Mountaineers Resume Play Saturday in Morgantown

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Huggins hopes the six days between games will give his banged up West Virginia basketball team some extra time to heal.

His team is continuing to deal with nagging injuries that has limited amount of time he's been able to get his five best players on the court together for extended periods of time.

"We've got to get well. We're banged up," Huggins said earlier this week.

Based on the number of minutes forward Sagaba Konate played in last Sunday's St. Joe's win before fouling out, his sore knee at least seems to be more manageable, but Huggins is still trying to get junior guard James "Beetle" Bolden back up to full speed.

Bolden rarely practiced during the preseason with stretched ligaments in his shooting hand, and since then it's been one thing after another for the Covington, Kentucky, resident.

Because he wasn't able to practice much before the start of the regular season, Bolden had to take himself out of the Buffalo game with 4:43 remaining because of full-body cramping.

Bolden played 22 minutes of the Western Kentucky loss before injuring his elbow, which kept him out of the St. Joe's victory last Sunday.

"It's frustrating because I really believe if we have Beetle and Sags at the end of the Buffalo game it would have been a different outcome," Huggins said. "Beetle getting hurt in Myrtle Beach hasn't helped us any – it hasn't helped him any.

"Beetle has probably spent five-to-one in the training room than on the floor and it's rough," Huggins added. "It's really hard on him because he wants to play so bad."

Jermaine Haley got the start at point guard in place of Bolden against St. Joe's, but freshman Brandon Knapper was the point guard on the floor for the majority of the second half when the Mountaineers pulled away for their second victory of the season.

Knapper scored 9 points, handed out five assists and did a much, much better job handling the basketball and running the team.

In WVU's 63-57 loss to Western Kentucky last Friday night, the Mountaineers had a miserable time handling the basketball and making basic passes.

Against St. Joseph's, Huggins said his team had a "workable" number of turnovers and consequently played far better offensively against the Hawks.

"I thought we played a lot harder," he said. "We got the loose balls better than what we had and we made some plays we needed to make to win the game."

The Mountaineers (2-2) begin a three-game homestand with Valparaiso on Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum. The Crusaders improved to 3-2 with a 75-70 overtime victory over SIU Edwardsville also show wins over Monmouth and Concordia University Chicago.

Valpo's two losses were against Western Kentucky and Wake Forest.

Seven-foot-one center Derrik Smits, the son of former Indiana Pacers center Rik Smits, is one of three double-digit scorers in Valparaiso's starting lineup with an average of 12.4 points per game. He's also grabbing 6.2 boards per contest.

"Rick Smits' son is pretty good in the post," Huggins said. "Like pretty much everyone else they try and spread you and shoot the ball on the perimeter and the more shots you make the more defenses get spread."

Following Saturday's 2 p.m. tilt against Valparaiso, West Virginia will remain in Morgantown to face Rider on Wednesday night and then will face Youngstown State next Saturday afternoon.

All three games will be televised locally on AT&T Sportsnet.

The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's coverage begins at 1 p.m. on affiliates throughout the Mountain State and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.

Pregame Notes: Huggins said his team didn't practice Monday but had a "real good practice" Tuesday doing individual work. "We worked on some things we needed to get better individually," he said ... The team celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday and resumed work on Friday leading into Saturday's Valpo game ... According to Huggins, the biggest detriment to Bolden's early-season injuries woes is it's inhibiting his development as a point guard. The last two seasons, Bolden was used primarily as an off-the-ball scorer coming off the bench. Now, he's being asked to handle the ball and get the team into its offense ... Forward Lamont West is coming off a career-high 27 points in West Virginia's 97-90 victory over St. Joseph's last Sunday afternoon. West scored 22 in the Buffalo loss but had just seven in the Western Kentucky loss and failed to score in the Monmouth victory. "Obviously, Lamont shot the ball very well and we were able to win the game down the stretch without Sags with him fouling out," Huggins said. Huggins believes West can smooth out his up-and-down performances this year by having better shot selection. West is leading the team in the early going with a 14 points-per-game average. Forward Esa Ahmad (13.8), Bolden (13.3) and Konate (12.3) are West Virginia's other double-digit scorers ... Huggins said early this week there is no change in forward Derek Culver's status as suspended indefinitely ... Listed as an interesting addition to the AT&T Sportsnet broadcast team will be former Mountaineer forward Nathan Adrian, who will work alongside Rob King, Warren Baker and sideline reporter Robby Incmikoski. Adrian has been doing some local media and podcasting work on local radio ... Saturday's game will be the second meeting against Valparaiso, coached by Matt Lottich. The first took place in 2001 in the opening game of the Fiesta Bowl Classic in Tucson, Arizona, when Valpo won the game 76-57 ... Huggins has faced the Crusaders four times, winning all four meetings when he was at Cincinnati.

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Players Mentioned

Derek Culver

Jermaine Haley

Brandon Knapper

Sagaba Konate

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