WVU in Charleston Tuesday
November 22, 2009 06:53 PM | General
November 22, 2009
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Basketball will be coming in waves for the Mountaineers. After playing just once in nine days, West Virginia will play four games during a six-day span beginning this Tuesday with The Citadel in Charleston presented by Walker Machinery.
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| Bob Huggins gives instruction to freshman Danny Jennings during West Virginia's 83-60 victory over Loyola, Maryland at the WVU Coliseum on Nov. 15. The Mountaineers face The Citadel in Charleston Tuesday night.
WVU Photographic Services Photo/Dan Friend photo |
“I don’t like it very much but if we’re going to play on TV we have to play when TV has windows so that’s why we ended up with everything kind jammed toward the end of November,” said Huggins.
West Virginia (1-0) got off to a slow start in its opener against Loyola on Nov. 15 before scoring the first 11 points of the second half in a runaway 83-60 victory. Huggins used 11 different players in the game.
Freshman Danny Jennings stepped in and nearly had a double-double, scoring 9 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in his college debut.
“We’re throwing a lot of things at him and it’s hard on all of those guys,” said Huggins. “It’s hard on the new guys of being able to comprehend and execute. I think they kind of know what they’re doing it’s just that they don’t execute it as well all of the time. He’s getting better everyday.
“Danny wants to be good and I think he puts a lot of pressure on himself,” Huggins added. “That’s something we’ve got to work through. I think he has to understand there weren’t a whole lot of guys that came in here day one and be a great player. If you go back through there have been very few.”
Senior Da’Sean Butler had a game-high 26 points in the opener and is now 33 points shy of becoming the 16th player in school history to score 1,500 points for his career.
“I told our guys the other day that it’s getting increasingly hard for Da’Sean to bring it up the floor, throw it to himself, score, rebound his misses and then go down and guard the other team’s best guy,” Huggins said. “It’d be nice if someone would kind of jump in and help a little bit.”
Butler has been forced to play some point guard with Joe Mazzulla sidelined while still recovering from shoulder surgery last year.
“Da’s been great and it’s harder than what everybody thinks it is to play all of the different roles that he’s been forced to play but he’s done it willingly and he’s done it pretty well,” Huggins said.
Huggins doesn’t know if Mazzulla will be available for Tuesday’s game against Citadel. The same goes for forward Devin Ebanks, who missed the season opener against Loyola for personal reasons.
“There is no change there,” said Huggins last Friday.
Forward John Flowers missed most of the second half of the Loyola game after coming down awkwardly on his ankle.
“He’s not 100 percent but he’s been practicing,” Huggins said.
Huggins is not crazy about the way the schedule works out for the next two weeks but in order to play on television this is the only way it could be done.
“It’s kind of what you make out of it,” he said. “It’s not an ideal situation but we’ve got to make do if we’re going to play on TV and play in these kind of things. I also think it’s important that we play in Charleston.”
Huggins said the trip to Charleston serves many purposes for his program.
“I think we can touch the people in Southern West Virginia a little better,” he said. “It’s an easier trip for them. We have our fans in the southern part of the state that don’t have an opportunity to get to Morgantown frequently. It gives them a little easier path to see a game. They can buy tickets because it’s not in the season ticket package.”
Tuesday’s game will be The Citadel’s fifth this season. The Bulldogs played Maryland-Eastern Shore Sunday night in the final game of the Hispanic College Fund Classic.
Tickets still remain for Tuesday’s game in Charleston and can be purchased online through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by logging on to wvugame.com. Fans can also call the Charleston Civic Center Box Office at (304) 345-SHOW.
Tip off is set for 7 pm. The game will be carried live on the Mountaineer Sports Network (Tony Caridi, Jay Jacobs and Kyle Wiggs) and also on the Internet through MSNsportsNET.com.
Briefly:
The other four teams in the 76 Classic are UCLA, Butler, Portland and Minnesota.
“I think everybody thought we were going to be a good team and that’s why we had the television opportunities that we’ve had,” Huggins said. “The Anaheim thing we were in before. Everybody wants us in their tournaments and I think that has a lot to do with our fan base as well.”
After the 76 Classic, West Virginia will play an exhibition game against Charleston at the Coliseum on Dec. 5 before resuming regular season play against Duquesne on Dec. 9 at the Coliseum. Huggins said good basketball teams find a way to handle less-than-ideal schedules.
“I think when you’re a good team you can handle those things and when you’re not a good team you don’t handle them very well. Hopefully we handle it well,” he said.
“I think he’d be fresher and undoubtedly he’d rebound the ball better,” Huggins said. “He was probably our best offensive rebounder two years ago and now because of all of the other things he’s got to do he hasn’t rebounded it quite as well. That’s to be expected.”
“He’s not just a 7-foot guy. He can change the game for us,” Huggins said. “If somebody got a second shot against us there was a pretty good chance they might get a third or fourth and the second one probably wasn’t as contested as it needs to be. I think David can do that. He can really change shots around the rim.”
Whether that happens as early as next year depends on how much Nyarsuk improves physically.
“I think he’s going to have to get stronger. His biggest weakness right now is going to be his lack of physical strength,” Huggins said. “You could have said that about Devin, Kevin and all of those guys. He’ll work at it. That’s what I love about him. He wants to be good and he will really work hard at it.”
Huggins also landed 6-foot-3 guard Noah Cottrill from Logan High School during the early signing period.
“I thought Syracuse and Louisville were a lot better I guess than what everybody else thought they were,” Huggins said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all.”
