WVU to Open 2018-19 Season Friday Against Buffalo

Friday, November 9

Morgantown, W.Va.

9:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

Buffalo

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Photo by: Jennifer Shephard

November 08, 2018 04:33 PM | Men's Basketball

Buffalo Game Notes

By: John Antonik

2018 Comparison
Points Per Game	84.6	80.1
Points Against	76.2	69.6
Field Goals Per Game	30.7	28.0
Field Goal Attempts Per Game	64.8	64.1
Field Goal Percentage	47.3	43.6
3-Point Field Goals Per Game	9.8	8.7
3-Point Field Goal Attempts Per Game	26.3	24.6
3-Point Field Goal Percentage	37.0	35.3
Free Throws Per Game	13.5	15.4
Free Throw Attempts Per Game	19.3	20.1
Free Throw Percentage	69.9	76.6
Rebounds Per Game	38.6	37.8
Assists Per Game	16.6	15.2
Steals Per Game	6.3	8.1
Turnovers Per Game	12.4	11.4
Blocks Per Game	4.1	5.2

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The talking points West Virginia coach Bob Huggins used with his young team throughout preseason practice got underlined and italicized after last Saturday's two-point loss to Penn State in a charity exhibition game at the WVU Coliseum.

Penn State took advantage of WVU's inexperienced backcourt to hit 13-of-25 from 3-point distance while also outrebounding West Virginia's experienced front court 41-37 in its 84-82 victory.

The winning basket came on Josh Reaves' put back with one second remaining when Lamont West failed to box him out.

"I was kind of glad what happened, happened, because I think it brought us back down to Earth," Huggins said before Thursday's practice. "You've got a whole bunch of kids and we're 13^thin the country and people say we're a dark horse to get to the Final Four and they read all of that crap … they don't know any better, so they believe it."

The inconsistent play in the backcourt was to be expected with Huggins seeking replacements for last year's starters Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles Jr., but what happened near the basket caught many of us off guard.

West Virginia was expected to have one of the better frontcourts in the country with Sagaba Konate, Esa Ahmad, Wesley Harris and Lamont West returning, but that didn't deter Penn State from grabbing 18 offensive rebounds last Saturday afternoon, and it didn't seem to faze Lamar Stevens, who poured in 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

"They shot a lot of 3s and there were a lot of long rebounds," Huggins noted. "We spent a whole week before the Penn State game working on rebounding, but it was really good for us.

"If you notice, in the first half when they were making a run I didn't even stand up, call a timeout or run a set," Huggins explained. "I wanted to see if they could figure it out."

Konate was originally scheduled to play sparingly against the Nittany Lions, but he ended up getting 26 minutes of action alongside Ahmad, who led everyone with a game-high 25 points on 8-of-15 shooting.

Konate contributed 15 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Huggins said Konate has had good days and bad days dealing his knee issue.

"I worry about Sags more than I worry about the knee and how he handles it," Huggins said. "There is a whole long list of guys playing in the NBA with meniscus issues, and they play. You've got to learn to manage it."

Against the Nittany Lions, Huggins started Konate, Ahmad and West at the forwards with juniors Jermaine Haley and Chase Harler in the backcourt.

Those may or may not be the five starters Huggins goes with for Friday night's season opener against Buffalo.

Guard James "Beetle" Bolden sat out the exhibition game with a hand injury and freshman Trey Doomes did not see action, nor did 6-foot-10-inch, 255-pound freshman forward Derek Culver.

"Derek is fine. He's actually had some very good practices," Huggins said.

As for Bolden, Huggins said he isn't sure how much he will be able to play tomorrow against Buffalo, which started its season earlier this week with an 82-67 victory over NEC preseason favorite St. Francis (Pa).

The Bulls shot 11-of-17 from 3-point distance in the second half against the Red Flash to overcome an early first-half deficit. Senior center Nick Perkins came off the bench to lead Buffalo with 16 points and nine rebounds.

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Eleven different Bulls players got into the scoring column, including 12 from sophomore guard Jayvon Greaves and 11 points and eight rebounds from senior guard C.J. Massinburg.

Buffalo is coming off a 27-win season last year, which included a bracket-destroying 89-68 rout of Arizona in the first full day of NCAA Tournament play last March.

Perkins scored 13 points and grabbed four rebounds going head-to-head against No. 1 overall draft pick Deandre Ayton, so going up against Konate Friday night won't be a big deal to him.

Guard Jeremy Harris, who scored 23 against the Wildcats, is also back as is Massinburg, who contributed 19 against Arizona. Buffalo has four experienced guards going up against two first-time regulars in the backcourt for West Virginia.

"They're good," Huggins said. "Their guards are very good rebounders, and they make shots. They didn't make any shots against St. Francis, but they make shots. We've got to do a much better job on the ball. We've got to rebound the ball better and run much better offense."

A later-than-usual 9 p.m. tipoff is slated for Friday night's game to accommodate ESPNU national television coverage (Chuckie Kempf and Tim Welsh).

The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's coverage will begin at 8 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.

This will be Buffalo's second appearance at the WVU Coliseum and its fourth overall meeting against the Mountaineers. The last came in the 2015 NCAA Tournament in Columbus when West Virginia needed a late 3 from Tarik Phillip to help down the Bulls, 68-62.

Buffalo's only other appearance in Morgantown occurred on Dec. 11, 1991, when Gale Catlett's Mountaineers defeated the Bulls 91-46.

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