Notre Dame Preview
January 08, 2010 04:20 PM | General
January 8, 2010
WEST VIRGINIA GAME NOTES | NOTRE DAME GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Huggins knows Luke Harangody is going to get his points and rebounds. What he is concerned about is making sure Harangody’s teammates don’t get their points and rebounds.
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| West Virginia guard Truck Bryant celebrates the Mountaineers' 86-52 win over Rutgers Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
AP photo |
If that happens then it could be a difficult night for the eighth-rated Mountaineers this Saturday against 13-3 Notre Dame.
Harangody is having another monster year, averaging 25 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. He has put up 36 and 31 points in his last two games against USF and Connecticut, and has scored 20 points or more 12 times already this season.
“We have to try and keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible and I think if we do that we will have a great chance of winning,” said West Virginia sophomore forward Kevin Jones.
In four career games against West Virginia, Harangody has scored 27, 26, 29 and 11 points. He is shooting 55.4 percent from the floor and is also grabbing an average of 10.5 rebounds per game.
“It’s great when you’ve had a guy for four years who you can hand the ball and say, ‘Go run this and run that,’” said Huggins. “Honestly, I think they are probably better than what they were a year ago and I think to a large degree because of those two seniors (Tory Jackson and Ben Hansbrough) and how they’ve kind of got the new guys involved.”
It’s a matter of how involved those other guys get is what concerns Huggins the most. Six-eight junior forward Tim Abromaitis has been a discovery this year. He is averaging 15.3 points and 4.1 rebounds per game after sitting out the entire 2009 season and averaging only 1.7 points and 1.0 rebounds per game as a freshman in 2008.
Hansbrough, Tyler’s younger brother and a former Mississippi State transfer, is averaging 12.2 points per game and has scored double figures in eight of his last 10 games.
Jackson (8.4 ppg.) and forward Tyrone Nash (7.8 ppg.) are also capable scorers.
“They have always surrounded (Harangody) with guys that can make shots,” said Huggins. “They have great range and they keep you spread so double teaming him I don’t think is the way to guard him.”
Huggins remembers the scouting reports Andy Kennedy used to give him when the two were coaching together at Cincinnati.
“He’d say, ‘If this guy gets 8 points we’ve screwed up because he’s averaging 4. He’s doubled his output.’ I think that’s kind of the mindset we’ve tried to take,” said Huggins. “If your guy is averaging 4 points per game and he gets 10 you were lousy. You need to do a better job because that’s not what the guy does. That’s 6 points they ordinarily don’t get.”
Since Mike Brey has been at Notre Dame, the Irish have clearly been a different basketball team at the Joyce Center. Notre Dame is 47-3 there since 2006, and had its 45-game home winning streak snapped last year by Connecticut.
West Virginia has not won at South Bend since 1996, dropping nine straight including five in a row to Brey’s Irish teams.
“I think everybody plays better at home,” said Huggins. “You have the same routine. You have confidence because that’s where you shoot everyday.
“I just never felt like crowd noise had a lot to do with anything.”
“They have great fans there and we have to control Notre Dame’s runs,” added junior guard Joe Mazzulla. “We can’t let them hit consecutive 3s and get the crowd into it. We can’t let Harangody go on his own individual run where he’s pumping up the crowd.”
West Virginia certainly had its home crowd pumped up on Wednesday night. The Mountaineers played one of their best all-around games of the year despite not shooting the basketball particularly well in an 86-52 victory over Rutgers.
Jones poured in a game-high 19 points to go with eight rebounds. Da’Sean Butler and Truck Bryant each scored 15, while Devin Ebanks had 11 points, nine rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes of action.
Da’Sean Butler is averaging a team-best 16.5 points per game and his next basket will move him into 10th place in career scoring at WVU. Butler comes into Saturday’s game with 1,655 career points.
Jones has boosted his season average to 15.7 points per game while grabbing 7.7 boards per contest. Ebanks shows averages of 13.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, while Bryant is now averaging 9.3 points per game after his 15-point performance against Rutgers.
West Virginia (12-1) has lost just once this year at fourth-ranked Purdue on Jan. 1. Saturday’s game will be just the fourth on an opposing team’s home court. The Mountaineers escaped Cleveland State, 80-78 on Dec. 19, won at Seton Hall 90-84 in overtime on Dec. 26 and lost by 15 at Purdue.
The Mountaineers are looking to go 4-0 in Big East play for the first time since joining the conference in 1996. West Virginia has had 3-0 starts in league play just three times in 2006, 2007 and this year.
Notre Dame has a 24-10 advantage in all-time series play.
Tip off is scheduled for 8 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
