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Mountaineers, Lumberjacks to Battle in Brooklyn
March 17, 2016 04:54 PM | Men's Basketball
BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Stephen F. Austin is not your typical NCAA tournament 14 seed. Far from it.
The Lumberjacks are making their third consecutive tournament appearance under coach Brad Underwood, whose three-year record of 88-13 is among the best ever for beginning Division I college basketball coaches.
Underwood guided Stephen F. Austin to a 32-win season during his rookie year in 2014, a 29-5 record last year and a 27-5 mark heading into Friday night’s game against third-seeded West Virginia at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Stephen F. Austin has completely dominated the Southland Conference during Underwood’s tenure, winning all 18 games this season and 53 out of 54 over a three-year period.
Underwood put Stephen F. Austin basketball on the map two years ago by upsetting fifth-seeded VCU in the 2014 NCAA tournament, and last year, trailed No. 5 seed Utah by just two points with a minute to go before eventually losing, 57-50.
Two three seeds were knocked out of last year’s tournament, including Iowa State, which lost, 60-59, to Alabama-Birmingham, and Baylor, which fell, 57-56, to Georgia State. Twenty total three seeds have been upset by 14 seeds in the tournament since 1986.
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins certainly doesn’t want to see his Mountaineer team become the third No. 3 seed from the Big 12 in the last two years to exit the tournament prematurely. But one stat that bodes well for West Virginia fans is Huggins’ 16-5 record in opening NCAA tournament games.
Still, there will be some pressure on his basketball team because many believe the Mountaineers are equipped to make a deep run in this year’s tournament because of their unusual pressing style, overall athleticism and the difficulty for teams to prepare for it on short notice.
“I think there is some pressure there because you’d have to live under a rock your whole life not to know if you lose you’re done,” Huggins said. “There is pressure and you have to handle that the right way.”
Meanwhile, Underwood, who spent one season on Huggins’ Kansas State staff, has had no trouble handling the loss of 2015 Southland Conference Player of the Year Jacob Parker and his 14 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Devin Williams
Jaysean Paige
Teyvon Myers Elijah Macon
Jaysean Paige
Teyvon Myers Elijah Macon
Senior guard Thomas Walkup has stepped into a prime role for the Lumberjacks by averaging 17.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Walkup, a 6-foot-4 guard, scored a team-best 19 points in Stephen F. Austin’s 22-point victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Southland Conference championship game back on March 12.
Six-five, 220-pound forward Clide Geffrard contributed 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while 6-foot-5 guard Ty Charles had 12 points in Stephen F. Austin’s conference championship game victory.
Underwood is also getting 13.8 points and 43 percent shooting accuracy from 3 from 5-foot-11 guard Demetrious Floyd.
Huggins said Stephen F. Austin prefers to play a two-man game on offense with Walkup and Floyd doing most of the scoring.
“They try to iso you on the side,” Huggins said. “They try to flood the one side with everybody and play two-man on the other side. They are not going to go stand in the corners and try and penetrate and pitch it that way - that’s kind of just go play basketball. Brad’s very calculated.
“They try and swing it back and forth, but basically what they’re doing is they’re flooding one side of the floor and they’re reversing and flooding the other side of the floor,” he added. “They want to end up two on two.”
Stephen. F. Austin does not have a lot of size, both starting guards standing just 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-11, and its biggest starter checking in at 6-foot-8, but Huggins doesn’t anticipate that being a problem for his bigger players to adjust to.
“Our guys can move their feet,” he said. “When you play the way we play you end up guarding guards and forwards anyway so I don’t think that’s an issue.”
The Lumberjacks got little resistance from the teams in their conference this season, winning all but two of its regular-season league games by at double-digit margins.
They lead the country in scoring margin (plus-17.6) and turnover margin (6.2), are second in the country in assists per game (18.9) and seventh in steals per game (9.1).
Some of that, of course, is a product of their schedule. The Lumberjacks didn’t have a single victory over an RPI top 50 team this year, and were only 3-3 against RPI top 100 teams.
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Stephen F. Austin lost by 42 points in its opening game of the year against Baylor, dropped a 10-point decision to Northern Iowa, lost by one to Tulane, fell 80-73 to Arizona State and lost by 10 points to UAB in its final regular season non-conference game on December 29, which also happens to be its last loss of the year, an impressive achievement for any level of basketball.
“They don’t turn it over that much,” Huggins said. “They’ve got a bunch of guys who do a good job of passing the ball. They are a veteran team who kind of know each other.
Huggins’ West Virginia team is coming off a 10-point loss to tournament No. 1 seed Kansas in the Big 12 championship game last Saturday in Kansas City.
The Mountaineers (26-8) led by six early, overcame an eight-point Kansas first half advantage to lead by one at halftime and fought back from 12 down midway through the second half to almost make it a one possession game.
Junior forward Devin Williams is coming off perhaps the best performance of his career against the Jayhawks with 31 points and 10 boards. He leads the team with 15 double-doubles and will be a real matchup problem for the Lumberjacks o Friday if he is allowed to play.
“Devin has been very capable,” Huggins said. “He’s your ultimate team guy. I think he gives a lot for his teammates and he’s not selfish in any way.”
In last year’s NCAA tournament, Williams played extremely well in victories over Buffalo and Maryland in Columbus, Ohio.
Williams is one of two double-figure scorers for West Virginia, averaging 13.3 points per game, the other being senior guard Jaysean Paige, who comes off the bench to lead the Mountaineers with 13.9 points per contest.
The Mountaineers have four other players – Jevon Carter, Daxter Miles Jr., Tarik Phillip and Jonathan Holton – averaging at least nine points per game.
West Virginia is looking to advance beyond the first game of the tournament for the fourth time under Huggins, who is 9-6 in NCAA tournament games at WVU.
Huggins led West Virginia to the Final Four in 2010, as well as a pair of Sweet 16 trips in 2008 and last season. Overall, Huggins is 29-21 in 21 NCAA tournament appearances spanning 30 years with three different schools.
Friday’s game will be a homecoming for New York City natives Phillip, Paige and junior guard Teyvon Myers.
Tipoff is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. and the contest will be televised nationally on CBS.
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