation – they can switch off of you and not get hurt. Ruoff can guard our post guys.”
Huggins admits Ruoff has turned himself into a completely different player from the one he inherited two years ago when former coach John Beilein recruited him as a stationary jump shooter.
“I can’t explain to you the difference in the kid. He’s doing everything,” Huggins said. “He’s an entirely different player than he was since the beginning of last year because he wants to be and he puts the time in and works at it.”
