Photo by: Katie MacCrory
Gold Defeats Blue in Gold-Blue Debut
October 19, 2018 08:35 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Wesley Harris' 16 points helped the Gold team to a 64-58 victory over the Blue during tonight's Gold-Blue Debut exhibition game played before an estimated 5,500 fans inside the WVU Coliseum.
The two teams were split up evenly and they played two 20-minute halves with a running clock. There were plenty of dunks, flashy passes and up-and-down play, but neither team ran much half-court offense or made more than two passes before shooting.
When the Blue squad was trailing by double digits late in the game, assistant coach Erik Martin instructed them to press and they were able to reduce the Gold team's lead to three at one point with about a minute remaining.
Forward Sagaba Konate added 15 points and six rebounds for the Gold, demonstrating a soft touch around the basket, additional shooting range hitting a 3 and some versatility by making a length-of-the-court drive that ended with a slam dunk at the other end. These are some facets of his game that we haven't seen much before from Konate.
Senior Esa Ahmad contributed 12 and athletic freshman forward Derek Culver scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins has been high on Culver's athleticism during preseason practices and its easy to see why.
Freshman point guard Jordan McCabe dazzled the crowd with a couple of no-look passes and he also converted a spectacular three-point play when he faked a pass and went up for a layup in one continuous motion. He was fouled as the ball sailed through the basket and he made the free throw.
McCabe finished with five points and four assists, but did turn the ball over a scrimmage-high five times.
Lamont West led the Blue team with 16 points while Logan Routt scored 10. Freshmen Brandon Knapper and Trey Doomes contributed eight points each.
The Gold led the Blue 44-31 at halftime.
Assistant coach Ron Everhart coached the Gold squad while associate head coach Larry Harrison and Huggins watched the scrimmage from press row. Huggins addressed the crowd before the game telling them, "We have a chance."
Junior guard Beetle Bolden was held out of tonight's scrimmage while he continues to recover from a preseason wrist injury.
Afterward, the players remained on the floor to sign autographs.
The Mountaineers will have a closed scrimmage next weekend in Columbus, Ohio, and then will face Penn State in a charity exhibition game at the WVU Coliseum on Saturday, Nov. 3. A tip time will be announced once the starting time for West Virginia's football game at Texas is revealed.
Proceeds from the charity exhibition game will benefit the American Red Cross' hurricane relief efforts. AT&T Sportsnet will televised the contest locally.
Gold-Blue Debut Leftovers:
* Ted Valentine was part of tonight's officiating crew, which also included Big 12 regular Mike Eades as well as Tony Ciazza. Valentine, originally from Glen Dale, West Virginia, now makes his home in Charleston, South Carolina. He was in Morgantown last summer to participate in Bob Huggins' annual fantasy basketball camp.
* Former Mountaineer player Chaz Briggs was in town to watch tonight's scrimmage. He is now coaching high school basketball in his native Rochester, New York. He also took in the team's practice earlier today.
* On Thursday Huggins said, hands down, the best dunk of the preseason so far is by guard Chase Harler during a practice earlier this month. He threw one down over Culver that had everyone in the practice facility howling.
While telling me this, Huggins motioned for Harler to come over and give me some more details about his big dunk. Chase demurred, only mentioning that Logan Routt was next in line.
He didn't bring up Konate, however.
* Huggins has taken to calling 6-foot-9-inch, 255-pound sophomore forward Andrew Gordon "3-minute Drew." That's because Gordon plays like Wilt Chamberlain for three-minute spurts, grabbing every rebound in sight before getting tired.
"He goes like hell for three minutes and gets every rebound," Huggins said. "That's hard to do when you've got Derek there, Sags there and Logan there. Then after three minutes he's got his hands on his knees getting air. I told him we've got to get one more minute out of him so we can go to the TV timeout."
* The veteran coach mentioned that he really likes Culver at the top of the press because of his tremendous size and athleticism. Huggins says Culver possesses the best straight-line speed on the team. The problem, however, is where Culver fits on the floor when Konate or Routt are in the game. Huggins said he's not sure if that will work having Culver out there with one or the other at the same time.
