Posts by Jay Dee:
Big East Tourney Field Set
March 7th, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s 68-66 overtime victory at Villanova locked up a No. 3 seed for the Mountaineers in this year’s 2010 Big East Tournament, presented by New York Life, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
West Virginia (24-6, 13-5) was one of four teams to earn double byes for the tournament, joining league regular season champion Syracuse (28-3, 15-3), second-seeded Pitt (24-7, 13-5) and fourth-seeded Villanova (24-6, 13-5).
The first of four opening round games on Tuesday, March 9, will pit ninth-seeded USF (19-11, 9-9) against 16th-seeded DePaul (8-22, 1-17) at noon on ESPN2. Twelfth-seeded Connecticut (17-14, 7-11) will face 13th-seeded St. John’s (16-14, 6-12) at 2 p.m. on ESPN2.
The evening games will pair 10th-seeded Seton Hall (18-11, 9-9) and 15th-seeded Providence (12-18, 4-14) at 7 p.m. on ESPNU, while the nightcap will have 11th-seeded Cincinnati (16-14, 7-11) battling 14th-seeded Rutgers (15-16, 5-13) at 9 p.m. on ESPNU.
Eighth-seeded Georgetown (20-9, 10-8) will play the USF-DePaul winner at noon Wednesday, March 10, on ESPN. Fifth-seeded Marquette (20-10, 11-7) will play the UConn-St. John’s winner at 2 p.m. on ESPN.
In Wednesday’s evening session, seventh-seeded Notre Dame (21-10, 10-8) will play the Seton Hall-Providence winner at 7 p.m. while sixth-seeded Louisville (20-11, 11-7) will face the Cincinnati-Rutgers winner at 9 p.m.
Thursday’s March 11 games will feature Syracuse playing the noon game, Villanova playing the 2 p.m. game with Pitt (7 p.m.) and West Virginia (9 p.m.) playing in the evening session.
All four games will be televised on ESPN.
The semifinals will take place on Friday, March 12, with the championship game being played Saturday, March 13, at 9 p.m.
The conference will announce its major award winners Tuesday afternoon in New York City.
Read More MSNsportsNET.Com — West Virginia University Mountaineers.
Butler leads West Virginia past Villanova
March 6th, 2010PHILADELPHIA — Da’Sean Butler scored 21 points, including the decisive basket with 5.8 seconds left in overtime, leading No. 10 West Virginia to a 68-66 victory over No. 9 Villanova today.
Butler grabbed 10 rebounds and finished 13 of 14 from the foul line for the Mountaineers (24-6, 13-5).
Butler’s winning drive came after the Mountaineers had taken possession with 26 seconds left when Villanova was forced into a 35-second shot clock violation.
Scottie Reynolds, who led the Wildcats (14-6, 13-5) with 17 points, had an open 3-point attempt from the corner but it bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.
West Virginia overcame its worst first half of the season with an impressive defensive performance, holding the conference’s highest-scoring team 18 points below its average.
Villanova forced overtime when Corey Fisher made his only 3-point attempt of the game with 7.7 seconds to play to make it 60-60. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins was signaling wildly for a timeout but none of the officials saw it — it was pretty loud in the Wachovia Center — and the Mountaineers settled on a long 3-point attempt by Devin Ebanks that missed everything.
Wellington Smith had 15 points — 13 after halftime — for West Virginia. Ebanks had 12.
Fisher had 12 points for the Wildcats, who missed their season low for points by one despite playing an extra 5 minutes.
Villanova led, 29-16, at halftime, holding West Virginia to 24 percent shooting (6 of 25), including 2 of 12 on 3s. The Mountaineers also missed eight of 10 free throws, capping the poor shooting trifecta.
They started the second half with an 18-5 run to tie the game at 34 with 12:55 left. West Virginia matched its first-half point total 6:23 into the second.
Read More Pittsburgh Tribune
Butler’s legacy not only about basketball
March 4th, 2010MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monday night saw three seniors honored before the West Virginia-Georgetown game and then saluted after the first Big Monday win in three tries this season. Only one, however, was labeled “one of the greatest players to wear the Old Gold and Blue” and only one laughed.
In both instances, the only one was Da’Sean Butler, the senior from Newark, N.J., who’s a little weird in that his hunger for criticism is rivaled only by his aversion to compliments. Accusations of greatness make his stomach turn.
