Friday, March 23
Boston, Mass.
7:27 p.m.
West Virginia University
vs
Villanova
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Mountaineers Expecting a Battle Against Top-Seeded Villanova
March 22, 2018 02:46 PM | Men's Basketball
BOSTON - Guard Jevon Carter said Thursday West Virginia's NCAA Tournament East Regional semifinal opponent Villanova is a lot like Kansas in the way the Wildcats can shoot the basketball and spread the floor.
That's good and bad for the Mountaineers.
The good is West Virginia has 120 minute's-worth of court time facing a similar style and should be well-prepared for what it is going to face against Jay Wright's free-wheeling team on Friday night in Boston's TD Garden.
The bad is West Virginia was unable to defeat Kansas the three times the two teams met, once in Morgantown, once in Lawrence and once in the Big 12 Tournament championship game in Kansas City.
To beat Villanova, the Mountaineers are going to have to figure out a way to disrupt Villanova's outside shooters, something they were not able to do in their losses to Kansas.
"They've got a lot of guards that can shoot and can drive," Carter explained. "Everybody can score. They hit tough shots. We've just got to key in on our guys and follow the scouting report."
The man responsible for giving that scouting report to them, Bob Huggins, is most impressed with the way Villanova passes the basketball to get into position to make shots.
"They do a great job of getting the ball to the guy that is most open," Huggins said. "It's not the guy that's open sometimes. It's the guy that's most open, and when you put five guys on the floor that can all make shots, that spreads you."
Huggins had this happen to his team in the Big 12 Tournament championship game earlier this month when Kansas scorched the nets to the tune of 15-out-27 from behind the 3-point arc, including a sizzling 9-of-13 in the second half in pulling away from the Mountaineers.
It's difficult to imagine a team capable of shooting the basketball better than the Jayhawks did that night.
That is until you begin looking at some of Villanova's shooting percentages: guard Jalen Brunson - 53.5 percent, guard Mikal Bridges - 51.7 percent, forward Eric Paschall - 52.7 percent and reserve forward Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree - 78.8 percent.
Even Villanova's poorest shooters statistically, guard Donte Divincenzo - 47.0 percent or forward Omari Spellman - 47.8 percent, are shooting higher percentages than any West Virginia player not named Sagaba Konate.
And a lot of what these guys are making is not near the basket, either.
Villanova's 419 3-pointers made heading into Friday's meeting against West Virginia are the third-most in NCAA history, with the Wildcats having a real shot of topping VMI's record 442 3s made in 2007.
Villanova is shooting 40.2 percent from 3, or just a shade below West Virginia's overall 43.8 percent shooting mark.
The Wildcats (34-4) make them when they win, and they even makes them when they lose, such as against Butler when they shot 53.5 percent in a 101-93 loss to the Bulldogs nearly three months ago, or the 50 percent Villanova shot in a five-point loss to Providence back on Feb. 15.
Huggins typically only studies videotape of the five most recent games when preparing for an opponent, but he may be inclined to venture back a little bit farther to see how St. John's limited Villanova to shooting 41.8 percent in a 79-75 Red Storm victory on Feb. 7, or what Creighton did to cause the Wildcats to make just 41.1 percent of their shots in an 89-83 overtime victory on Feb. 24.
Those are the only two instances when Villanova's poor shooting - if you can really call 41 percent in today's game poor - contributed to losses this year.
Could some of it be a product of Villanova playing in a Big East Conference that has just one other nationally ranked team.
Possibly, because the Wildcats shot just 39.7 percent in last Saturday's NCAA Tournament second-round game against Alabama and still won by 23.
And Villanova shot 46 percent in a non-conference game against Tennessee it won by nine, demonstrating that the Wildcats can win even when they don't make a very high percentage of their shots.
"That was a really significant game for us in that it was our first game against a high-level, athletic opponent, physical, athletic opponent much like West Virginia," Wright said. "But it was the first time that group had faced them, and we got into foul trouble early.
"It really set the tone for who the leaders were, how physical we could be and how tough we could be," Wright noted.
That is just another conundrum West Virginia (26-10) is facing against its old Big East foe.
But the Mountaineers have had some success against Wright, winning eight out of 13 against him with Huggins claiming three of those victories, including the last time these two teams met in Morgantown in 2011.
"I don't think we want it in the 60s and 70s," Huggins said. "We're better when we score, and we're better when the game is sped up. We're going to try and speed the game up and play at a faster pace."
This is West Virginia's third trip to the Sweet 16 in the last four years and the third straight time it has to get past a No. 1 seed to keep its season alive.
The first time in 2015 against Kentucky in Cleveland didn't go too well. Last year, the Mountaineers were a possession or two away from ending Gonzaga's season before it eventually reached the national championship game.
Perhaps Friday, West Virginia can come up with the right formula to move past the round of 16 for the first time since reaching the Final Four in 2010. That, by the way, was the last time the Mountaineers knocked off a No. 1 seed in the tournament, upsetting Kentucky in the East regional finals in Syracuse, New York.
West Virginia disrupted Kentucky's shooters and made just enough from 3 that night in the Carrier Dome to pull off a giant upset.
A similar effort might be required here in Boston against top-seeded Villanova on Friday night.
"We're just going to play," Huggins said. "I don't think there's any secret. We do what we do, and we've got to try and do what we do better than what they do."
