LeBlanc Looking For Big Crowd
November 02, 2010 05:18 PM | General
GAMETRACKER | LIVE STREAMING
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Marlon LeBlanc believes a large and boisterous crowd at Dick Dlesk Stadium on Wednesday night could tip the balance in what he believes is an otherwise even Big East tournament first-round match against South Florida.
“Our hopes are our fans will turn out again and help their team get a victory for our Big East tournament lives, obviously, and also for our NCAA tournament lives as well,” LeBlanc said. “Unless we have a big crowd it’s even-steven for both teams and I am just hoping Mountaineer Nation will appreciate and understand that.”
USF owns a 12-4-2 overall record against the Mountaineers in all-time series play, but the games of late have been very competitive. During LeBlanc’s first season at WVU in 2006, the Mountaineers defeated the Bulls 1-0 in the Big East tournament quarterfinals in Morgantown. And since then, the two teams have played four 1-0 matches with South Florida winning three of them.
“I think we’ve developed a pretty good rivalry,” said LeBlanc. “The last four-five games have been a one-goal win for WVU or a one-goal win for USF.”
Earlier this year in Tampa, West Virginia dropped a 1-0 decision to the then-22nd-ranked Bulls. In that game Andre Mittoo got between two defenders to score the only goal of the match at the 66-minute mark, even though West Virginia had an 11-8 advantage in shots and a 7-3 edge in corner kicks.
“I think the second time around we will have a little bit of a different approach to it but we certainly have a lot of respect for USF,” LeBlanc said. “They are a good team with a great pedigree and great players.”
Making Wednesday night’s match even more interesting is the fact that both teams are still in contention for NCAA berths. West Virginia is currently 28th in this week’s RPI, seven spots ahead of USF, which brings a 9-4-4 record into Morgantown.
But since beating West Virginia on Oct. 16, USF is only 1-2-1 with its lone win coming at home against Rutgers on Oct. 27. The two losses were against Louisville and St. John’s to go with a 1-1 tie against Cincinnati on Oct. 20.
West Virginia has fared a little better since the USF match, going 2-2 with home victories against Seton Hall and Marquette.
USF is looking for its 15th NCAA tournament appearance and its fourth under current coach George Kiefer, who took South Florida to the Elite Eight in 2008 and to the Sweet 16 in 2007. Kiefer’s overall record is 102-51-23 in nine seasons at South Florida.
West Virginia also has extensive NCAA tournament experience, making the tournament twice under LeBlanc’s watch in 2006 and 2007 and qualifying 10 times in all. LeBlanc takes a 50-28-19 record into Wednesday night’s match that includes this season’s 9-6-2 mark.
“Traditionally our guys have been very good when the stakes are high and hopefully we can come out (Wednesday) with the same mentality we’ve had all year long and get a good result,” LeBlanc said.
West Virginia has been especially tough at home this year, going 8-1 with key wins over UNC Wilmington, James Madison and Notre Dame.
In fact, 22 of West Virginia’s 26 goals scored this season have come at Dick Dlesk Stadium, including a 5-0 shutout victory over DePaul on Sept. 24 that was West Virginia’s highest scoring performance in four years.
“This team just seems to have a little bit more confidence when playing here,” said LeBlanc. “I think there is more of a familiarity. We try and approach every game the same way - and I think we do approach every game the same way - but for whatever reason the results have come better here than on the road.
“That being said, we are hopeful for a good environment,” LeBlanc added. “I think with our fans we’d certainly like to see a large crowd to give us a home field advantage, but it’s not a home field advantage unless you have a crowd and an atmosphere.”
The USF-West Virginia winner will play at top-seeded Louisville in the Big East quarterfinals on Saturday in Louisville.
Wednesday night’s WVU-USF match will get underway at 7 p.m. A free live video stream will be available on MSNsportsNET.com.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Marlon LeBlanc believes a large and boisterous crowd at Dick Dlesk Stadium on Wednesday night could tip the balance in what he believes is an otherwise even Big East tournament first-round match against South Florida.
“Our hopes are our fans will turn out again and help their team get a victory for our Big East tournament lives, obviously, and also for our NCAA tournament lives as well,” LeBlanc said. “Unless we have a big crowd it’s even-steven for both teams and I am just hoping Mountaineer Nation will appreciate and understand that.”
USF owns a 12-4-2 overall record against the Mountaineers in all-time series play, but the games of late have been very competitive. During LeBlanc’s first season at WVU in 2006, the Mountaineers defeated the Bulls 1-0 in the Big East tournament quarterfinals in Morgantown. And since then, the two teams have played four 1-0 matches with South Florida winning three of them.
“I think we’ve developed a pretty good rivalry,” said LeBlanc. “The last four-five games have been a one-goal win for WVU or a one-goal win for USF.”
Earlier this year in Tampa, West Virginia dropped a 1-0 decision to the then-22nd-ranked Bulls. In that game Andre Mittoo got between two defenders to score the only goal of the match at the 66-minute mark, even though West Virginia had an 11-8 advantage in shots and a 7-3 edge in corner kicks.
“I think the second time around we will have a little bit of a different approach to it but we certainly have a lot of respect for USF,” LeBlanc said. “They are a good team with a great pedigree and great players.”
Making Wednesday night’s match even more interesting is the fact that both teams are still in contention for NCAA berths. West Virginia is currently 28th in this week’s RPI, seven spots ahead of USF, which brings a 9-4-4 record into Morgantown.
But since beating West Virginia on Oct. 16, USF is only 1-2-1 with its lone win coming at home against Rutgers on Oct. 27. The two losses were against Louisville and St. John’s to go with a 1-1 tie against Cincinnati on Oct. 20.
West Virginia has fared a little better since the USF match, going 2-2 with home victories against Seton Hall and Marquette.
USF is looking for its 15th NCAA tournament appearance and its fourth under current coach George Kiefer, who took South Florida to the Elite Eight in 2008 and to the Sweet 16 in 2007. Kiefer’s overall record is 102-51-23 in nine seasons at South Florida.
West Virginia also has extensive NCAA tournament experience, making the tournament twice under LeBlanc’s watch in 2006 and 2007 and qualifying 10 times in all. LeBlanc takes a 50-28-19 record into Wednesday night’s match that includes this season’s 9-6-2 mark.
“Traditionally our guys have been very good when the stakes are high and hopefully we can come out (Wednesday) with the same mentality we’ve had all year long and get a good result,” LeBlanc said.
West Virginia has been especially tough at home this year, going 8-1 with key wins over UNC Wilmington, James Madison and Notre Dame.
In fact, 22 of West Virginia’s 26 goals scored this season have come at Dick Dlesk Stadium, including a 5-0 shutout victory over DePaul on Sept. 24 that was West Virginia’s highest scoring performance in four years.
“This team just seems to have a little bit more confidence when playing here,” said LeBlanc. “I think there is more of a familiarity. We try and approach every game the same way - and I think we do approach every game the same way - but for whatever reason the results have come better here than on the road.
“That being said, we are hopeful for a good environment,” LeBlanc added. “I think with our fans we’d certainly like to see a large crowd to give us a home field advantage, but it’s not a home field advantage unless you have a crowd and an atmosphere.”
The USF-West Virginia winner will play at top-seeded Louisville in the Big East quarterfinals on Saturday in Louisville.
Wednesday night’s WVU-USF match will get underway at 7 p.m. A free live video stream will be available on MSNsportsNET.com.
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