“I was like, ‘Well, if everybody thinks that about me, that’s cool,’ ” Butler said. “I just didn’t want to let it get in my head during the game or before the game started. I just kind of hurried and blocked it out real fast. I was like ‘All right, but I don’t want to hear that right now.’”
Fortunately for Butler he was in an emotional and victorious locker room following the game and unable to hear the praise from Georgetown Coach John Thompson III.
“From the outside looking in, it appears that he’s a leader when you see the way he talks to the players during timeouts and pulls them aside,” Thompson said. “His talent and his skill level is special.”
Butler’s place in history can be debated, so long as everyone agrees it’s near the top. He’ll finish third on the school’s all-time scoring list and needs just 64 points to reach 2,000 in his career and join Jerry West and Rod Hundley on that plateau. His 100 career double-digit scoring games are the most ever. He’ll finish in the top five all-time in 3-pointers and field goals made, top 10 in free throws made and top 15 in rebounds, steals and assists.
Those are all things that can be manipulated, though. He played in a time when freshmen were eligible, when there was a 3-point line and when the game was officiated differently. He is, by nature, going to rack up bigger numbers because of rules and longevity.
Read More Charleston Daily Mail
WVU victory is more than just a win
March 2nd, 2010
West Virginia's John Flowers, right, shoots over Georgetown's Greg Monroe
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Even before Monday night’s victory against No. 19 Georgetown, West Virginia had already accomplished a number of things that meant something to the 10th-ranked Mountaineers.
They were picked to finish second in the Big East preseason poll, higher than any preceding projection. The Associated Press ranked them in the preseason top 10 for the first time since 1952. November’s 76 Classic championship was the first regular-season tournament title since 2001. WVU was in the top 10 for nine straight weeks – the best run since 1960 – and climbed as high as No. 5, something the campus hadn’t seen since 1962.
Yet all of those things didn’t really move the Mountaineers closer to any of their far bigger goals. The 81-68 win against the Hoyas before a Coliseum crowd of 13,211 finally did. WVU clinched a top-four finish and a two-round bye in next week’s Big East Tournament, a useful tool to be used toward a stated goal of winning the entire event.
“But at the same time, it really doesn’t mean anything,” WVU’s Da’Sean Butler said. “Some people get those high seeds and they lose. It’s rare, but it happens, too, and you never know with us. It’s a matter of us taking it for what it is, but keeping our eyes on the prize and understanding what we still need to do to get there.”
Monday gave the Mountaineers another reminder. Up 22 points in the first half, 17 at halftime and 27 a little more than four minutes into the second half, WVU let the lead slip all the way to single digits with six minutes remaining. With leading scorer Austin Freeman out with an illness, the Hoyas never got any closer and the Mountaineers made went 3-for-4 from the floor and 13-for-15 at the foul line to finish.
“I think it’s harder to keep a lead than to build it,” West Virginia forward Devin Ebanks said.
“You get lax and complacent and think everything’s all good until they knock down 3-pointers and get some layups. But I felt we closed it out really well and better than we have all year when we let a big lead get away. We did it the right way finally.”
Read More Charleston Daily Mail
West Virginia rallies to win over Cincinnati
February 28th, 2010
West Virginia's Kevin Jones smiles after scoring against Cincinnati in a Big East conference game Saturday in Morgantown, W.Va.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — No. 8 West Virginia imposed its rebounding will after halftime to offset another double-digit deficit at home.
Kevin Jones scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half and the Mountaineers used a big rebounding advantage to come from 13 points down and beat Cincinnati, 74-68, on Saturday.
West Virginia (22-6, 11-5 Big East) can earn a bye in the first two rounds of the conference tournament with a win over No. 11 Georgetown on Monday night.
The Mountaineers outrebounded Cincinnati, 41-30, after the teams were even at halftime. West Virginia entered the game as the Big East’s top rebounding team, while Cincinnati was first in rebounding margin.
During practices, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins has instilled a tactic in his players when it comes to corralling missed shots — he sends those who don’t hustle after them to a high-speed treadmill for punishment.
“We’ve got smart guys and they knew that we had to rebound the ball,” Huggins said. “It becomes a part of their DNA. If they don’t rebound in practice, they know that they’re on that treadmill.”
