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Kennesaw State Next Up for Ranked WVU
December 03, 2015 11:55 AM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Curious eyes will be on 20th-ranked West Virginia when the Mountaineers take their full-court press to the Big Apple to face 10th-ranked Virginia at Madison Square Garden next Tuesday, but in the meantime, West Virginia has a little business to take care of Saturday at the Coliseum.
Kennesaw State from the Atlantic Sun Conference will be in town to play a 12:30 p.m. game against the Mountaineers.
Working the bench for the Owls is a familiar name to West Virginia basketball fans – Al Skinner, former Rhode Island and Boston College coach and a frequent visitor to Morgantown through the years.
Kennesaw State hired Skinner last spring to inject life into a program that has posted eight, three, three, six and 10 victories over the last five seasons.
So far, Skinner is on track to at least match last year’s win total with a couple of wins this year against IUPUI and Florida A&M. Three of Kennesaw State’s seven defeats have come on the road against Power 5 Conference schools, Alabama, LSU and Arizona State.
Skinner doesn’t have much size to work with but he does have a pretty effective scoring guard in 5-foot-9-inch senior Yonel Brown, who is averaging 17.2 points per game and has made a team-best 22 3s.
Six-one junior guard Kendrick Ray is Kennesaw State’s other double-figure scorer with an average of 14.8 points per game.
West Virginia, meanwhile, has had a week to work on things following last weekend’s impressive showing out in Las Vegas with victories over Richmond and San Diego State.
The Mountaineers were especially impressive against San Diego State, taking it to the athletic Aztecs from the opening tip. WVU’s press forced 21 turnovers and turned those Aztec miscues into 30 points on the way to an impressive 72-50 victory last Friday night.
“They beat us. They beat us up,” San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said. “We took ourselves right where they wanted us to go with their pressure, and we got frustrated a little.”
West Virginia shot 50 percent in the second half against San Diego State, and the Mountaineers are shooting a much-improved 48.4 percent from the floor so far this year.
Last year, West Virginia shot right around 40 percent, including just 31.6 percent from 3-point distance.
“West Virginia has won its first six games by an average of 30.2 PPG and the Mountaineers have only made 27.7% of their 3-pt shots. SCARY,” tweeted CBS Sports and WFAN college basketball expert Jon Rothstein earlier this week.
Another area where the Mountaineers have made considerable improvement so far is 3-point field goal shooting defense. Last year, West Virginia allowed its opponents to make 36.5 percent of their 3-point tries and shoot 46.9 percent overall; that number has been shaved to 22.5 percent from 3 and 35.5 percent overall.
Last weekend, Richmond and San Diego State shot a combined 2-of-24 from 3 against WVU’s defense out in Vegas, primarily because of WVU’s improved perimeter defensive play and the length of freshman wing Esa Ahmad and his ability to alter shots.
Forward Devin Williams had his streak of five straight double-double games to begin the season stopped against San Diego State, but the junior is leading the Mountaineers with averages of 17.5 points and 11 rebounds per game.
West Virginia’s other double-digit scorers include guard Jevon Carter (13.8 ppg.), guard Daxter Miles Jr. (12.5 ppg.) and guard Jaysean Paige (10.2 ppg.).
The Mountaineers are averaging 88.7 points per game and are limiting their opponents to an average of just 58.2 points per contest.
West Virginia (6-0) has been ranked all season in the USA Today coaches’ poll, moving up seven spots this week to No. 15, and made its debut this week in the AP top 25 at No. 20.
Tickets still remain for Saturday’s game and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s coverage begins with the pregame show at 11:30 a.m. leading into game coverage at noon on stations throughout West Virginia and online through leanStream and the mobile app TuneIn.
The game will also be televised locally on ROOT Sports (Rob King, Warren Baker and Meg Bulger).
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