DePaul Preview
February 11, 2011 05:04 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Huggins thinks the magic number is 10 - get 10 regular season wins in the Big East and you’re a lock for the NCAA tournament.
“Ten wins assures you of being in the NCAA tournament,” Huggins said before Friday’s afternoon practice. “You can talk about anything else you want to talk about but if you win 10 games in this league you’re going to get in.”
If that’s the case, then West Virginia still has some work to do to reach that total. The Mountaineers are presently in a five-way tie with Cincinnati, Connecticut, Marquette and St. John’s for sixth in the conference standings with 6-5 records. A win here or a loss there could mean the difference between moving up to fifth or dropping all the way down to 11th. Finish 11th and you’re playing on Tuesday in the opening round of the Big East tournament.
“It’s hard enough to win three when you’re in the top four,” said Huggins. “I’m not enamored with the way things are set up having a double bye. If you look at what happened with people that had double byes, we all could have lost and I don’t think that’s good for your league. In terms of having a bye, why do you want to play five games? It’s hard enough to win three.
“The hard thing in this league is you could conceivably play four ranked teams,” Huggins said. “A year ago it was great for us. It was great momentum for us but if we would have had to play four or five games I’m not sure. It’s draining. It’s physically draining and it’s emotionally draining.”
West Virginia (15-8) is going through its own physically and emotionally draining period in the season that has seen the Mountaineers drop three of their last five games. West Virginia had opportunities to win two of the three, only a 66-50 loss at Villanova last Saturday being a game that got out of hand.
This Saturday, West Virginia has another challenging opponent in DePaul, though winless in conference play this season, the Blue Demons have been playing much better of late. DePaul (6-17) lost by four at Louisville last Saturday and dropped a three-point decision at home against Cincinnati earlier this week.
“I think if you look at their numbers the last two weeks they’re shooting the ball so much better from the perimeter,” said Huggins.
Last month, West Virginia escaped DePaul with a 67-65 victory after seeing a double digit second-half lead nearly evaporate.
“We can’t throw them the ball and we made some bad plays at the offensive end,” said Huggins. “We took shots that we shouldn’t have taken too early in the clock that weren’t good shots, which kind of aided their comeback.”
Huggins thought a lot of DePaul’s offense in that first game came on transition baskets as a result of poor offensive execution by the Mountaineers.
“You can’t throw them the ball for scores and you can’t let them score off their defense,” he explained. “You have to make them beat you with their offense and we didn’t do a very good job of that and we took some ill-advised shots. We took some shots that led directly to fast-break opportunities for them and you can’t do that.”
DePaul has a pair of freshmen leading the team in scoring. Six-eight forward Cleveland Melvin is averaging 14.1 points per game and he scored 17 against the Mountaineers the previous time these two teams played.
Point guard Brandon Young is averaging 12.2 points per game and has reached double figures in each of his last four games. He scored 12 against West Virginia back on Jan. 4.
West Virginia is the sixth nationally ranked opponent DePaul has faced this season; the Blue Demons have now lost their last 26 games against ranked foes.
DePaul’s last victory came on Dec. 22 against Florida Atlantic when its record was still .500 at 6-6. Eight of DePaul’s 11 Big East losses this season have been by double-digit margins.
“We need to win games and I think our guys are aware of that,” said Huggins.
Saturday’s game will tipoff at 4 p.m. and will be televised regionally on the Big East Network. The game will air locally on WJAL (Chambersburg, Pa.), WCHS (Charleston), WOAY (Beckley), WTOV (Wheeling/Steubenville, Ohio), WVFX (Clarksburg) and WTAP-DT3 (Parkersburg) as well as on ESPN Full Court and ESPN3.com.
MSN’s radio coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. with the Coliseum Countdown. Sirius Satellite radio listeners can get the MS broadcast on channel 90.
There are tickets still available and can be purchased online at WVUGAME.com or at the gate on game day.
Briefly:
* Huggins has always been up front with his players and earlier this week he took some time to map out what they need to do to remain safe for the NCAA tournament.
“Some people say, well, isn’t that putting pressure on them? I would rather be real with them and let them know what’s going on than at the end of the year somebody saying, ‘Man I wish I would have known that,’” he said. “I kind of like to know what’s going on and I think they do. I think they appreciate knowing where they are.”
So where is his team right now?
“We’ve got the fourth best schedule in the country,” Huggins pointed out. “We’re 18 in the RPI or somewhere in there. We’re fine. We’ve just got to win some games.”
