Duke Preview
April 03, 2010 10:56 AM | General
April 3, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the storylines and history surrounding West Virginia’s NCAA Final Four matchup Saturday night, April 3, against No. 3-ranked Duke at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind.
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| Men's Basketball Tournament on April 2, 2010 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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The team’s first Final Four appearance since Jerry West led the Mountaineers to the NCAA finals in 1959 – a stretch of 51 years; A rematch of the 2008 NCAA Tournament clash in which WVU upset Duke 73-67; The battle of two of the best seasoned coaches in college basketball – Bob Huggins and Mike Krzyzweski; A featuring of two of the top players in the country in West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler and Duke’s Jon Scheyer.
However, the Mountaineers are not overwhelmed - not caught daydreaming about what is and what could be. Instead, the team has remained focused on the task at hand and their ultimate goal: a national championship.
Following each of the team’s four victories in the NCAA Tournament, the words often uttered out of each player’s mouths have been a number – the amount of games remaining to capture WVU’s first men’s basketball national title.
Of course Duke will have a lot to say about that. The Blue Devils, now 33-5, have are winners of eight straight games with a 14-point margin of victory over that span of games.
WVU understands that it will enter the game as the underdogs, but that doesn’t phase this team.
“It’s just a matter of what we do on the court,” Butler said. “We might not have the prettiest game in the world, but I think we take care of late-game situations well. Vegas never picks us anyways, but West Virginia does.”
Teammate Jonnie West reiterated Butler’s sentiments.
“It's easier to play when you're the underdog. You have people against your back, and you want to go all out. In the Kentucky game, 49 states said we weren't going to win. We know we have West Virginia behind us and that's all that really matters to us.”
Ignore Vegas and the hype surrounding the game because when you get inside the numbers, the two teams stack up pretty evenly.
WVU takes nearly 58 shots per game, with 35 percent of those coming from beyond the arc. Similarly, Duke averages 60 shots per game, and nearly one-third of those come from 3.
The Mountaineers, who are taking about 20 3s per game, hit on average seven per game. The Blue Devils, who are taking the same amount per contest, are hitting a little more than seven per game as well.
Should either team miss, expect a lot of scrapping underneath the boards. WVU averages 15.5 offensive rebounds per game, collecting nearly 39 total boards per contest. Likewise, Duke is averaging 14.7 offensive boards and 39.3 rebounds per game. One of the tell-tale signs of this game will be who wins this battle as each team is holding its opponents to just 32 rebounds per game and limiting the number of second-chance points.
“I think Zoubek has done a great job,” said Huggins. “He keeps a lot of balls alive. Mike has done a great job in making sure they fill their roles and do the things he wants them to do. They don’t get out of context very much. They do what he tells them to do and what their role is to be successful.”
While many will be looking for who comes out of the gates strong, this game will likely come down to a battle in the second half. Duke has done a majority of its scoring in the second half (39.6 second half points per game) as have the Mountaineers (38.2 second half points per game). Both teams are outpacing their opponents by seven points in the final period, and the stronger second-half squad could be the one to advance.
But what makes this event even more compelling are its participants.
West Virginia’s Butler has been nothing short of stunning in his senior season. A John Wooden All-American and third in the program in all-time scoring, the Newark, N.J., native is averaging 17.4 points and 6.3 boards per game. He’s been the Mountaineers’ go-to guy, especially in late-game situations, as he’s connected on six game-winning shots this season.
Fellow starters Devin Ebanks, Kevin Jones, Wellington Smith and Joe Mazzulla have been just as impactful in the team’s success.
And getting hot at just the right time has been Mazzulla, many fans recalling Mazzulla’s near triple-double performance (13 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists) against the Blue Devils two seasons ago in the NCAA Tournament. While many wondered if Mazzulla would be be able to repeat the performance, he showed the Mountaineer nation flashes of the Joe of old in WVU’s last game against Kentucky, registering a career-high 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting, while totaling three assists and two steals.
Duke will be relying once again on its big three Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith. The three have combined for 53.2 points and 13.3 rebounds per game. Nationally, all three rank in the top 100 in scoring, and Scheyer is ranked 18th-best nationally in free-throw percentage at 88.2.
In the team’s recent win over Baylor, Scheyer and Smith combined for 49 of Duke’s 78 points. Singler, usually an offensive force, only chipped in 5 points and was 0-of-10 from the field.
Up front, the Blue Devils have been assisted greatly by Brian Zoubek (listed at 7-foot-1) and Mason and Miles Plumlee (both listed at 6-foot-10). The three make up the difference on the boards, led by Zoubek, who is averaging 7.6 rebounds per game. Zoubek will have to watch his fouls, though, as the senior has fouled out of the past two contests.
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| West Virginia's Da'Sean Butler smiles during Friday's shoot around at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind.
AP photo |
Collectively, the Mountaineers say they will be facing a more experienced group than the 2008 squad they beat. But the mindset is pretty obvious: focus and concentrate on the game.
“We don't want to make anything bigger than what it really is, and we just want to focus on ourselves and do what we have to do because we've been successful at doing that lately,” Mazzulla says. “You have to go as hard as you can in practice, and Huggs is great at getting us prepared and keeping us focused. I'm sure he'll do a great job of keeping our minds in it and helping us do what we have to do.”
Tipoff for tonight's game is scheduled for 8:47 p.m. ET with Jim Nantz (play-by-play) and Clark Kellogg (analyst) calling the action for CBS.
Briefly:
| West Virginia | Duke |
National Rank (Actual) |
National Rank (Actual) |
