Cleveland State Preview
December 18, 2009 02:56 PM | General
December 18, 2009
GAME NOTES | HUGGINS VIDEO
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After taking a week off for final examinations, the sixth-ranked West Virginia University basketball team resumes play at Cleveland State Saturday afternoon in the John McLendon Scholarship Classic.
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| Kevin Jones is coming off a 22-point, 11-rebound double-double against Coppin State last Saturday.
AP photo |
Tip off is slated for 2 p.m.
The Mountaineers (7-0) were last in action last Saturday at the WVU Coliseum against Coppin State. In that game, West Virginia was able to blowout the Eagles 69-43 despite shooting just 39.7 percent from the field.
Kevin Jones scored a career-high 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Mountaineers. Devin Ebanks (thumb) and Casey Mitchell (knee) did not play in the game and West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said Friday he expects Ebanks to play Saturday against the Vikings.
“Devin’s thumb is still sore but he’s practiced every day,” said Huggins.
West Virginia will be making its first trip to Cleveland State since Dec. 30, 1977 when Huggins was a graduate assistant coach on Joedy Gardner’s staff.
The Vikings are undergoing somewhat of a rebuilding year under veteran coach Gary Waters after posting back-to-back 20-win seasons that featured an NCAA Tournament victory over Wake Forest and almost beating Arizona to reach the Sweet 16. Only two starters and four players that saw significant action from last year’s team are back for Cleveland State this season.
Consequently, the Vikings have struggled with a 4-7 record so far that includes a 78-70 home loss to Robert Morris Tuesday night.
Junior guard Norris Cole led Cleveland State with a game-high 22 points on 7 of 15 shooting. Backcourt mate Trevon Harmon added 17.
“They are very guard oriented,” said Huggins. “The guards take the majority of the shots and they control the game.”
Huggins believes Cleveland State will provide West Virginia with great preparation for what it will see in games coming up against Ole Miss at the Coliseum next Wednesday and then in the Big East opener at Seton Hall a day after Christmas.
“They are going to throw a lot of things at us,” said Huggins. “They are going to throw a couple of different presses at us and they are going to throw some box and one and triangle and two - things we haven’t seen.”
Huggins is also interested to see how his team reacts to playing in a hostile environment for the first time this year.
“I think it’s going to be a great crowd from what I’ve heard,” Huggins said. “They’re selling a bunch of tickets and I know our alumni have sold a bunch of tickets so it should be a good crowd. We need that. Anaheim it wasn’t a big crowd and the ones that were there were pro West Virginia.”
Listed as West Virginia's tentative starters for Saturday are John Flowers, Kevin Jones and Wellington Smith at forwards, with Da’Sean Butler and Truck Bryant in the backcourt.
Butler leads the Mountaineers in scoring with an average of 16.7 points per game. Jones is averaging 14.4 points and a team best 7.9 rebounds, while Bryant is averaging 10.4 points and 4.1 assists per game.
Saturday’s game will be televised on the Big East Network (John Sanders and Jim Chones).
Stations carrying the game include WCHS (Charleston), WOAY (Beckley), WVFX (Clarksburg), WTAP (Parkersburg), WPCW (Pittsburgh), WTOV (Steubenville, Ohio), WJAL (Washington, D.C.) SNY (New York), Altitude (Denver), ESPN Full Court, and ESPN360.com.
MSN’s radio coverage begins with the Coliseum Countdown at 1:30 p.m.
Briefly:
“Casey hasn’t progressed the way we hoped he would,” Huggins said. “Truth be known, he hasn’t worked at it as hard as he needs to work at out. He’s still trying to figure that out.”
“Obviously we’ve got to play some games,” said Huggins. “(Cleveland State) is a good game for us with all of the ball screens they set. We’re going to get a heavy dose of perimeter-oriented teams, and we haven’t seen a team that sets a lot of ball screens since Texas A&M.”
Cleveland State coach Gary Waters is 4-4 against West Virginia including a 4-3 record against the Mountaineers when Waters coached at Rutgers.
