Tuesday, December 29
Morgantown, W.Va.
2:00 p.m.
West Virginia University
vs
Northeastern
Photo by: Sarah Ramundt
Mountaineers, Huskies to Meet Tuesday Afternoon at the WVU Coliseum
December 28, 2020 01:51 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The last time Northeastern traveled here to play a college basketball game, an up-and-coming basketball coach named Ron Everhart stole some of John Beilein's lunch money.
Everhart's Huskies, behind Marcus Barnes' 31 points and J.J. Berea's 19 points and 10 assists, got the best of Beilein's Mountaineers, 91-84, in an entertaining up-and-down basketball game.
Sixteen years later, Northeastern is returning to the WVU Coliseum on Tuesday afternoon with Everhart sitting on the Mountaineer bench as one of coach Bob Huggins' assistant coaches.
Northeastern was a late replacement for COVID-19-stricken Buffalo, which has temporarily ceased basketball activities after experiencing an outbreak following its most recent game at Syracuse.
This is now the sixth nonconference opponent that wasn't on West Virginia's original schedule.
The Huskies are 1-4, but don't let their record deceive you. Northeastern lost by six at Syracuse, by just four at Old Dominion and had Georgia down at halftime before the Bulldogs came to life in the second half.
Huggins said he really likes Northeastern's Tyson Walker, a New York City point guard who is leading the team in scoring by averaging 17 points per game. Walker might be Northeastern's best point guard since Berea, a 14-year NBA veteran with the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Walker is shooting 44% from the floor and has handed out a team-best 28 assists.
"Their point guard is terrific," Huggins said. "I think everything starts and stops with him. They do a great job in their ball-screen series, which is good for us to be able to spend time and work on. He's really good with the ball-screen stuff. He splits it and he drags it out. He can stop behind it and shoot it. He does a lot of really good things."
"They really like to keep the ball in his hands a lot," West Virginia sophomore guard Deuce McBride added. "It's going to be tough for our defense. We're going to try and deny him the ball, obviously, and try and make his life as hard as we can."
Jahmyl Telfort, a 6-foot-7 swingman from Boucherville, Quebec, is coming off the bench to contribute 13.8 points while making a team-best 10 out of 14 from 3-point range.
A couple of transfers – Santa Clara's Shaquille Walters and Illinois' Greg Egoigbodin – are part of a Northeastern starting lineup that also includes 6-foot-7 freshman Coleman Stucke and 6-foot-8 junior forward Jason Strong.
"They've got a bunch of people who can make shots so your ability to help off the ball is going to be important," Huggins said. "They spread you because they can make shots."
This is one of the youngest teams 14-year veteran coach Bill Coen has had at Northeastern. Three years ago, the Huskies won 23 games and last year they reached the Colonial Athletic Association championship game.
West Virginia, down two spots to No. 9 in this week's AP poll, is looking to get in another game before diving deep into its Big 12 schedule.
The Mountaineers (7-2) are coming off a 79-65 loss at third-ranked Kansas last Tuesday night. The torrid-shooting Jayhawks made 16-of-37 from 3-point distance to win for the ninth straight time over West Virginia at Allen Fieldhouse.
"Unless they lie a lot, there is nobody in the country that would tell you Kansas could shoot the ball the way they shot the ball against us," Huggins said. "That's not them. We were trying to gap everything and keep them in front of us and make them shoot the ball over us because of the way they had shot the ball up to that point. And then they made everything."
Junior guard Sean McNeil also made everything in the first half, including all six of his 3-point field goal attempts, to finish with a career-high 24 points. McNeil shot 8-of-12 overall from the floor to boost his season scoring average to 11.6 points per game.
McBride contributed 19 points against Kansas and leads the team with a 15.4-points-per-game average.
Junior forward Derek Culver scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds against the Jayhawks and shows averages of 13.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.
This is West Virginia's next-to-last nonconference game of the season. The Mountaineers are scheduled to face Florida in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge at the WVU Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 30.
WVU resumes Big 12 play on Saturday, Jan. 2 at Oklahoma.
"Quite frankly, we really haven't played 40 minutes yet," Huggins explained. "We play for a while and then we let them catch up so we really haven't had the opportunity to play as many guys as we normally would at this time of year."
Huggins is hopeful that will happen Tuesday against Northeastern. The game will tip off at 2 p.m. and will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College radio coverage on affiliates throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com, TuneIn and the popular app WVU Gameday begins at 1 p.m.
