Providence Preview
February 22, 2008 03:33 PM | General
February 22, 2008
GAME NOTES
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| Darris Nichols |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The lesson Coach Bob Huggins hopes his team learned from Wednesday’s 22-point loss at Villanova is that you always have to come out of the corner swinging. That’s what the Wildcats did by jumping out to an 8-0 lead on the way to a 24-point halftime advantage.
“We can’t let other people take the fight to us like we did Wednesday night,” Huggins said Friday afternoon. “Wednesday night we got ourselves in a hole and they came out and were really physical with us. We need to do a better job of being ready to go all the time. I thought we were ready to go the prior week. We came out pretty strong and then Wednesday night for whatever reason we didn’t.”
West Virginia has put itself in a must-win situation Saturday night facing a well-rested Providence team that last played Monday afternoon at home against Georgetown.
The Friars dropped that game 68-58 to sink to 13-13 overall and 4-10 in Big East play. Ironically, West Virginia is facing Providence for the second time this season following a 20-point loss.
The first time at Providence two weeks ago, the Mountaineers were coming off one of their worst home performances ever when they lost 62-39 at home to Cincinnati. West Virginia rebounded to beat Providence 77-65 by shooting 50.9 percent from the floor and hitting 7 of 13 from 3-point range. The Mountaineers also beat the Friars on the glass by a 33-25 margin.
Darris Nichols matched his career high with 23 points and Joe Alexander had 19 points and eight rebounds. Randall Hanke scored 18 on 7 of 9 shooting for Providence.
“A couple games prior to our first game Hanke hadn’t played that much. We were concerned more with (Geoff) McDermott because they run everything through him. He had a good game,” Huggins said. “He scored off penetration a lot and they pitched it to him and he did a good job finishing.”
Huggins is expecting the unexpected Saturday from Providence coach Tim Welsh.
“Tim changes things,” Huggins said. “They played us a good bit of man. They’ve played a lot of zone here of late. They didn’t really press us much up there until the end. They are 2-2-1 pressing a lot more now. I think we all change things to a degree.”
West Virginia (18-8, 7-6) is looking to bounce back after a miserable 2 for 20 shooting performance from 3 Wednesday night against the Wildcats. Top 3-point shooter Alex Ruoff was 0 for 6 from behind the arc.
“He hasn’t been shooting the ball very well. He has struggled shooting the ball and that’s painfully obvious,” Huggins said. “You do what you always do. You spend a little time on it but you can’t make total overhauls this time of year.
“We’ve spent some time with Alex and talked to him about making sure he gets the ball up. They always told me 100 percent of them that don’t get over the rim don’t go in,” Huggins said. “We hope not just Alex but a whole bunch of us start getting it over the rim.”
The Mountaineers may get a boost from 6-6 freshman forward Cam Thoroughman, who wasn’t played since the Pitt loss with a sprained ankle.
“Yesterday is the first time he has practiced since I guess before the Rutgers game,” Huggins said. “He’s not 100 percent yet. He’s still limping around a little bit.”
When Thoroughman is healthy he provides a scrappy presence on the defensive end of the floor.
Huggins is looking for a rebound performance after the disappointing effort his team put forth Wednesday night.
“You don’t feel very comfortable after you lose. It’s kind of a bad feeling and you have this bad taste in your mouth,” Huggins said. “They aren’t any different than anybody else. They just try to get that bad taste out of their mouth.”
Tip off is scheduled for 7 pm following the West Virginia women’s game against Villanova at 4 pm. ESPN Regional will televise the game locally on Fox Sports Pittsburgh. MASN (Capital Region), Metro Sports (Kansas City), Cox New England, Ohio Sports Network and ESPN Full Court will also carry the game.
MSN’s coverage begins at 6:30 pm with The Mountaineers Today. Sirisu Satellite Radio users can access the MSN broadcast on channel 126. Internet users can get the broadcast through their CSTV All-Access package.