Ten of West Virginia’s 26 second-half rebounds came on the offense end.
“They got a lot of the long ones coming off on the offensive glass,” Cincinnati’s Yancy Gates said. “At times it seemed like the whole team was in there.”
Cincinnati is the Big East’s worst free throw shooting team but the Bearcats went 13 of 15 from the line, including 9 of 9 in the second half. That accuracy never transferred to the rest of Cincinnati’s game.
Cincinnati shot 29 percent (9 of 31) from the floor after halftime. The Bearcats led 46-36 after a pair of baskets by Gates two minutes into the second half. But the Bearcats went more than nine minutes without a field goal, allowing West Virginia to take over.
“When you miss a couple of layups, it’s crucial and we did it at crucial times when we needed a basket,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “Jump shots are jump shots, but you have to put the ball in when you’re right by the basket.”
Darryl Bryant added 14 points, Devin Ebanks had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Wellington Smith had 10 points for West Virginia.
Deonta Vaughn scored 15 points, Lance Stephenson had 14 and Gates added 10 for Cincinnati (16-12, 7-9), which saw its NCAA Tournament hopes take a hit.
Read More Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Mountaineers Hang On
February 28th, 2010MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Eighth-ranked West Virginia got big second half performances from Devin Ebanks, Kevin Jones and Wellington Smith to hold off Cincinnati 74-68 Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
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| Forward Devin Ebanks scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for West Virginia during Saturday’s 74-68 win over Cincinnati. |
“We sure make it hard on ourselves,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “I don’t know what it is, but everybody that sees a West Virginia uniform gets hot. They’ve got guys shooting 19 percent from 3 and they come in and make them like they’re supposed to. This is a team that has been getting killed because they haven’t made free throws, and they shoot 87 percent today.”
The Mountaineers got a big lift for their quest to earn one of four double byes in this year’s Big East tournament when Notre Dame defeated Georgetown earlier this afternoon, giving West Virginia a two-game lead in the win column over the Hoyas, Marquette and Louisville.
Marquette plays at Seton Hall on Sunday while Louisville plays at Connecticut.
In today’s game in Morgantown, West Virginia had fallen behind by 13 points with 3:13 left in the first half when Huggins took out his entire lineup and replaced it with Truck Bryant, John Flowers, Deniz Kilicli, Cam Thoroughman and Ebanks.
That group went on a 9-0 run over the next two minutes to cut Cincinnati’s lead to four, 37-33, and energize the crowd.
“I was just looking for somebody,” said Huggins. “I didn’t think we played very hard. We got beat in transition and we didn’t get back and that’s just not going to happen so I took them all out. I thought those guys really came in and gave us a lift. They actually came in and cut the lead to six and made it a lot more workable.”
Early in the second half, Cincinnati (16-12, 7-9) once again got its lead to 10, 46-36, before six straight points by West Virginia cut its deficit to 46-42.
A key sequence for the Mountaineers came with 13:22 left when West Virginia picked up six points in a span of just 31 seconds to make it a one-point game. Danny Jennings followed an Ebanks missed free throw and then Butler answered with a big 3 with 12:51 left.
A Jones layup gave West Virginia its first lead of the second half, 53-52, and the Mountaineers eventually built it to six, 66-60, with 4:59 left on Ebanks’ follow-up basket.
West Virginia got it to six a second time when Huggins called a play for Jones along the baseline against Cincinnati’s zone defense. Jones was able to catch the pass and go in for the basket.
West Virginia’s biggest lead of the second half was seven, twice, on free throws by Butler and Bryant.
“We talked for two days about we have to be assertive – we have to take the ball at them,” said Huggins. “They’re very big and very strong but not as mobile as we are and we wanted to continually attack the rim and put pressure on them and try to get to the foul line.”
Read More MSNsportsNET.Com
No. 8 West Virginia outlasts Cincinnati 74-68
February 27th, 2010MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP)—Kevin Jones scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half and No. 8 West Virginia came from 13 points down to beat Cincinnati 74-68 on Saturday.
West Virginia (22-6, 11-5 Big East) can earn a bye in the first two rounds of the conference tournament with a win over No. 11 Georgetown on Monday night.
Cincinnati led 46-36 after a pair of baskets by sophomore Yancy Gates two minutes into the second half. But the Bearcats went more than nine minutes without a field goal and West Virginia used a big rebounding advantage to take over in the second half.