Huggins thinks this could be the year the Big East gets 11 teams into an expanded NCAA tournament field.
“When you look at strength of schedule, you look at RPI and you look at what people have done outside our league I think it’s very conceivable that happens,” Huggins said. “If you win 10 games in this league you’re going to get in. It doesn’t matter.”
The real difficulty will come for those teams that don’t receive byes and need to run off a series of wins in the Big East tournament to put themselves into contention for an at-large bid.
“There’s not another league in the country where you could conceivably play four ranked teams,” Huggins pointed out. This week the Big East has 10 teams either ranked or receiving votes.
Junior forward Kevin Jones believes 10 teams are still in contention for the Big East title with roughly a month left in the regular season.
“I’d say the top 10 teams have a legitimate chance of winning the Big East,” Jones said. “Of course, Pittsburgh is probably the best team in the Big East. They only have one loss so far and I think it’s a tossup from there on because everybody is losing and everybody has tough games remaining in the Big East. I think we’re still in the mix. We’ve just got to do things right and limit our mistakes as much as possible.”
* No. 25 West Virginia is the only team in this week’s Top 25 with eight losses, which is a testament to the Mountaineers’ strength of schedule. This week marks the 26th week West Virginia has been ranked in the Top 25 under Huggins.
* Did you know that West Virginia has played the fewest home games of any team in the Big East so far this season with 10?
* West Virginia has held its opponents below 40% from the floor in five of its last seven games. However, the Mountaineers’ last two opponents – Villanova and Pitt – shot a combined 31 of 48 (65%) from the floor in the second half against WVU’s D.
In the second half of West Virginia’s 11 Big East games this season, opponents are shooting 47.1% compared to just 40.6% for the Mountaineers.
* Kevin Jones is now 42nd on West Virginia’s all-time scoring list with 1,038 career points. He has scored double figures in each of his last three games after a pair of 8-point performances against Louisville and Cincinnati.
* West Virginia has won all five meetings with DePaul since the Blue Demons joined the Big East. Bob Huggins is 30-8 all-time against DePaul dating back to his days at Cincinnati when the two were in Conference USA.
* Senior forward John Flowers continues to lead the Big East with 56 blocks so far this season. Flowers is now fifth in school history with 139 career blocks.
“Ten wins assures you of being in the NCAA tournament,” Huggins said before Friday’s afternoon practice. “You can talk about anything else you want to talk about but if you win 10 games in this league you’re going to get in.”
If that’s the case, then West Virginia still has some work to do to reach that total. The Mountaineers are presently in a five-way tie with Cincinnati, Connecticut, Marquette and St. John’s for sixth in the conference standings with 6-5 records. A win here or a loss there could mean the difference between moving up to fifth or dropping all the way down to 11th. Finish 11th and you’re playing on Tuesday in the opening round of the Big East tournament.
“It’s hard enough to win three when you’re in the top four,” said Huggins. “I’m not enamored with the way things are set up having a double bye. If you look at what happened with people that had double byes, we all could have lost and I don’t think that’s good for your league. In terms of having a bye, why do you want to play five games? It’s hard enough to win three.
“The hard thing in this league is you could conceivably play four ranked teams,” Huggins said. “A year ago it was great for us. It was great momentum for us but if we would have had to play four or five games I’m not sure. It’s draining. It’s physically draining and it’s emotionally draining.”
West Virginia (15-8) is going through its own physically and emotionally draining period in the season that has seen the Mountaineers drop three of their last five games. West Virginia had opportunities to win two of the three, only a 66-50 loss at Villanova last Saturday being a game that got out of hand.
This Saturday, West Virginia has another challenging opponent in DePaul, though winless in conference play this season, the Blue Demons have been playing much better of late. DePaul (6-17) lost by four at Louisville last Saturday and dropped a three-point decision at home against Cincinnati earlier this week.
“I think if you look at their numbers the last two weeks they’re shooting the ball so much better from the perimeter,” said Huggins.
Last month, West Virginia escaped DePaul with a 67-65 victory after seeing a double digit second-half lead nearly evaporate.
“We can’t throw them the ball and we made some bad plays at the offensive end,” said Huggins. “We took shots that we shouldn’t have taken too early in the clock that weren’t good shots, which kind of aided their comeback.”
Huggins thought a lot of DePaul’s offense in that first game came on transition baskets as a result of poor offensive execution by the Mountaineers.
