Miami Preview
December 03, 2010 08:57 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia plays its first true road game of the year Saturday afternoon, facing Miami at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables, Fla.
The Hurricanes (5-2) are coming off an impressive 86-73 win over Ole Miss earlier this week. Miami jumped out to a 30-point first half lead behind the scoring of guard Durand Scott, who scored 27, and center Reggie Johnson, who finished with 17 points and 10 boards.
“They played great in their last game. It was 57-27 at halftime against Ole Miss and Ole Miss is a good team,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.
Scott and West Virginia’s Truck Bryant played AAU basketball together for the New York Gauchos and were both selected for the Jordan Brand Classic all-star game. Scott is averaging a team-best 14.6 points per game after averaging 10.3 points per game as a freshman.
Johnson shows averages of 12.7 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, while Malcolm Grant is averaging 12.4 points per game and leads the Hurricanes with 17 3s.
Huggins has been impressed by what he’s seen on tape of Johnson, a 6-foot-10-inch, 303-pounder from Winston-Salem, N.C.
“I told our bigs, ‘We’re going to play against a guy on Saturday who is going to catch everything.’ Our guys, they get poked in the eye, slapped on the ear or slapped on the hand … they’ve always got a reason why they don’t catch it,” said Huggins. “Well this guy is going to catch it anyway. I told them you can poke him in the eye all night and he’s still going to catch it.”
Miami’s five wins have come against Jacksonville, North Carolina Central, McNeese State, Florida Gulf Coast, and Ole Miss. The two losses were against 19th-ranked Memphis and on the road at Rutgers.
Miami has won 17 straight non-conference games at the BankUnited Center including a 4-0 record this season. In the last four years the Hurricanes have compiled a 42-10 record at home and a 72-27 home m mark under Frank Haith.
“They’re a good team and we’re going to play a lot of really good teams on the road,” said Huggins. “You’ve got to figure out ways to win.”
West Virginia (5-1) bagged its fifth victory of the year on Wednesday with a 71-50 win over American at the Coliseum. Guard Casey Mitchell scored a game-high 27 and is averaging 22.3 points per game. Mitchell has scored at least 25 points in four consecutive games, the first time that has happened since Lowes Moore did it in 1979.
Six-eight forward Kevin Jones is averaging 13 points and six rebounds per game while Bryant is averaging 10.8 points per game.
West Virginia is averaging 79.3 points per game but Huggins is still not happy with his team’s offensive efficiency.
“Toward the end when we really started playing well we had good ball movement and we just don’t have good ball movement right now,” said Huggins. “Everybody holds the ball too long. What we’re really good at is shooting the ones we shouldn’t and not shooting the ones that we should; throwing the ball into traffic and mishandling the ball. We’ve mastered those and now we’ve got to move from there.”
Saturday’s game will be the 14th meeting between the two schools, most of those coming when Miami was a member of the Big East Conference. West Virginia owns a 7-6 advantage including a 58-53 Mountaineer victory the last time these two teams played on March 6, 2004 in Coral Gables. That was Miami’s final game in the Big East before joining the ACC.
Saturday’s game will tip off at 4 p.m. and will be televised on the Big East Network (Rich Waltz and Bob Wentzel).
Sun Sports Florida and FSN Pittsburgh will air the game.
Notes: MSN’s radio coverage (Kyle Wiggs and Jay Jacobs) will begin at 3:50 p.m. following the conclusion of the Mountaineers’ football game against Rutgers … West Virginia has won seven of its last eight games played in Florida … the Mountaineers are 54-6 in their last 60 games against unranked teams … WVU has won its last 27 games when holding its opponent to 69 points or less … opponents have shot better than 50 percent from the floor 16 times in the 116 games Huggins has coached the Mountaineers … Huggins can take sole possession of 20th place on the NCAA all-time win list; Huggins is presently tied with Louisville’s Denny Crum with 675 victories … the Mountaineers have led at halftime in all five victories this year.
The Hurricanes (5-2) are coming off an impressive 86-73 win over Ole Miss earlier this week. Miami jumped out to a 30-point first half lead behind the scoring of guard Durand Scott, who scored 27, and center Reggie Johnson, who finished with 17 points and 10 boards.
“They played great in their last game. It was 57-27 at halftime against Ole Miss and Ole Miss is a good team,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.
Scott and West Virginia’s Truck Bryant played AAU basketball together for the New York Gauchos and were both selected for the Jordan Brand Classic all-star game. Scott is averaging a team-best 14.6 points per game after averaging 10.3 points per game as a freshman.
Johnson shows averages of 12.7 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, while Malcolm Grant is averaging 12.4 points per game and leads the Hurricanes with 17 3s.
Huggins has been impressed by what he’s seen on tape of Johnson, a 6-foot-10-inch, 303-pounder from Winston-Salem, N.C.
“I told our bigs, ‘We’re going to play against a guy on Saturday who is going to catch everything.’ Our guys, they get poked in the eye, slapped on the ear or slapped on the hand … they’ve always got a reason why they don’t catch it,” said Huggins. “Well this guy is going to catch it anyway. I told them you can poke him in the eye all night and he’s still going to catch it.”
Miami’s five wins have come against Jacksonville, North Carolina Central, McNeese State, Florida Gulf Coast, and Ole Miss. The two losses were against 19th-ranked Memphis and on the road at Rutgers.
Miami has won 17 straight non-conference games at the BankUnited Center including a 4-0 record this season. In the last four years the Hurricanes have compiled a 42-10 record at home and a 72-27 home m mark under Frank Haith.
“They’re a good team and we’re going to play a lot of really good teams on the road,” said Huggins. “You’ve got to figure out ways to win.”
West Virginia (5-1) bagged its fifth victory of the year on Wednesday with a 71-50 win over American at the Coliseum. Guard Casey Mitchell scored a game-high 27 and is averaging 22.3 points per game. Mitchell has scored at least 25 points in four consecutive games, the first time that has happened since Lowes Moore did it in 1979.
Six-eight forward Kevin Jones is averaging 13 points and six rebounds per game while Bryant is averaging 10.8 points per game.
West Virginia is averaging 79.3 points per game but Huggins is still not happy with his team’s offensive efficiency.
“Toward the end when we really started playing well we had good ball movement and we just don’t have good ball movement right now,” said Huggins. “Everybody holds the ball too long. What we’re really good at is shooting the ones we shouldn’t and not shooting the ones that we should; throwing the ball into traffic and mishandling the ball. We’ve mastered those and now we’ve got to move from there.”
Saturday’s game will be the 14th meeting between the two schools, most of those coming when Miami was a member of the Big East Conference. West Virginia owns a 7-6 advantage including a 58-53 Mountaineer victory the last time these two teams played on March 6, 2004 in Coral Gables. That was Miami’s final game in the Big East before joining the ACC.
Saturday’s game will tip off at 4 p.m. and will be televised on the Big East Network (Rich Waltz and Bob Wentzel).
Sun Sports Florida and FSN Pittsburgh will air the game.
Notes: MSN’s radio coverage (Kyle Wiggs and Jay Jacobs) will begin at 3:50 p.m. following the conclusion of the Mountaineers’ football game against Rutgers … West Virginia has won seven of its last eight games played in Florida … the Mountaineers are 54-6 in their last 60 games against unranked teams … WVU has won its last 27 games when holding its opponent to 69 points or less … opponents have shot better than 50 percent from the floor 16 times in the 116 games Huggins has coached the Mountaineers … Huggins can take sole possession of 20th place on the NCAA all-time win list; Huggins is presently tied with Louisville’s Denny Crum with 675 victories … the Mountaineers have led at halftime in all five victories this year.
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