Per local health department stipulations, no fans are permitted to attend West Virginia home basketball games inside the WVU Coliseum during the month of December.
Everhart's Huskies, behind Marcus Barnes' 31 points and J.J. Berea's 19 points and 10 assists, got the best of Beilein's Mountaineers, 91-84, in an entertaining up-and-down basketball game.
Sixteen years later, Northeastern is returning to the WVU Coliseum on Tuesday afternoon with Everhart sitting on the Mountaineer bench as one of coach Bob Huggins' assistant coaches.
Northeastern was a late replacement for COVID-19-stricken Buffalo, which has temporarily ceased basketball activities after experiencing an outbreak following its most recent game at Syracuse.
This is now the sixth nonconference opponent that wasn't on West Virginia's original schedule.
The Huskies are 1-4, but don't let their record deceive you. Northeastern lost by six at Syracuse, by just four at Old Dominion and had Georgia down at halftime before the Bulldogs came to life in the second half.
Huggins said he really likes Northeastern's Tyson Walker, a New York City point guard who is leading the team in scoring by averaging 17 points per game. Walker might be Northeastern's best point guard since Berea, a 14-year NBA veteran with the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves.Walker is shooting 44% from the floor and has handed out a team-best 28 assists.
"Their point guard is terrific," Huggins said. "I think everything starts and stops with him. They do a great job in their ball-screen series, which is good for us to be able to spend time and work on. He's really good with the ball-screen stuff. He splits it and he drags it out. He can stop behind it and shoot it. He does a lot of really good things."
"They really like to keep the ball in his hands a lot," West Virginia sophomore guard Deuce McBride added. "It's going to be tough for our defense. We're going to try and deny him the ball, obviously, and try and make his life as hard as we can."
Jahmyl Telfort, a 6-foot-7 swingman from Boucherville, Quebec, is coming off the bench to contribute 13.8 points while making a team-best 10 out of 14 from 3-point range.
A couple of transfers – Santa Clara's Shaquille Walters and Illinois' Greg Egoigbodin – are part of a Northeastern starting lineup that also includes 6-foot-7 freshman Coleman Stucke and 6-foot-8 junior forward Jason Strong.
"They've got a bunch of people who can make shots so your ability to help off the ball is going to be important," Huggins said. "They spread you because they can make shots."
This is one of the youngest teams 14-year veteran coach Bill Coen has had at Northeastern. Three years ago, the Huskies won 23 games and last year they reached the Colonial Athletic Association championship game.
West Virginia, down two spots to No. 9 in this week's AP poll, is looking to get in another game before diving deep into its Big 12 schedule.
The Mountaineers (7-2) are coming off a 79-65 loss at third-ranked Kansas last Tuesday night. The torrid-shooting Jayhawks made 16-of-37 from 3-point distance to win for the ninth straight time over West Virginia at Allen Fieldhouse.
"Unless they lie a lot, there is nobody in the country that would tell you Kansas could shoot the ball the way they shot the ball against us," Huggins said. "That's not them. We were trying to gap everything and keep them in front of us and make them shoot the ball over us because of the way they had shot the ball up to that point. And then they made everything."
Junior guard Sean McNeil also made everything in the first half, including all six of his 3-point field goal attempts, to finish with a career-high 24 points. McNeil shot 8-of-12 overall from the floor to boost his season scoring average to 11.6 points per game.McBride contributed 19 points against Kansas and leads the team with a 15.4-points-per-game average.
Junior forward Derek Culver scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds against the Jayhawks and shows averages of 13.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.
This is West Virginia's next-to-last nonconference game of the season. The Mountaineers are scheduled to face Florida in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge at the WVU Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 30.
WVU resumes Big 12 play on Saturday, Jan. 2 at Oklahoma.
"Quite frankly, we really haven't played 40 minutes yet," Huggins explained. "We play for a while and then we let them catch up so we really haven't had the opportunity to play as many guys as we normally would at this time of year."
Huggins is hopeful that will happen Tuesday against Northeastern. The game will tip off at 2 p.m. and will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College radio coverage on affiliates throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com, TuneIn and the popular app WVU Gameday begins at 1 p.m.
Per local health department stipulations, no fans are permitted to attend West Virginia home basketball games inside the WVU Coliseum during the month of December.
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/ Men's Basketball
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