Louisville Preview
March 06, 2009 02:20 PM | General
March 6, 2009
LOUISVILLE GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Huggins hopes his team handles Louisville’s full-court pressure much better than it did during the first half of a 69-63 loss at Freedom Hall Jan. 31.
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| WVU students began camping outside the WVU Coliseum after Wednesday's DePaul game to get good seats for ESPN College GameDay on Saturday morning.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
In that game West Virginia’s 17 turnovers led to a 45-25 Cardinal lead at halftime. In the second half, the Mountaineers took much better care of the basketball and actually out-scored Louisville 38-24.
“We’ve got to make some shots and not turn it over. We turned it over too much and put ourselves in too big of a hole,” said Huggins.
“I thought yesterday they were very focused,” Huggins said. “I think we are first in the Big Eat in assist-to-turnover ratio. We’re right up there in turnovers per game. We’ve got to do what we normally do and not what we did there in the first half.”
Sixth-ranked Louisville is still in contention for the Big East regular season title as well as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinals have lost only four times this year with two of those losses coming in conference play. Louisville’s last loss was a 90-57 decision at Notre Dame, Feb. 12. Since then, the Cardinals have downed DePaul, Providence, Cincinnati, Georgetown, Marquette and Seton Hall. Two of those six wins have come on the road.
“Rick (Pitino) is a great coach and his teams are going to get better,” said Huggins. “Hopefully we continue to get better.”
Guard Jerry Smith did most of the damage against West Virginia the first time around, scoring 20 points on 4 of 5 shooting from 3.
Louisville’s top three players – Terrence Williams, Earl Clark and Samardo Samuels – combined to score just 20 points against West Virginia. Six-nine Clark leads the team with averages of 13.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. Williams shows averages of 12.6 points and 8.6 rebounds, while Samuels is averaging 12 points and 4.8 boards per game.
Andre McGee is expected to start in the backcourt with Smith.
Da’Sean Butler scored 23 points and Alex Ruoff had 16 against the Cardinals earlier this year. Butler is averaging 17.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game and Ruoff shows averages of 16.3 points and 3.6 boards. With one more 3, Ruoff will become West Virginia’s top all-time 3-point shooter, besting Kevin Pittsnogle’s school record of 253 career 3s.
“The biggest thing is we have to control the tempo,” Ruoff said. “If we can handle the pressure like we did in the second half then I think we’ll be OK – also rebounding. I think we got 22 offensive rebounds against DePaul. If we can get that versus them it will be important.”
Freshman Devin Ebanks has been playing well of late, recording his seventh double-double of the season against DePaul Wednesday night with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Ebanks has boosted his season averages to 9.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.
Kevin Jones has also become more productive, shooting 60 percent from the floor during his last 14 games and increasing his scoring average to 6.5 points per game. Jones has scored double figures in each of his last five games dating back to the Notre Dame win.
West Virginia has most likely locked up an NCAA Tournament berth and could finish as high as sixth in the regular season standings after being predicted to place ninth in the fall.
“We’re not tall enough and we don’t shoot well enough but they are wonderful guys and they try. They give you great effort every day and they have gotten better and better because they work so hard at it,” Huggins said. “This team - if they weren’t really coachable or we had someone who was divisive - we would really struggle.
“They really want to win and they really do like each other and care about each other. That makes it enjoyable but it also gives us an opportunity to get better.”
The crew from ESPN GameDay is in town and will produce a 1-hour show from the Coliseum floor tomorrow morning. Some WVU students have been camped outside the Coliseum since Wednesday night waiting to get in to be a part of the show.
“It’s phenomenal,” said Huggins.
Senior Alex Ruoff will be honored before the start of Saturday’s game. Also, senior team manager Adam White and senior athletic trainer Takeshi Kojima will also be recognized.
At halftime, the 1959 NCAA Finals team will be introduced as part of the 50-year reunion of that team.
Tipoff for the game is 9 pm.
