Providence Preview
February 06, 2009 04:08 PM | General
February 6, 2009
PROVIDENCE GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two teams searching for league victories will hook up Saturday when West Virginia plays host to Providence in a 4 pm Big East matchup at the WVU Coliseum.
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| Da'Sean Butler is averaging a team-best 17.9 points per game.
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Providence comes into Saturday’s game with the Mountaineers with a 14-8 overall record, including a 6-4 mark on conference play. The Friars have performed well for first-year coach Keno Davis, who went 28-5 last year at Drake before replacing long-time Friar coach Tim Welsh.
Providence and West Virginia both have lost two in a row in league play dropping tough road decisions. The Friars fell 94-91 at home to Villanova Wednesday.
“They are playing really well. You watch their last game against Villanova and Villanova is up 20. The next thing you know they're up seven; then Villanova is up nine with one minute to go, and then the next thing you know it's a one-point game,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “They are playing terrific offensively. They are making shots and they make hard shots and they make shots from places that people wouldn't think about shooting the ball from.”
Defensively, Huggins says the Friars will come out in some unorthodox alignments.
“They play a 1-2-2 match up which I think slows people down a bit, and they slow people down with a three-quarter court press,” Huggins said.
Weyinmi Efejuku (13.5 ppg.), Sharaud Curry (10.8 ppg.) and Geoff McDermott are all players West Virginia fans are familiar with. Six-eight senior Jonathan Kale starts at center and averages 10.3 points per game, while 6-1 senior Jeff Xavier (9.7 ppg.) joins Curry and Efejuku in the backcourt.
“They score a lot of points because they make a lot of shots. They shot 40 3s against Villanova,” Huggins said. “Sharaud Curry is the difference for them. He runs the floor for them and makes incredible shots. He made some incredible shots in the Villanova game.”
Huggins says Davis’ style of coaching is very similar to Welsh’s.
“I think Tim at the end played some match up and they would spread you. Not having Curry a year ago, they played pretty well,” Huggins said. “Those other guys are a year older. They have a lot of experienced guys. They don't play any new guys. Brooks is a sophomore and he played a year ago. He's their youngest guy. They are all juniors and seniors.”
Huggins is concerned about Providence’s free-wheeling style and being able to match the Friars’ scoring.
“They shoot a lot of threes and I think their inside guys are good and solid,” Huggins said. “They run the floor and get easy baskets in transition, and they make shots -- they are not necessarily 3-point shooters. They score well in the lane and they can stretch it 15-17 feet.”
West Virginia (15-7, 4-5) has struggled offensively in its last two road losses against No. 7 Louisville and No. 20 Syracuse. In both games the Mountaineers barely reach the 60s and the only consistent scorer has been junior Da’Sean Butler, whose 23 last Wednesday in a 74-61 loss at Syracuse boosted his season average to 17.9 points per game. The majority of West Virginia’s points in Big East play have come from Butler and senior guard Alex Ruoff (15.9 ppg.).
“It would be nice to see us score and I don't want to see them score much,” Huggins said.
“This is a two-game swing,” Huggins added. “This is probably as important of a game as we've had all year. We're 4-5 right now and we need to win some games here and get on kind of a roll. We've lost three of our past four.”
Tip off for Saturday’s game is set for 4 pm. The contest will be televised on the Big East Television Network and carried locally on FSN-Pittsburgh.
MSN’s radio coverage begins with Coliseum Countdown at 3:30 pm. Satellite radio listeners can access the MSN broadcast on Sirius channel 123.