“You can’t throw them the ball for scores and you can’t let them score off their defense,” he explained. “You have to make them beat you with their offense and we didn’t do a very good job of that and we took some ill-advised shots. We took some shots that led directly to fast-break opportunities for them and you can’t do that.”
DePaul has a pair of freshmen leading the team in scoring. Six-eight forward Cleveland Melvin is averaging 14.1 points per game and he scored 17 against the Mountaineers the previous time these two teams played.
Point guard Brandon Young is averaging 12.2 points per game and has reached double figures in each of his last four games. He scored 12 against West Virginia back on Jan. 4.
West Virginia is the sixth nationally ranked opponent DePaul has faced this season; the Blue Demons have now lost their last 26 games against ranked foes.
DePaul’s last victory came on Dec. 22 against Florida Atlantic when its record was still .500 at 6-6. Eight of DePaul’s 11 Big East losses this season have been by double-digit margins.
“We need to win games and I think our guys are aware of that,” said Huggins.
Saturday’s game will tipoff at 4 p.m. and will be televised regionally on the Big East Network. The game will air locally on WJAL (Chambersburg, Pa.), WCHS (Charleston), WOAY (Beckley), WTOV (Wheeling/Steubenville, Ohio), WVFX (Clarksburg) and WTAP-DT3 (Parkersburg) as well as on ESPN Full Court and ESPN3.com.
MSN’s radio coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. with the Coliseum Countdown. Sirius Satellite radio listeners can get the MS broadcast on channel 90.
There are tickets still available and can be purchased online at WVUGAME.com or at the gate on game day.
Briefly:
* Huggins has always been up front with his players and earlier this week he took some time to map out what they need to do to remain safe for the NCAA tournament.
“Some people say, well, isn’t that putting pressure on them? I would rather be real with them and let them know what’s going on than at the end of the year somebody saying, ‘Man I wish I would have known that,’” he said. “I kind of like to know what’s going on and I think they do. I think they appreciate knowing where they are.”
So where is his team right now?
“We’ve got the fourth best schedule in the country,” Huggins pointed out. “We’re 18 in the RPI or somewhere in there. We’re fine. We’ve just got to win some games.”
Huggins thinks this could be the year the Big East gets 11 teams into an expanded NCAA tournament field.
“When you look at strength of schedule, you look at RPI and you look at what people have done outside our league I think it’s very conceivable that happens,” Huggins said. “If you win 10 games in this league you’re going to get in. It doesn’t matter.”
The real difficulty will come for those teams that don’t receive byes and need to run off a series of wins in the Big East tournament to put themselves into contention for an at-large bid.
“There’s not another league in the country where you could conceivably play four ranked teams,” Huggins pointed out. This week the Big East has 10 teams either ranked or receiving votes.
Junior forward Kevin Jones believes 10 teams are still in contention for the Big East title with roughly a month left in the regular season.
“I’d say the top 10 teams have a legitimate chance of winning the Big East,” Jones said. “Of course, Pittsburgh is probably the best team in the Big East. They only have one loss so far and I think it’s a tossup from there on because everybody is losing and everybody has tough games remaining in the Big East. I think we’re still in the mix. We’ve just got to do things right and limit our mistakes as much as possible.”
* No. 25 West Virginia is the only team in this week’s Top 25 with eight losses, which is a testament to the Mountaineers’ strength of schedule. This week marks the 26th week West Virginia has been ranked in the Top 25 under Huggins.
* Did you know that West Virginia has played the fewest home games of any team in the Big East so far this season with 10?
* West Virginia has held its opponents below 40% from the floor in five of its last seven games. However, the Mountaineers’ last two opponents – Villanova and Pitt – shot a combined 31 of 48 (65%) from the floor in the second half against WVU’s D.
In the second half of West Virginia’s 11 Big East games this season, opponents are shooting 47.1% compared to just 40.6% for the Mountaineers.
* Kevin Jones is now 42nd on West Virginia’s all-time scoring list with 1,038 career points. He has scored double figures in each of his last three games after a pair of 8-point performances against Louisville and Cincinnati.
* West Virginia has won all five meetings with DePaul since the Blue Demons joined the Big East. Bob Huggins is 30-8 all-time against DePaul dating back to his days at Cincinnati when the two were in Conference USA.
* Senior forward John Flowers continues to lead the Big East with 56 blocks so far this season. Flowers is now fifth in school history with 139 career blocks.
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