This Week's Notebook
February 17, 2009 04:59 PM | General
(5:00 pm)
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| Bob Huggins |
West Virginia has been one of the best teams in the country this year defending the 3-point shot. Heading into this week’s games the Mountaineers are ranked second in the country in 3-point field goal percentage defense, permitting teams to convert just 26.6 percent of its 3-point tries.
Only St. Louis is better right now, holding teams to just 26.1 percent.
West Virginia has long players guarding the wings, but Coach Bob Huggins is not sure why his team has defended the 3 so much better than the rest of the country this season.
“We don’t gap it as much as a lot of people do,” Huggins said. “A lot of teams gap things where we stay more in line and I think that forces people a little bit deeper. And we probably stay a little closer than a lot of people do.”
Huggins says there are basically two ways to defend the 3 – getting out and pressuring shooters trying to push them farther away from the basket or by “gapping” things and relying on help.
“When you have more size inside I think people have a tendency to gap things and when you gap things I think you give up more step-in 3s. Step-in 3s are what people make,” Huggins explained.
One factor Huggins believes has not made that much of a difference is the 3-point line moving out a little bit.
“My managers are out there making them,” Huggins joked. “What I think it has done is guys step out of bounds a little more.”
Heading into this week here are the top 10 scorers in Big East games only:
1. Luke Harangody, Notre Dame, 27.3 ppg.
2. Jerel McNeal, Marquette, 23.5 ppg.
3. Jeremy Hazell, Seton Hall, 23.1 ppg.
4. Da’Sean Butler, West Virginia, 21.1 ppg.
5. Dominque Jones, USF, 19.8 ppg.
6. Jonny Flynn, Syracuse, 17.5 ppg.
7. Wesley Matthews, Marquette, 17.4 ppg.
8. Eric Devendorf, Syracuse, 17.1 ppg.
9. Paris Horne, St. John’s, 17.0 ppg.
10. Dar Tucker, DePaul, 16.8 ppg.
It will be interesting to see how many of these guys wind up making the all-Big East first team.
Do you remember when West Virginia couldn’t make a free throw? Well, don’t look now but the Mountaineers are second to Notre Dame in conference free throw percentage at .770. That is a dramatic improvement from West Virginia’s overall free throw percentage mark of .683.
Here are the records of West Virginia’s six remaining regular season basketball opponents:
Notre Dame, DePaul and Louisville are at the Coliseum where West Virginia is 9-2 this season.
West Virginia has had much better overall records than this year’s 17-8 mark heading into mid-February, but have the Mountaineers ever had a stronger RPI this late in the season?
According to CollegeRPI.com, West Virginia is 13th with a strength-of-schedule rating that is fifth best in the country. Five of WVU’s eight losses this year have come against teams ranked in the top 10 in this week’s AP poll.
“What are we 13th in the RPI and (fifth) in strength of schedule?” Huggins said. “That’s pretty good. I don’t think there has ever been a 13 in the RPI left out of the NCAA tournament. Right now we’re OK. We’ve just got to keep winning games.”
Count Bob Huggins among those not surprised by Pitt’s 76-68 win at No. 1 Connecticut Monday night.
“Pitt was really hard for us,” Huggins said. “They have got so many guys who can score and they’re so physical. It didn’t surprise me at all.”
West Virginia is once again on pace to average more than 10,000 fans per game at the Coliseum this year. Last year in Coach Bob Huggins’ return to his alma mater WVU averaged 10,062 per game. Only one other time in 1982-83 have the Mountaineers posted back-to-back years of 10,000-plus crowds. The all-time record for average attendance came in 1982 when West Virginia averaged 11,384 for its 15 home dates.
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| Mike Carey |
West Virginia women’s coach Mike Carey believes his team is still in line to get a bid to the WNIT if it can win at least one more regular season game and /or Big East tournament game to reach 15 victories.
That won’t be easy. The Mountaineers’ remaining schedule includes games at Georgetown (15-10), USF (18-7), Pitt (18-5), Syracuse (15-9) and at Notre Dame (17-6).
West Virginia dropped to 14-10 after its 79-59 loss at Marquette last Sunday.
Wally Burnham, one of the men responsible for holding down West Virginia’s spread offense the last three years, has decided to take the defensive coordinator job offered by Paul Rhodes at Iowa State. The 67-year-old Burnham had been a trusted member of Jim Leavitt’s South Florida staff the last eight seasons.
West Virginia’s offensive total against Burnham’s USF defense the last three years includes 280 yards in last year’s 13-7 victory, and 310 yards in a 24-19 loss to the Bulls in 2006.
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| Chelsea Carrier |
Two West Virginia individual performers and the distance medley relay are nationally ranked heading into this weekend’s Big East Indoor Track and Field Championships in New York City.
Sophomore Chelsea Carrier is ranked 11th in the pentathlon with a score of 3,967, and sophomore Keri Bland is ranked 14th in the country in the 800 with a time of 2:06.74.
WVU’s distance medley relay team of Kaylyn Christopher, April Rotilio, Karly Hamric and Bland is ranked 12th with a time of 11:11.33. The DMR has advanced to nationals nine times in the last 11 years.
Second-year coach Sean Cleary is also hopeful of getting a qualifying time from Marie-Louise Asselin in the 3,000. Asselin took seventh in the 3,000 at last year’s indoor nationals. Asselin has gotten a late start to the indoor season due to illness.