* Huggins will be taking Konate, Esa Ahmad and Beetle Bolden out to Kansas City next Wednesday for the annual Big 12 media day at the Sprint Center. West Virginia was picked to finish third in the preseason coaches' poll behind Kansas and Kansas State. Konate was the only Mountaineer player named to the preseason All-Big 12 team.
The two teams were split up evenly and they played two 20-minute halves with a running clock. There were plenty of dunks, flashy passes and up-and-down play, but neither team ran much half-court offense or made more than two passes before shooting.
When the Blue squad was trailing by double digits late in the game, assistant coach Erik Martin instructed them to press and they were able to reduce the Gold team's lead to three at one point with about a minute remaining.
Forward Sagaba Konate added 15 points and six rebounds for the Gold, demonstrating a soft touch around the basket, additional shooting range hitting a 3 and some versatility by making a length-of-the-court drive that ended with a slam dunk at the other end. These are some facets of his game that we haven't seen much before from Konate.
Senior Esa Ahmad contributed 12 and athletic freshman forward Derek Culver scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins has been high on Culver's athleticism during preseason practices and its easy to see why.
Freshman point guard Jordan McCabe dazzled the crowd with a couple of no-look passes and he also converted a spectacular three-point play when he faked a pass and went up for a layup in one continuous motion. He was fouled as the ball sailed through the basket and he made the free throw.
McCabe finished with five points and four assists, but did turn the ball over a scrimmage-high five times.
Lamont West led the Blue team with 16 points while Logan Routt scored 10. Freshmen Brandon Knapper and Trey Doomes contributed eight points each.The Gold led the Blue 44-31 at halftime.
Assistant coach Ron Everhart coached the Gold squad while associate head coach Larry Harrison and Huggins watched the scrimmage from press row. Huggins addressed the crowd before the game telling them, "We have a chance."
Junior guard Beetle Bolden was held out of tonight's scrimmage while he continues to recover from a preseason wrist injury.
Afterward, the players remained on the floor to sign autographs.
The Mountaineers will have a closed scrimmage next weekend in Columbus, Ohio, and then will face Penn State in a charity exhibition game at the WVU Coliseum on Saturday, Nov. 3. A tip time will be announced once the starting time for West Virginia's football game at Texas is revealed.
Proceeds from the charity exhibition game will benefit the American Red Cross' hurricane relief efforts. AT&T Sportsnet will televised the contest locally.
Gold-Blue Debut Leftovers:
* Ted Valentine was part of tonight's officiating crew, which also included Big 12 regular Mike Eades as well as Tony Ciazza. Valentine, originally from Glen Dale, West Virginia, now makes his home in Charleston, South Carolina. He was in Morgantown last summer to participate in Bob Huggins' annual fantasy basketball camp.
* Former Mountaineer player Chaz Briggs was in town to watch tonight's scrimmage. He is now coaching high school basketball in his native Rochester, New York. He also took in the team's practice earlier today.
* On Thursday Huggins said, hands down, the best dunk of the preseason so far is by guard Chase Harler during a practice earlier this month. He threw one down over Culver that had everyone in the practice facility howling.
While telling me this, Huggins motioned for Harler to come over and give me some more details about his big dunk. Chase demurred, only mentioning that Logan Routt was next in line.
He didn't bring up Konate, however.
* Huggins has taken to calling 6-foot-9-inch, 255-pound sophomore forward Andrew Gordon "3-minute Drew." That's because Gordon plays like Wilt Chamberlain for three-minute spurts, grabbing every rebound in sight before getting tired.
"He goes like hell for three minutes and gets every rebound," Huggins said. "That's hard to do when you've got Derek there, Sags there and Logan there. Then after three minutes he's got his hands on his knees getting air. I told him we've got to get one more minute out of him so we can go to the TV timeout."
* The veteran coach mentioned that he really likes Culver at the top of the press because of his tremendous size and athleticism. Huggins says Culver possesses the best straight-line speed on the team. The problem, however, is where Culver fits on the floor when Konate or Routt are in the game. Huggins said he's not sure if that will work having Culver out there with one or the other at the same time.
* Huggins will be taking Konate, Esa Ahmad and Beetle Bolden out to Kansas City next Wednesday for the annual Big 12 media day at the Sprint Center. West Virginia was picked to finish third in the preseason coaches' poll behind Kansas and Kansas State. Konate was the only Mountaineer player named to the preseason All-Big 12 team.
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