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WVU Faces Texas Tech Tuesday Night
January 02, 2017 12:59 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Another Big 12 game means another big-time challenge for Bob Huggins’ seventh-ranked West Virginia University men’s basketball team when his Mountaineers travel to Lubbock, Texas to take on the 11-2 Red Raiders in a late, 9:15 p.m. game Tuesday night that will be televised nationally on ESPNEWS.
Tech, under first-year coach Chris Beard, has continued the success it enjoyed last season under Tubby Smith, now coaching at Memphis.
Smith got the Red Raiders back to the NCAA tournament last season after a nine-year hiatus, Beard inheriting a talented roster well-stocked with Smith players.
One of those is 6-foot-8-inch, 220-pound, junior forward Zach Smith, perhaps the most athletic guy in the Big 12 this season. Smith is averaging 11.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and has blocked a team-best 21 shots in 12 games so far this year.
“Everybody else that’s played against him says he’s the best athlete in our league and it’s hard to dispute that,” said Huggins. “He’s really a factor around the rim. He made two blocks in the Iowa State game … his second jump is terrific. A lot of people have a first jump and they can’t go right back up and he just hits and pogo’s right back up. He’s a terrific athlete.”
Against the Cyclones last Friday, Texas Tech jumped out to a 10-point halftime lead before succumbing to the Hilton (Coliseum) magic that many teams have succumbed to through the years.
The Red Raiders only scored 21 points in the second half in falling to Iowa State, 63-58.
“They turned it over a little bit,” said Huggins. “They didn’t shoot it as well and Iowa State shot it a whole lot better. Iowa State got some transition baskets it didn’t get in the first half. That Hilton magic, you know …”
The Auburn loss withstanding, Tech’s performance against Iowa State has been the exception and not the norm.
Among Texas Tech’s 11 wins this year is a nice, 79-72 victory at Richmond on December 17.
Beard has deep Texas Tech ties, having spent 10 seasons in Lubbock, including seven on coach Bob Knight’s Red Raider coaching staff.
Then Beard spread his wings, first at Angelo State for two seasons, and then at Arkansas-Little Rock where he led them to a 30-win season and an NCAA tournament double-overtime victory over fifth-seeded Purdue last March.
UNLV initially tabbed Beard to coach the Runnin’ Rebels, but when UNLV Board of Regents was slow to approve his hiring, Texas Tech jumped in and plucked him away at the last minute after Smith took the Memphis job.
Now, Beard is overseeing a Red Raider program that took its lumps early under Smith but has since grown with six seniors on this year’s roster, making the transition a smooth one for Beard.
“Those guys are a year older,” noted Huggins. “They’ve been through this league and they understand how hard the league is. Having veteran guys - six seniors - that’s a lot of seniors.”
One of those seniors is 6-foot-8-inch forward Anthony Livingston, who ranks second on the team in scoring averaging 13 points per game while make a team-best 25 3-point field goals.
The Red Raiders’ leading scorer is 6-foot-3, 185-pound junior guard Keenan Evans, who is averaging 13.5 points per game while shooting an outstanding 48.5 percent from the floor. Tech is making 51.5 percent of its shot attempts this season, including 39 percent of its 3-point tries.
“Chris has done a great job of getting them good shots,” said Huggins. “They’re doing a great job of running that offense and I think their length is more a factor offensively than it is offensively.”
The Red Raiders are outscoring their opponents by an average of 20 points per game this season.
The Mountaineers Sports Network from IMG’s radio coverage begins at 8:30 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online through WVUsports.com and the mobile app TuneIn.
Briefly:
* Huggins said during his Monday morning teleconference that junior forward Elijah Macon practiced with the team on Sunday. Macon was a late scratch during Friday’s 92-75 victory at Oklahoma State because of an injured right knee sustained in West Virginia’s prior game against Northern Kentucky on Friday, December 23.
Senior Brandon Watkins made his second straight start in Macon’s place, scoring 9 points and grabbing five rebounds in 25 minutes of action against the Cowboys.
West Virginia’s starting lineup against Oklahoma State also included Nathan Adrian and Esa Ahmad at forwards, with Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles Jr. at guards.
Huggins only used four players off the bench against Oklahoma State, but those four accounted for 28 points, eight rebounds and 12 assists in the Mountaineers’ 92-75 victory over the Cowboys.
Asked Monday if he thought the Oklahoma State performance matched his team’s effort at Virginia in early December, Huggins thought so, with one exception.
“I just saw yesterday Illinois beat Ohio State and they’re 11-4, I thought we played pretty well that game,” he said. “We passed it better in transition than we’ve passed the last couple of years (against Oklahoma State).”
* The Texas Tech team we will be watching Tuesday night in many ways is a lot different than the Red Raider teams we were accustomed to seeing under Smith.
“It’s a different philosophy,” Huggins explained. “They’re playing different defensively than the way Tubby plays and they’re playing different offensively. Chris spent a lot of time around coach Knight.
“Their execution offensively is really good. Their spacing is really good. Tubby just played different. There are a lot of ways to play this game and I don’t think anybody can argue with the way Tubby has played it or coached the game because he’s been incredibly successful and I think they’re getting coached up pretty good right now.”
When Huggins took over at West Virginia, he decided to keep some of the same things former coach John Beilein did defensively because it suited the players he inherited. Huggins said he sees some of that with what Beard is doing defensively with Texas Tech this year.
What the Red Raiders are doing offensively, however, is a night-and-day difference.
“We were a whole lot different offensively, too,” Huggins recalled. “The way we play we’re trying to put guys in positions where they can be successful. I think that’s what Tech’s doing. In fairness, he’s got (six) seniors now that were juniors a year ago. That’s a huge difference.”
* Huggins was asked about the Bob Knight influence and how that can impact a young coach’s career in a positive way.
“The great ones have an incredible will and they just kind of will people to kind of do what they want them to do,” Huggins said. “It was a different time back then, too. There wasn’t a shot clock. There wasn’t a 3-point line until coach Knight was pretty much into his career at Indiana, and obviously during his time at Texas Tech.
“The shot clock makes a huge difference,” Huggins continued. “When you are running motion offense and there is no shot clock and you can turn it over and turn it over and somebody is going to make a mistake. Somebody is going to stand up. Somebody is not going to get to help and somebody is going to come free. It’s a different game with the shot clock. Coach Knight adjusted as great coaches do, but in the beginning they just ran it until they got what they wanted.”
Huggins said Knight was one of the coaches he tried to emulate during his long and successful career.
“I’ve always gone to clinics with my dad but I ended up doing demonstrations the majority of the time instead of sitting their listening. But I went to coach Knight’s coaching academy. I bought his … he called it a book but I called it a pamphlet. He just sold it for the price of a book but it was really just a pamphlet stapled together, but I tried to learn as much as I could from the guy,” noted Huggins. “I’ve been fortunate to be able to spend time with him. We do a lot of Nike clinics now on the same days and we’re able to sit around before and after and talk and really listen. I’ve been blessed. I was joking about being around him 10 minutes - I’ve been around him a lot and when I went to Kansas State we were in the same league.
“You try to learn,” Huggins said.
* West Virginia jumped four spots in this week’s AP poll to No. 7. It’s the Mountaineers’ highest ranking since January 18 of last year when they reached No. 6, and it’s the first time WVU has reached the top 10 this season.
It’s also the 26th week West Virginia has been ranked in the top 10 under Huggins.
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