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WVU to Face Intriguing New Hampshire on Sunday
November 19, 2016 09:50 AM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Among the questions many West Virginia University men’s basketball fans have right now is just how good is Bob Huggins’ 19th-ranked Mountaineers?
We learned nothing in West Virginia’s 75-point preseason victory over WVU Tech in Beckley, and we learned very little in the Mountaineers’ two blowout wins over Mount St. Mary’s and Mississippi Valley State as well.
But Sunday’s game at the Coliseum against a pretty good New Hampshire team considered one of the preseason favorites to win the American East should begin to provide some clues.
The Wildcats bring a 2-1 record into Morgantown, one of those wins being a 57-52 triumph at Temple earlier in the week.
Huggins is very familiar with New Hampshire coach Bill Herrion, the brother of former Marshall coach Tom Herrion, who is now on Jamie Dixon’s staff at TCU.
Herrion and Huggins faced each other six times when Herrion was coaching at East Carolina and Huggins was at Cincinnati. Huggins won all six meetings, but Herrion’s teams always had good shooters and played with great effort, which Huggins is expecting to see once again on Sunday.
“He runs good stuff,” said Huggins. “They try to spread you and he plays a bunch of guys that can make shots. That’s what they did against Temple. They really spread them out.
“They shoot 3s and straight-line drive you to a large degree to get 3s,” added Huggins.
West Virginia’s two prior games against Mount St. Mary’s and Mississippi Valley State featured lots of scoring, fouls and turnovers that come with a full-court-pressing, up-and-down style of play.
Huggins expects New Hampshire to try and control the pace a little bit more on Sunday, slow things down and run more half-court offense.
“They scored 40 points in a half the other night, so I think they are capable of scoring, but I think they are going to try and go at their pace and we’re going to try and make it go at our pace,” Huggins noted.
Another interesting aspect to Sunday’s game will be the 2-3 zone defense New Hampshire will likely use against West Virginia.
Think back to a couple of years ago when Monmouth threw a 2-3 zone at the Mountaineers early in the season and WVU struggled to defeat the Hawks, 64-54.
West Virginia has made 34.9 percent of its 3-point field goal attempts so far this year - which is close to the 32.5 percent it shot last season - but that’s also without Daxter Miles Jr. on the floor. The junior guard has missed the first two games this season with an unspecified illness. Huggins mentioned that Miles’ energy and intensity has also been missing on the press as well.
Making outside shots and playing a full 40 minutes are two things Huggins is seeking from his team on Sunday afternoon. In order to achieve this, he may have to shorten his bench some based on how the game is going.
“In all honesty when you are playing as many people as I’ve played … they’re not going to be as sharp so we’re going to have to limit the rotation, but those two games were a good chance to get some of those guys in the game to see what they can do,” he said.
Sunday’s New Hampshire game begins an intriguing stretch for the Mountaineers that includes games coming up against Illinois and either Florida State or Temple in Brooklyn, New York over Thanksgiving break, and then Manhattan at the Coliseum on Monday, November 28 before the New Dominion-Old Dominion showdown at Virginia on Saturday, December 3.
“We’re getting ready to get into a pretty good deal. New Hampshire’s good. They’re not Illinois, they’re not Florida State and they’re not Virginia, but they’re pretty good,” said Huggins.
For Huggins to be a happy coach late Sunday afternoon, he would like to see his players put together a full 40 minutes for the first time this season.
“The good teams we’ve had here learned that when you get somebody on the mat you try and keep them there,” he said. “You don’t let ‘em up and say, ‘Let’s try this again.’ This team hasn’t learned that but when we’re good that’s what we do.”
Tip time on Sunday is set for 1 p.m.
ROOT SPORTS will televise the game locally (Rob King, Warren Baker and Robby Incmikoski) while the Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s radio coverage begins at noon on stations throughout West Virginia and online via leanStream and the mobile app TuneIn.
Tickets for Sunday's game are still available and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
Fans who bring non-perishable food items with them to Sunday’s New Hampshire game will receive a free ticket to a future Mountaineer women’s basketball game. It is also United Bank Magnet Day with 2016-17 men’s basketball schedule magnets available for free in the Coliseum concourse to fans attending the game.
A note to fans: With the women’s soccer team’s NCAA tournament Sweet 16 match against UCLA at Dick Dlesk Stadium beginning at 2:30 p.m., parking will be extremely limited around the Coliseum complex.
Fans are encouraged to plan accordingly.
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