Davidson Preview
December 08, 2008 10:20 PM | General
December 8, 2008
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN. W.Va. – West Virginia gets its crack at trying to slow down Davidson All-America guard Stephen Curry Tuesday night in the first game of the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
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| Da'Sean Butler scored 18 points in West Virginia's 53-43 victory over Cleveland State last Saturday.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Curry became a household name last year after leading Davidson to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight before losing to eventual national champion Kansas 59-57. This year Curry has picked up where he’s left off, averaging a nation’s best 31.3 points per game.
Most recently, Curry put up 44 points in a 72-67 victory over N.C. State last Saturday. The 6-3 guard was 15 of 33 from the floor to match his career high, which he established earlier this year in an 82-78 loss to Oklahoma.
In Davidson’s 78-48 victory over Loyola, Md., on Nov. 25, Loyola chose to double-team Curry and kept him from scoring a single point. Curry attempted just three shots and spent most of the game well away from the basket to give his teammates more room to operate.
“I don’t think he will go over and stand in the corner against us,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “That’s just a guess, but I don’t think that will happen.”
West Virginia is coming off a 53-43 victory over Cleveland State last Saturday without starting point guard Joe Mazzulla, who injured his shoulder diving for a loose ball at Mississippi last Wednesday. How much Mazzulla will be able to play, if at all, remains a question mark.
Freshman Truck Bryant got the start last Saturday against Cleveland State and played just 12 minutes against the Vikings. Huggins voiced his displeasure with Bryant’s performance after the game during his post-game press conference. The New York City resident was just 1 of 3 shooting for 3 points and also committed three turnovers.
Bryant will have to play much better in his hometown return matching up against Curry.
“We’ve got to try and keep a fresh guy on him,” Huggins said of defending Curry. “I don’t know if we necessarily have to guard him with a point guard.”
Huggins said there wasn’t anything to be taken from Loyola’s strategy of double-teaming Curry.
“He went scoreless because he wanted his teammates to score,” Huggins said. “He could have scored against those two guys. He’s an unselfish guy and they’re an unselfish team.”
Remarkably, Curry also shows 45 assists in seven games or nearly twice as many as West Virginia’s top playmaker Joe Mazzulla with 25. Combining Curry’s points and assists, the junior is responsible for more than 50 percent of the Wildcat’s offense.
But No. 23-rated Davidson (6-1) is not a one-man show. Six-foot-eight-inch forward Andrew Lovedale is averaging 14.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, while 6-4 guard Bryant Barr is averaging 10 points and is shooting 42.3 percent from 3-point range.
“They are extremely well coached and they seem to have great camaraderie and rapport with each other,” Huggins said.
Da'Sean Butler is coming off an 18-point performance against Cleveland State and leads the Mountaineers with a 14.6-points-per-game average. Alex Ruoff is averaging 14.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.
Freshman Devin Ebanks had his most productive game to date against Cleveland State with a 10-point, 17-rebound double-double. Ebanks boosted his scoring average to 6.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
The Mountaineers (6-1) have eight players averaging better than six points per game.
Tuesday night’s game renews an old rivalry when the two teams were members of the Southern Conference. This will be the 34th time the two schools will play with West Virginia holding a slim 18-15 advantage.
Tip off is set for 7 pm and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN. The second game of the doubleheader pits Villanova against Texas. Proceeds from the event go to the Jimmy V Foundation for cancer research.
Briefly:
Presently, West Virginia plays only one foe with an RPI in the 300s (Radford) and just two with an RPI in the 200s (Elon and Longwood).
