WVU to Face Old Dominion in Mexico
November 25, 2013 02:23 PM | General
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| Bob Huggins |
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia will put its modest three-game winning streak on the line Tuesday night when the Mountaineers face Old Dominion in the continuation of the Triple Crown Cancun Challenge in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico.
This will be the first time Mountaineer basketball is playing a regular season game outside of the United States or Puerto Rico.
WVU (4-1) is coming off of blowout wins over Georgia Southern and Presbyterian heading into this week’s action.
The Mountaineers got 19 points from sophomore guard Eron Harris and 16 points and seven assists from junior guard Juwan Staten in last Saturday’s 33-point win over Presbyterian. Harris ranks No. 1 in the Big 12 in scoring this week with an average of 20.4 points per game, while Staten is third with a 19.4-points-per-game average.
Staten has a streak of one or fewer turnovers in 11 of his last 12 games dating back to last year, and has an impressive 38-to-10 assist-to-turnover ratio heading into Tuesday night’s game. The junior is clearly evolving into one of the unquestioned leaders on this year’s team.
“Juwan said (after the Presbyterian game), ‘Everybody listen. This isn’t a vacation. This is a business trip.’ We haven’t had that in a while,” said Huggins. “I think they all like each other and they like being around each other.”
West Virginia is also getting 11.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game from 6-foot-9-inch freshman forward Devin Williams, who is averaging nearly 10 boards per game over his last four while reaching double digits in each of his last three games.
“He’s been terrific,” said Huggins. “His personality is starting to come out and he’s starting to feel a lot more comfortable around the rest of the guys. He says some stuff that’s really funny. (On Saturday) he wanted to get back into the game to get a double-double and then he kicks the ball out of bounds.
“I said ‘what now?’ and he said that he was going for a triple-double,” joked Huggins.
Old Dominion, coming off a disastrous 5-25 campaign in 2013, is starting fresh with former Virginia coach Jeff Jones, who has spent the last 13 seasons at American University.
Jones has the Monarchs off to a 4-1 start with four consecutive victories over Howard, Murray State, Presbyterian and Georgia Southern after beginning the season with a 79-67 overtime loss to Missouri State.
Old Dominion uses a three-guard lineup that is led by 6-foot-4-inch sophomore Aaron Bacote’s 21.6 points per game. Bacote scored a career-high 28 in the opener against Missouri State and also had 26 in the Monarchs’ most recent win against Georgia Southern.
Dimitri Batten, a 6-foot-3 guard, and Keenan Palmore, a 6-foot-1 guard, are also averaging double figures at 12.2 and 10.2 points per game respectively. Six-six junior forward Richard Ross shows averages of 11.4 points and 8.0 rebounds per game as ODU’s top inside player.
Old Dominion’s top player off the bench is another guard, 6-foot-2-inch Jordan Baker from Hampton, Va., who averages 8.2 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.
“I’ve got great respect for Jeff,” said Huggins. “I think he does a great job of coaching. We played them in the Sweet 16 when he was at Virginia (1993). He kind of grew up around the game like I did. He is the son of a coach and he’s been around the game his whole life and he’s been in the gym his whole life.”
Old Dominion has won three out of four meetings against West Virginia, the last coming in 1991 in Norfolk when the Monarchs came away with an 83-82 victory.
West Virginia’s lone win against Old Dominion came in Morgantown on Dec. 18, 1990, an 87-69 triumph. ODU knocked West Virginia out of the NCAA tournament in a first-round game in Greensboro, N.C., in 1986.
Tuesday night’s game will tip off at 6 p.m. and will be televised nationally on the CBS Sports Network (Thad Anderson and Steve Wolf).
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG (Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs) will provide radio coverage on affiliates throughout West Virginia. The radio broadcast can also be accessed on the Internet through CBS College Sports Network as well as on Sirius satellite radio, channel 93.
The Mountaineers will play a second game in Mexico on Wednesday night against either St. Louis or Wisconsin.
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