Louisville Preview
January 29, 2010 03:15 PM | General
January 29, 2010
WEST VIRGINIA GAME NOTES | LOUISVILLE GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s veteran players Da’Sean Butler, Wellington Smith, Joe Mazzulla, Cam Thoroughman and Johnnie West will be looking to do something for the first time in their careers on Saturday: beat Louisville.
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| Forward Devin Ebanks was one of four West Virginia players to score 14 points in last Tuesday's 62-46 win at DePaul.
AP photo |
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins casually pointed that out to his team yesterday.
“More importantly, in the big picture they understand that this is a game we really need to win,” Huggins said Friday afternoon. “If we still harbor any intentions of winning the league and hanging a Big East championship banner we need to win this game. “
The Cardinals have pretty much had their way with West Virginia since the Mountaineers’ 68-64 victory over Louisville in Morgantown on Feb. 25, 2006. Since then, Louisville has won four straight including a pair of wins last year.
In the game at Freedom Hall, West Virginia led 12-10 at the 12 minute mark before the Cardinals went on a 23-3 run during a six-minute stretch.
Later in Morgantown, the Mountaineers shot just 40.4%, including 2 of 12 from 3-point range, in a 62-59 loss to the Cardinals. Terrence Williams and Earl Clark, both now playing in the NBA, combined to score 33 of Louisville’s 62 points.
Sophomore center Samardo Samuels and Jerry Smith are the two returning starters from last year’s game in Morgantown, but Edgar Sosa has also been a thorn in West Virginia’s side. It was Sosa’s driving layup at the buzzer in the 2007 Big East tournament that sent the game into overtime (Louisville eventually won).
Louisville (13-7, 4-3) has had a week to prepare for Saturday’s game, having last played on Sunday against Cincinnati (a 68-60 Cardinal victory). In that game, Louisville made 11 steals and forced 16 Bearcat turnovers. It was the 12th time this season Louisville has had at least eight steals in a game. Louisville has also blocked 37 shots in its last eight games and is the best offensive rebounding team in the Big East, pulling 16 ½ offensive boards per game.
“I think people have kind of had to gang-rebound against (Samuels), which opens up things for other people,” said Huggins.
Samuels and Sosa are Louisville’s top two scorers, Samuels averaging 15.9 points per game with a season-high 29 in a win against Louisiana-Lafayette earlier this season. Samuels has exceeded 20 points four times this year including 25 in an overtime loss at Pitt.
Sosa has also had some big games this season, scoring 26 at Providence and 17 in the Villanova loss. Sosa, averaging 13.9 points per game, has scored double figures in seven of his last eight games.
Smith, too, has been tough on teams, particularly against the Mountaineers. It was Smith’s 20 points on 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range that helped sink West Virginia last year at Freedom.
Louisville will go 11 deep with 10 Cardinal players logging at least 200 minutes so far this season. Seven Louisville players have made at least 10 3s with Sosa leading the way with 45.
“They’re still pretty much the same. They still shoot a lot of 3s,” said Huggins. “They still get a lot of things in transition and they still get a lot of things off their defense. They surround you with a lot of guys that can make shots. I think Rick (Pitino) has played (Jared) Swopshire as much at four as he has because he can make 3s. The other two guys aren’t as capable of making 3s as what Swopshire is.”
The Cincinnati victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the Cardinals. Two of those losses came on the road at Pitt and Villanova. Louisville is just 1-4 in true road games this season with its lone victory coming at Providence, 92-70, on Jan. 16.
“If we can get them to miss free throws like they did against Pitt … Seton Hall played great and they made shots against the zone,” said Huggins. “Villanova is really good. They had Villanova on the run. I think Louisville was up 20 and then ‘Nova went up 20. In this league you are going to get beat. They had the Pitt game won and they missed at least two front-ends and one time they missed both shots of a two-shot foul. What are you going to do? I think for the most part Rick had the guys at the line that he wanted at the line.”
West Virginia (16-3, 5-2) picked up a win earlier this week at DePaul. Four different players scored 14 points for the Mountaineers, and West Virginia’s defense limited DePaul to just 32% from the floor and 18 second-half points in a 62-46 victory.
Da’Sean Butler (15.9 ppg.), Kevin Jones (14.1 ppg.), Devin Ebanks (11.9 ppg.) and Truck Bryant (10.9 ppg.) are all averaging double figures. West Virginia’s fifth starter, Wellington Smith, was one of the four to score 14 points at DePaul and is now averaging 5.6 points per game.
Jones had a solid performance in last year’s home loss to Louisville, scoring 19 points and grabbing eight boards coming off the bench. West Virginia had a 40-27 advantage on the glass against Louisville in that game.
Saturday’s game will tip off at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPN.
There are no tickets remaining for the game.
