WVU to Face Buffalo in NCAA Tournament
March 15, 2015 07:42 PM | General
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| Senior Juwan Staten will be making his first NCAA tournament appearance on Friday against Buffalo in Columbus, Ohio. | |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
RELATED LINKS: 2015 NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKET | TICKET INFORMATION
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The wait has been a little longer than he expected, but Juwan Staten is finally getting to play in the NCAA tournament.
And to top it off, he will be playing not too far from his hometown of Dayton, Ohio when fifth-seeded West Virginia takes on 12th-seeded Buffalo in Columbus on Friday, March 20.
“The journey has definitely been worth it,” said Staten. “Whether it’s been good or bad – and it’s been a little bit of both – you can always take something away from it and learn from it. I feel it’s definitely been worth it because I’m in a great position now.”
Staten, who has missed the last four games with knee and groin injuries, said it was great to get back out on the floor earlier today.
“Today was my first day back so it was a little modified,” he said.
Staten is also happy to be playing on Friday instead of Thursday because it gives him an extra day to get his body back into game shape.
“I think it’s helpful from a selfish standpoint to get another day of conditioning and another day to get some shots up,” he explained. “I was kind of looking forward to playing a Friday game.”
So is senior guard Gary Browne, also out with an ankle injury he suffered early in the Baylor game back on February 28. Browne is the only player on West Virginia’s roster with NCAA tournament experience.
“This is what you work for,” said Browne. “This is it. This is something you will never forget.”
Browne is also excited for Staten to be able to play in front of friends and family in his home state. Browne enjoyed a similar experience earlier this year when West Virginia defeated Connecticut to capture the Puerto Rico Tipoff.
“I feel happy we are close to Juwan’s hometown so that’s great for him and his family,” said Browne. “He’s never played in the NCAA tournament so he’s going to have a lot of friends and family come and watch and we’re going to have a lot of fans out there. It’s a great spot. Yes, we’re happy that we are playing there but we’ll just focus more on who we’ve got and where we go from there.”
“These guys have been pretty resilient when you think about all of the things that have happened this year,” added Coach Bob Huggins. “Generally, young guys have a tendency to fall apart whenever you lose your leaders but they’ve been great. Both of those guys practiced today and I thought Wanny was real good.”
West Virginia (23-9) lost to Baylor, 80-70, in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 tournament last Thursday afternoon without Staten and Browne.
In that game, Devin Williams scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds before fouling out with 2:22 remaining. Jaysean Paige added a season-high 18 points while Daxter Miles Jr. contributed 11.
West Virginia was playing right with the Bears until the 4-minute mark when a couple of key turnovers turned a one-possession game into a five-point Baylor lead.
Staten leads the Mountaineers in scoring with an average of 14.5 points per game while Williams is averaging 11.3 points and a team-best 8.2 rebounds per contest.
Buffalo, meanwhile, defeated Central Michigan in the Mid-American Conference championship game to earn an NCAA tournament bid for the first time in school history, and the first for former Duke standout Bobby Hurley.
“I’m just glad he’s not the point guard (for Buffalo),” joked Huggins.
Buffalo (23-9) posted a 12-6 record in the MAC and performed well outside of conference action, losing competitive games to NCAA No. 1 seeds Kentucky (71-52) and Wisconsin (68-56).
Six-seven forward Justin Moss leads Buffalo in scoring with an average of 17.7 points per game while 6-1 guard Shannon Evans is also scoring an attention-getting 15.4 points per game.
“They are out-rebounding their opposition and they are a good free throw shooting team,” said Huggins.
The Bulls go eight-deep with four players logging 831 minutes or more this season.
“We’ve been seeing nothing but Big 12 teams so to see new faces and new teams that kind of makes it like a new season for us,” said Staten.
“(Big 12 teams) know pretty much everything you’re going to do and now we get to play some teams that don’t know us as well and teams we may be able to have more of an affect on them than teams we played in our league,” Staten added.
This will be West Virginia’s first NCAA tournament appearance since 2012 when the Mountaineers lost to Gonzaga in a first-round game in Pittsburgh, and their 26th overall trip to the tournament.
It’s West Virginia’s sixth NCAA appearance under Huggins, who is making his 21st trip to the Big Dance in his 30 seasons as a Division I coach. Huggins will also be returning to Ohio where he played high school basketball and coached for the majority of his career at Akron and Cincinnati.
“I think this will be great for our fans,” said Huggins. “It’s 200 miles from here but our people can get to it and tickets will be an issue.”
Game time and ticket information will be announced later this evening.
The West Virginia-Buffalo winner will face the Maryland-Valparaiso winner on Sunday.
Update: West Virginia's game against Buffalo will tip at 2:10 p.m. ET and will air on TNT with Ian Eagle, Doug Gottlieb and Evan Washburn on the call.
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