The Right Chemistry
January 06, 2010 12:15 PM | General
January 6, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mike Carey won’t say this is his best West Virginia team, but he will say it’s the hardest working team he’s had in nine years at WVU.
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| Junior Sarah Miles celebrates West Virginia's 63-59 win over Pitt Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
After last night’s hard-fought, 63-59 win over 22nd-ranked Pitt, Carey was ready to give his players a well deserved rest. They said thanks, coach, but no thanks.
“They said, ‘Coach, can we at least come in and shoot foul shots?’” remarked Carey, now 164-102 at WVU. “I said, ‘Good, now I’m going to make you lift weights, shoot foul shots and we will walk through DePaul.’ So we’re not giving them a day off.”
Junior guard Sarah Miles, who teammate Liz Repella calls “our Energizer Bunny,” said last year’s team probably would have taken Carey up on his offer.
“The chemistry is there. I wouldn’t say it wasn’t on the last team, but it wasn’t there like it is this year,” Miles said. “Coach gave us the day off but as a team we want to come in and get some work in. We don’t want to rest. We know in the Big East Conference you can’t rest. Other teams aren’t resting, so we’re not going to rest.”
West Virginia’s win over Pitt Tuesday night was the Mountaineers’ 14th in 15 games so far this year. Before beating 12-2 St. John’s on the road last Saturday and last night’s win over the 11-4 Panthers, there were a good many folks still trying to figure out how good these Mountaineers really are.
West Virginia spent three weeks in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll before cracking the AP Top 25 for the first time this week at No. 22. There were three 1-win teams on West Virginia’s December schedule, and seven teams with records of .500 or below on the non-league slate.
But there were also quality wins over Towson, Marist, Duquesne and Fresno State. All four of those teams will compete for their respective conference titles. And West Virginia’s come-from-behind, 69-66 win over Iowa in Nevada showed Carey that his team won’t crawl into a hole when the bullets start flying.
“Against Iowa at halftime we were behind by 10 or 11 and in the second half came out and won the game,” Carey said.
What Carey’s team has this year are clearly defined and understood roles. Repella, Minnesota transfer Korinne Campbell and freshman star-in-the-making Asya Bussie are the team’s scorers.
Junior Madina Ali is the team’s defensive stopper and rebounder.
And the basketball is always in junior Sarah Miles’ hands. Miles played 38 minutes Tuesday night against constant pressure and she turned the basketball over just once.
“Coach keeps stressing valuing each possession and that’s one main thing I try to keep in my head,” said Miles. “Think before you make that pass and make sure no one else is there.”
Twice in key situations late in the game, Miles turned on the jets and beat Pitt down the floor for huge baskets – once taking it herself to the rim and the other time dishing off to teammate Natalie Burton.
“She means so much to this team,” said Repella of Miles. “Thirty eight minutes and one turnover? She has the ball in her hands on every single possession. That tells you a lot. And seven assists? She just wants to win.”
It seems everyone on this team wants to win.
Last year, 6-foot-5 sophomore Natalie Burton was the team’s starting center. This year she is playing about 11 minutes a game coming off the bench. She played only six minutes yesterday against Pitt, but all six came at a key time in the game.
Bussie was out of gas battling Pitt’s bigs Kate Popovec and Pepper Wilson, so Carey went to Burton with about 8 minutes left to steal a few minutes in order to get Bussie rested for the finish.
Burton wound up grabbing two huge rebounds on the defensive end and scored a pair of buckets, one with 7 minutes to go to put the Mountaineers up 47-42, and the other with 5:41 remaining to make it 49-44.
A third Burton basket was waved off on a questionable traveling call.
“I must be teaching that wrong because she did exactly what we taught her to do in that situation,” said Carey.
Vanessa House and Akeema Richards also gave the Mountaineers a big boost off the bench. House played 14 minutes and Richards hit a big 3.
“Everyone knows their roles on this team and they don’t care if they are not scoring points,” said Carey. “They will do whatever it takes as needed when they come in there. I like our attitudes. I said from day one that I liked this team. I like their attitudes and their work ethic.”
It’s evident when watching them together on the floor. They genuinely like each other, and they always play that aggressive, in-your-face defense that Carey has been known for since his days at Salem College.
Courteous and polite and always smiling off the court, on the floor these girls will scratch your eyeballs out.
The Mountaineers also have other scoring options when their top shooter isn’t hitting. In the first half against Pitt, Repella couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean, going 0 for 8 from the floor. But Campbell kept West Virginia in the game with 12 first-half points.
After halftime when Carey instructed Repella not to take the ball so deep into the lane, she was able to get her shot going and finished with a team-high 16 points – her season’s average.
“In the second half I concentrated more on pump fakes – taking one-dribble shots,” Repella said. “I knew I could play better than I did in the first half.”
And Carey knows the road is going to get a whole lot rougher for his team. DePaul brings a 12-4 record into Morgantown on Saturday. The Blue Demons outlasted last year’s NCAA Tournament runner-up Louisville 76-70 in overtime on Tuesday night. The Blue Demons beat West Virginia twice last year, including an overtime decision in last year’s Big East Tournament.
Then Villanova comes to town on Tuesday. The 10-2 Wildcats have been an annual root canal for West Virginia.
Carey’s starters are also playing big minutes. Campbell, Miles and Repella had at least 38 minutes against Pitt with West Virginia predominantly using three players off the bench. The Mountaineers have got 14 more Pitts left before tournament time, but Carey isn’t too concerned about conserving his big guns.
“I go for the win,” he explained. “If somebody is playing 40 minutes and I’m thinking about the DePaul game, I’ve got to think about the win here. We may not be in the situation for the DePaul game for the win, but we were here so I’m going to play who I think is playing the best.
“I’m an old baseball coach,” he said. “I’m pitching my pitcher. When you’ve got a chance to win, you’ve got to win. You don’t wait for the next day. It may rain.”
Or snow.
