College of Charleston Preview
November 28, 2014 01:49 PM | General
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| Senior guard Juwan Staten continues to lead the Mountaineers in scoring with an average of 16 points per game. |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Disregard College of Charleston’s 2-3 record, says West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, because the Cougars are much better than their sub-.500 record might indicate.
“They’re good,” said Huggins before Friday’s practice. “They may be the second or third best team we’ve played.”
Huggins’ No. 21-rated Mountaineers are back on the hardwood Saturday night to face the Cougars in a non-bracketed game as part of the Puerto Rico Tipoff. Huggins got to see College of Charleston in person down in San Juan and he was impressed, especially from what he saw of 6-foot-9-inch, 250-pound senior forward Adjehi Baru.
Baru scored 24 and hit the game-winning free throw in College of Charleston’s 61-60 win over George Mason last Sunday, and he leads the team in scoring (12.0 ppg.) and rebounding (8.5 rpg.)
“Their big kid Baru is very good. He can really score the ball, runs, and can block shots,” said Huggins.
Baru didn’t play in College of Charleston’s nine-point loss to Texas A&M but he did play against Connecticut, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 boards in an eight-point defeat against the defending national champs.
Anthony Stitt, a 6-1 senior guard, is averaging 12 points per game and is shooting 38 percent from 3. Canyon Berry, a 6-6 sophomore guard, is also averaging double figures at 10 points per game.
“Their guards are good,” said Huggins. “They run a lot of baseline screens, staggers and like everybody else when it doesn’t work (they run) to a ball screen.”
Earl Grant, a Gregg Marshall protégé, took over the College of Charleston job on September 5 when former Wheeling Central standout Doug Wojcik was let go a month prior, so the Cougars are obviously still a work in progress.
Defensively, though, College of Charleston is allowing just 60.8 points per game while opposing teams are shooting only 29 percent from 3 against them.
West Virginia, meanwhile, is coming off a 31-point victory over VMI down in Charleston on Wednesday night, the Mountaineers scoring more than 100 points in the game, but Huggins was not too pleased with the way his team defended despite forcing 36 turnovers and tying a school-record with 26 steals.
“We’ve slipped a little bit defensively,” he said. “We’ve got to get that straightened out from just playing so much and not practicing.”
Offensively, the Mountaineers (6-0) are averaging 81.5 points per game, good for 29th in the country heading into this weekend’s action.
Freshman guard Jevon Carter is coming off a 28-point performance against the Keydets and is one of four players currently averaging double figures, along with senior guard Juwan Staten (16.0 ppg.), sophomore forward Devin Williams (11.8 ppg.) and junior forward Jonathan Holton (11.5).
But once again, Huggins would like to see more efficient play from his young team on the offensive end of the floor as well.
“We’re just going too fast. We’re going 100 miles per hour and we’ve got to get it slowed down to 55,” Huggins noted.
Healthwise, the coach says his team is in pretty good shape heading into Saturday’s game, although forwards BillyDee Williams and Brandon Watkins are still unavailable.
Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be televised locally on West Virginia Media stations throughout the state.
Game Notes: West Virginia enters this weekend’s action ranked No. 1 in the country in offensive rebounding with an average of 20.83 offensive boards per game; however, WVU does not rank among the nation’s top 50 teams in overall rebounding margin … West Virginia is second behind Eastern Kentucky in steals per game (14.2) and is tied for 12th in 3-point field goals attempted (138) … Freshman guard Daxter Miles Jr. has a streak of three straight double figure scoring games heading into Saturday’s game against College of Charleston and is now averaging 7.5 points per game … With Wednesday’s win over VMI, Huggins is now tied with Phog Allen for 14th in NCAA history with 746 career wins … Huggins is one of three active coaches with more than 700 career wins … the next big-name coach within reach for Huggins is Hank Iba at No. 13 with 764 career victories … local stations carrying Saturday’s game include WBOY (Clarksburg), WOWK (Charleston), My Ohio Valley (Northern Panhandle), WVNY (Beckley) and WJAL (Eastern Panhandle) ... Family Day packages are still available for purchase until 5 p.m. Friday and fans are also encouraged to bring a new, unwrapped toy to the game tomorrow to benefit the WVU Toy Mountain program.
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