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Men's Basketball Notebook - Radford
December 19, 2016 03:38 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia took care of business last Saturday afternoon against UMKC, using a 24-0 run early in the first half to pull away with a 112-67 victory - veteran coach Bob Huggins’ 800th career win in 35 seasons as college coach.
Seven different players reached double figures, led by Nathan Adrian’s 13 points on five of 10 shooting. The Mountaineers also got 57 points from their bench, paced by senior Brandon Watkins with 12 points on four of four shooting.
Watkins, starting big Elijah Macon and freshman big Sagaba Konate have done an outstanding job compensating for the loss of Devin Williams, West Virginia’s second-leading scorer and top rebounder from a season ago.
Combined, the three are averaging 16.5 points, 10 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, or 3.2 points, 0.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game more than Williams’ junior-season averages in 2016.
Viewing the production of the three bigs collectively is not something new for Huggins. He has done this before at other positions.
“I think we did the same thing with Nate (Adrian) and Sponge (Jonathan Holton) a year ago,” he said, of the team’s two forwards.
Macon said last week it is becoming a point of pride among the three to add up their totals at the end of the game.
“We have our own little special thing that we have that we want to do for the year,” Macon said. “We want to have a certain amount of rebounds, a certain amount of points and a certain amount of deflections, just like the guards do. Coach (Erik) Martin is big on me and Brandon helping Sags out just getting him comfortable with what we’re doing.
“After every scout at home or on the road the bigs get together and we figure out what we have to do as a group.”
As a group, Macon said getting at least 15 rebounds per game from the three bigs is their target number, so they’ve got some more work to do there to match that. Making more free throws is another area on which they are focusing.
Collectively, that number sits at 56.1 percent - still not great - but much, much better than what it’s been in the past for Macon and Watkins.
What the Mountaineers are getting this year from Macon - 6.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and three blocks - is pretty much in line with what he did last year as a sophomore.
But West Virginia is getting a big boost from Watkins this year. He played just 125 minutes a season ago, shot 33.3 percent from the floor and averaged less than a point per game as a junior.
This season, he’s giving the Mountaineers 7.4 points and 4.6 rebounds while shooting 65.1 percent from the floor. Watkins is also making better than 50 percent of his free throws (55 percent) for the first time in his career.
“Elijah plays as long as he can play and when he says he needs a blow we put Brandon in and based on the situations and the matchups, we will put Elijah back in or Sags in,” Huggins said. “It all comes down to matchups.”
Not to mention production, which, collectively, these guys are giving the Mountaineers right now.
Briefly:
* Tuesday’s opponent, Radford, is coming off a 100-64 loss at UNC Wilmington last Saturday. Radford’s four wins have come against Central Penn, Stetson, VMI and Elon, while it’s six losses are against Wake Forest, Akron, Mercer, Georgia Southern, North Carolina and UNC Wilmington.
The Highlanders have one player averaging double figures in 6-foot-5-inch, 200-pound sophomore forward Ed Polite Jr., who is averaging 10.2 points per game. He scored a season-high 21 points against Stetson and is coming off a 20-point performance last Saturday against UNCW.
* In recognition of Bob Huggins’ 800th career victory last Saturday against UMKC, West Virginia is offering a special $8 ticket through the end of today for Tuesday’s game against Radford and Friday’s game against Northern Kentucky.
Log on to WVUGAME.com for more information.
* West Virginia’s RPI jumped seven spots to No. 61 leading into this week’s action. That’s fifth among Big 12 schools this week, behind No. 2 Baylor, No. 5 Kansas, No. 23 TCU and No. 42 Oklahoma State.
Speaking of the Cowboys - West Virginia’s first Big 12 opponent 11 days from now - they got a nice out-of-conference win over Wichita State, 93-76, and are now 9-2 with one more non-conference tune-up game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi coming up on Thursday.
First-year coach Brad Underwood also counts a 27-point win over Georgetown among his nine victories so far this season. Oklahoma State’s two losses were against North Carolina, by 32 points, and against Maryland, by one point.
* The Mountaineers moved up one spot to No. 11 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll, released earlier today. West Virginia began the season ranked No. 20 in the AP poll. Meanwhile, West Virginia advances one spot to No. 12 in this week’s USA Today coaches’ poll.
The Big 12 has three teams ranked this week - Kansas, Baylor and West Virginia.
* Tuesday night’s Radford game will be televised locally by Nexstar with former Pittsburgh Pirate play-by-play voice Lanny Frattare calling the game with Warren Baker. Those outside of the Mountain State can watch the telecast via WVUsports.com.
The late Garland E. "Sonny" Moran coached the Mountaineers from 1970-74. WVU Athletic Communications photo.
* We have received the sad news that former West Virginia University men’s basketball coach Garland E. “Sonny” Moran has passed away. Moran coached the Mountaineers for five seasons from 1970-74, his best team being his third one in 1972 that won 13 of 24 games.
That was the squad decimated by a tragic automobile accident that claimed the life of Charleston forward Larry “Deacon” Harris and ended the playing career of forward Sam Oglesby. In addition, Moran’s top playmaker, point guard Levi Phillips, was ruled academically ineligible while top reserves Gary Reichenbecker and Bob Hornstein were lost for the year with injuries.
Moran barely had enough players to finish the season.
“I lost five of my top seven players and the bad part about it was they were underclassmen,” Moran once said. “It hurt us for the next two years. Those were guys waiting in the wings.”
Moran was the first to coach a game in the WVU Coliseum and he was also responsible for bringing an Ohio University transfer named Bob Huggins to Morgantown.
His other significant accomplishment was coaching the first an all-black starting lineup in school history against Pitt on December 1, 1973 - Levi Phillips, Eartha Faust, Jerome Anderson, Larry Carr and Warren Baker.
“I was going to play our best five basketball players and hope our people could understand that,” Moran once remarked.
A former coach at Morris Harvey and a Charleston native, Moran later became athletic director at Morehead State in Kentucky and also served as commissioner of Gulf South Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, until retiring in 1992.
He was living in Gulf Shores, Alabama, at the time of his death on Sunday, December 18, 2016. He was 90.
Here is a link to send in your personal condolences to Moran's family: http://www.pinerestfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Garland-Moran/
* And finally, one of the longest ongoing streaks in school history has ended. Veteran athletic equipment manager Bubba Schmidt had not missed a home men’s basketball game since 1977, but that ended on Saturday when he attended the college graduation of his oldest daughter, Kaylee, from Lipscomb University.
Bubba’s amazing streak ended at a Cal Ripkenesque 705 consecutive games, which means he can now start another one!
College Basketball Crown Recap
Thursday, April 16
Ross Hodge, Honor Huff & Brenen Lorient | Oklahoma Postgame
Sunday, April 05
Ross Hodge, Treysen Eaglestaff & Brenen Lorient | Creighton Postgame
Saturday, April 04
Ross Hodge & Honor Huff | Stanford Postgame
Thursday, April 02
