Cincinnati Preview
February 22, 2010 02:24 PM | General
February 22, 2010
WEST VIRGINIA GAME NOTES
 |
||
| Vanessa House |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mike Carey can relate to what Bob Huggins is going through with the West Virginia men's team right now. Just like Huggs, Carey has been watching his WVU women continue to win despite struggling to make shots.
Against South Florida last Saturday, the Mountaineers made only 36.4 percent of their field goal attempts. Fortunately, USF was much worse, hitting only 26.7 percent.
“We are struggling to score right now,” said Carey. “Vanessa House was able to come off the bench and hit a couple of key 3s and I thought Korinne Campbell really stepped it up, but we need to get everyone going a little bit.”
West Virginia has seen a steady diet of zone defense of late. USF was almost strictly a man-to-man team until the Mountaineers came to town.
“When South Florida went into man we scored every time within five seconds,” Carey said. “When they were in zone we struggled a little bit. I think that’s going to be the theme from here on out.”
As luck would have it, Cincinnati uses a lot of 3-2 zone. Carey expects the Bearcats to pack it in Tuesday night and force West Virginia to make some outside jump shots.
“We’re just not doing a good job of going inside out,” Carey explained. “It seems like we’re all perimeter and when we do throw it in we’re getting double teamed in the post. A lot of people are wondering why (freshman center) Asya Bussie is not scoring a lot recently, well, they’re double and triple-teaming her in the post because they’re playing us a zone."
West Virginia’s best outside shooter, Liz Repella, is making just 27.7 percent of her field goal attempts (10 of 36) in her last three games against Georgetown, Rutgers and South Florida. Repella leads the team and is 10th in the Big East in scoring averaging 14.2 points per game.
An effective shooting night from Repella would be helpful Tuesday against Cincinnati because the Bearcats are one of the worst teams in the Big East defending the 3, allowing their opponents to make 33.7 percent from behind the arc.
Cincinnati has been hit or miss under first-year coach Jamelle Elliott. The Bearcats have played well in victories over now-18th-ranked St. John’s, Louisville and Syracuse, but have dropped recent games to Providence and Villanova. Cincinnati is just 1-5 in league home games this year with its only victory coming against St. John’s.
“St. John’s went to Cincinnati and lost so we’re going to have to go down there and stay focused and be able to attack their pressure,” said Carey.
West Virginia, meanwhile, has had trouble with the Bearcats in the past. Cincinnati came into Morgantown last year and beat the Mountaineers 61-55 when West Virginia’s starting back court managed to make just 15 of its 54 field goal attempts.
Guard Kahla Roudebush led all scorers with 24 points in that game. The senior has now scored 1,369 career points putting her seventh in the Big East among active scorers.
“She’s a big-time shooter,” said Carey. “She has hurt us ever since she’s been there. We’ve got to be aware of where she’s at. We’ve got to switch out on here and try and make her put it on the floor.”
Despite the disappointing loss to Cincinnati last year, Carey said Tuesday’s game does not carry any additional weight for his team.
“If that was the case our whole calendar would have been circled,” Carey said. “We need to go and win this game. We want to have an opportunity to have a bye in the Big East tournament so this is an important game because of that.”
Tipoff is 7 p.m. and there is no live television for Tuesday’s game. MSN’s radio coverage begins at 6:50 p.m.
Briefly:
