Basketball Notebook
February 10, 2008 06:14 PM | General
February 10, 2008
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| Olayinka Sanni |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia women were able to overcome a rough shooting performance to outlast Providence, 63-60 on the road last Saturday to improve to 19-3, 8-1.
The No. 11-rated Mountaineers once again didn’t get much help this week with teams ahead of them in the rankings. Just No. 5 Baylor lost to Oklahoma State and No. 1 Connecticut fell to No. 7 Rutgers last week among Top 10 results.
Those two losses probably won’t be enough to catapult WVU into the Top 10 this week. However, West Virginia’s national ranking could change dramatically in the near future if WVU is successful in a pair of key conference home games coming up on Wednesday against No. 15 Pitt and on Saturday against No. 25 DePaul.
Both Pitt and DePaul dropped games this weekend: the Panthers lost 81-66 at No. 17 Notre Dame on Sunday and DePaul lost at South Florida on Saturday. However, Pitt comes into Morgantown Wednesday night with an 18-5 record and having one of its best seasons in school history.
Wednesday’s game will feature two of the best post players in the country in West Virginia’s Olayinka Sanni and Pitt’s Marcedes Walker. Sanni scored 20 points and grabbed five boards in the Providence win on Saturday while Walker scored 18 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in today’s loss at Notre Dame.
West Virginia (19-3, 8-1) is one of just three Big East teams with one conference loss (Connecticut and Rutgers being the others) and the Mountaineers now have sole possession of third place in the league standings.
WVU’s last home game against No. 4 Rutgers on Jan. 29 resulted in a 63-54 upset victory before a season-high crowd of 3,093. It was the second largest regular season non-doubleheader crowd in school history falling just short of the 3,104 that attended West Virginia’s game against Connecticut on Jan. 26, 1997.
The Mountaineers have a stretch of games that will determine seeding in both the Big East and NCAA tournaments. Following DePaul on Saturday, West Virginia wraps up its league schedule with games at Cincinnati on Feb. 19, at home against Villanova on Feb. 23, on the road at Pitt on Feb. 26, at home against Louisville on March 1 and on the road at Syracuse on March 3.
Cincinnati, Villanova and Louisville presently have losing records in conference play.
Strong Finish Needed For Men
The men’s team has seven days to think about its 55-54 loss at Pitt last Thursday night. The Mountaineers resume action on Thursday night at home against 10-15 Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights (2-10 in Big East play) are one of six teams on WVU’s remaining schedule with losing league records.
Seton Hall (5-6) in Morgantown on Feb. 17, at Villanova (4-6) on Feb. 20, Providence (4-7) in Morgantown on Feb. 23, at DePaul (5-6) on Feb. 27, and at St. John’s (4-7) on March 8 are all winnable games for West Virginia, 16-7 overall and 5-5 in Big East play.
The other two league games are against 18-5 Connecticut in Storrs on March 1, and at home against 18-5 Pitt on March 3. The Huskies are one of the hottest teams in the country having won seven straight and Connecticut could be 23-5 when the Mountaineers face the Huskies on March 1.
Pitt has managed to stay above .500 in Big East play despite losing both of its back-court starters to injuries. However, the Panthers are expected to get back Levance Fields in time to face West Virginia in Morgantown on March 3.
West Virginia is probably going to have to win six of its last eight to have a realistic shot of earning an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament. That would give the Mountaineers a 22-9 record heading into the Big East tournament.
A 6-2 finish in league play would also give West Virginia an 11-7 record in the Big East, matching West Virginia’s best-ever win totals in conference play done twice by Gale Catlett in 1997 and 1998 when the league had an 18-game schedule, and done once by John Beilein in 2006 when the conference played 16 games.
West Virginia was 40-40 in Big East play during Beilein’s five seasons at West Virginia from 2002-07 while Catlett’s teams posted a 48-72 Big East record for a .400 winning percentage.
Heading into Thursday night’s Rutgers game West Virginia has a 93-117 all-time record in Big East action.