"We're going to come to play on Friday, and we're going to see what happens," Carter added.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's pregame coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.
TBS (Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel and Allie LaForce) will televise the game nationally. The game is scheduled to tip off at 7:27 p.m. ET.
Wednesday Audio
That's good and bad for the Mountaineers.
The good is West Virginia has 120 minute's-worth of court time facing a similar style and should be well-prepared for what it is going to face against Jay Wright's free-wheeling team on Friday night in Boston's TD Garden.
The bad is West Virginia was unable to defeat Kansas the three times the two teams met, once in Morgantown, once in Lawrence and once in the Big 12 Tournament championship game in Kansas City.
To beat Villanova, the Mountaineers are going to have to figure out a way to disrupt Villanova's outside shooters, something they were not able to do in their losses to Kansas.
"They've got a lot of guards that can shoot and can drive," Carter explained. "Everybody can score. They hit tough shots. We've just got to key in on our guys and follow the scouting report."
The man responsible for giving that scouting report to them, Bob Huggins, is most impressed with the way Villanova passes the basketball to get into position to make shots.
"They do a great job of getting the ball to the guy that is most open," Huggins said. "It's not the guy that's open sometimes. It's the guy that's most open, and when you put five guys on the floor that can all make shots, that spreads you."
Huggins had this happen to his team in the Big 12 Tournament championship game earlier this month when Kansas scorched the nets to the tune of 15-out-27 from behind the 3-point arc, including a sizzling 9-of-13 in the second half in pulling away from the Mountaineers.
It's difficult to imagine a team capable of shooting the basketball better than the Jayhawks did that night.
That is until you begin looking at some of Villanova's shooting percentages: guard Jalen Brunson - 53.5 percent, guard Mikal Bridges - 51.7 percent, forward Eric Paschall - 52.7 percent and reserve forward Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree - 78.8 percent.
Even Villanova's poorest shooters statistically, guard Donte Divincenzo - 47.0 percent or forward Omari Spellman - 47.8 percent, are shooting higher percentages than any West Virginia player not named Sagaba Konate.
And a lot of what these guys are making is not near the basket, either.
Villanova's 419 3-pointers made heading into Friday's meeting against West Virginia are the third-most in NCAA history, with the Wildcats having a real shot of topping VMI's record 442 3s made in 2007.
Villanova is shooting 40.2 percent from 3, or just a shade below West Virginia's overall 43.8 percent shooting mark.
The Wildcats (34-4) make them when they win, and they even makes them when they lose, such as against Butler when they shot 53.5 percent in a 101-93 loss to the Bulldogs nearly three months ago, or the 50 percent Villanova shot in a five-point loss to Providence back on Feb. 15.
Huggins typically only studies videotape of the five most recent games when preparing for an opponent, but he may be inclined to venture back a little bit farther to see how St. John's limited Villanova to shooting 41.8 percent in a 79-75 Red Storm victory on Feb. 7, or what Creighton did to cause the Wildcats to make just 41.1 percent of their shots in an 89-83 overtime victory on Feb. 24.
Those are the only two instances when Villanova's poor shooting - if you can really call 41 percent in today's game poor - contributed to losses this year.
Could some of it be a product of Villanova playing in a Big East Conference that has just one other nationally ranked team.
Possibly, because the Wildcats shot just 39.7 percent in last Saturday's NCAA Tournament second-round game against Alabama and still won by 23.
And Villanova shot 46 percent in a non-conference game against Tennessee it won by nine, demonstrating that the Wildcats can win even when they don't make a very high percentage of their shots.
"That was a really significant game for us in that it was our first game against a high-level, athletic opponent, physical, athletic opponent much like West Virginia," Wright said. "But it was the first time that group had faced them, and we got into foul trouble early.
"It really set the tone for who the leaders were, how physical we could be and how tough we could be," Wright noted.
That is just another conundrum West Virginia (26-10) is facing against its old Big East foe.
But the Mountaineers have had some success against Wright, winning eight out of 13 against him with Huggins claiming three of those victories, including the last time these two teams met in Morgantown in 2011.
"I don't think we want it in the 60s and 70s," Huggins said. "We're better when we score, and we're better when the game is sped up. We're going to try and speed the game up and play at a faster pace."
This is West Virginia's third trip to the Sweet 16 in the last four years and the third straight time it has to get past a No. 1 seed to keep its season alive.
The first time in 2015 against Kentucky in Cleveland didn't go too well. Last year, the Mountaineers were a possession or two away from ending Gonzaga's season before it eventually reached the national championship game.
Perhaps Friday, West Virginia can come up with the right formula to move past the round of 16 for the first time since reaching the Final Four in 2010. That, by the way, was the last time the Mountaineers knocked off a No. 1 seed in the tournament, upsetting Kentucky in the East regional finals in Syracuse, New York.
West Virginia disrupted Kentucky's shooters and made just enough from 3 that night in the Carrier Dome to pull off a giant upset.
A similar effort might be required here in Boston against top-seeded Villanova on Friday night.
"We're just going to play," Huggins said. "I don't think there's any secret. We do what we do, and we've got to try and do what we do better than what they do."
"We're going to come to play on Friday, and we're going to see what happens," Carter added.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's pregame coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.
TBS (Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel and Allie LaForce) will televise the game nationally. The game is scheduled to tip off at 7:27 p.m. ET.
Wednesday Audio
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Basketball
F
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