Darryl Bryant added 14 points, Devin Ebanks had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Wellington Smith had 10 points for West Virginia.
Deonta Vaughn scored 15 points, Lance Stephenson had 14 and Gates added 10 for Cincinnati (16-12, 7-9), which saw its NCAA tournament hopes take a hit.
Jerry West elected to college Hall of Fame
February 27th, 2010
Jerry West - WVU Mountaineers 1956 - 1960 elected to NCAA basketball hall of fame Class of 2010
West Virginia basketball legend Jerry West was one of four players named Wednesday to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
West joins Duke’s Christian Laettner, UCLA’s Sidney Wicks and North Carolina State’s David Thompson in the Hall’s Class of 2010.
West, the Chelyan native who played at East Bank High School before starring for WVU and in the NBA with the Lakers, was a three-time All American at West Virginia, where he led the Mountaineers to three straight NCAA tournament berths, including a trip to the 1959 title game. He averaged 29.3 points and 16.5 rebounds as a senior and went on to co-captain the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team before 14 All-Star seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Triangle offense innovator Tex Winter, Alcorn State coach Davey Whitney, NCAA executive vice president Tom Jernstedt and former Big Eight and Big Ten commissioner Wayne Duke also will be inducted on Nov. 21 in Kansas City.
Read More The Charleston Gazette
Huskies, foul shots sink WVU
February 23rd, 2010by Mike Casazza
HARTFORD, Conn. – Connecticut made the statement needed to alert the NCAA Tournament’s selection committee. West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins made the statement to official Mike Stuart that earned an early exit from Monday night’s loss.
Publicly, Huggins explained away the 73-62 defeat to the Huskies in a matter that speaks for the box score. His team missed 14-of-18 3-point attempts and was 12-for-23 at the free-throw line.
His opponent shot 44-percent in a first half it led by as many as 15 points, hit meaningful baskets during eighth-ranked WVU’s rally and made 30-of-42 free throws to the delight of 15,082 inside the XL Center.
“They shot the ball really well,” Huggins said. “They weren’t shooting the ball before. Every good team goes through that and right now we’re not making shots. It’s that simple.”
It’s not quite that simple, and privately Huggins and the Mountaineers were miffed by the free-throw disparity, the way the game was officiated and how the fouls went against WVU, which was called for 26 of the 46 in the game.
“I don’t want to get into that,” Huggins said.
At the end, Huggins earned two technical fouls and was ejected for the first time in 99 games with the Mountaineers (21-6, 10-5 Big East).
“You’re allowed to report on it,” he said. “I’m not. You have a tremendous advantage.”
The Huskies (18-11, 7-8) now have a similar edge for the postseason. Following a 12-point loss at home against Cincinnati, UConn has beaten No. 7 Villanova, Rutgers and WVU in succession and is now 4-8 against the RPI’s top 50 and 2-5 against the top 11.
“UConn came out like they wanted to play, like they needed this game to get in the NCAA Tournament,” WVU forward Devin Ebanks said. “We came out and walked around. I told my teammates they played harder than us and it was true. We walked around and that wasn’t on UConn. That was on us. They came out in the first half and got a lead on us and didn’t let up.”
Read More Charleston Daily Mail
Michigan football, Rodriguez fail NCAA compliance
February 23rd, 2010ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The NCAA accused the University of Michigan of failing to comply with practice time rules under Coach Rich Rodriguez, who admitted making “mistakes” but will be back for a third try at bringing college football’s winningest program back into the national title hunt.
Incoming UM Athletic Director David Brandon disclosed the NCAA conclusions today, but said there were no surprises in the report. He expressed full support for his coach, who is 8-16 in two disappointing seasons.
“Rich Rodriguez is our football coach, and he will be our football coach next year,” Brandon said of the former West Virginia coach.
In its notice of allegations — which Michigan received Monday — the NCAA said Rodriguez “failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program,” and tracked neither what his staff was doing nor whether his players were following NCAA rules. It also said the athletics department failed to make sure its football program was complying with NCAA regulations.
Brandon said the department “clearly made mistakes,” but “there was no charge of loss of institutional control” — an allegation that in previous cases has led to NCAA sanctions for other schools.
Michigan has 90 days to respond and will appear at an NCAA hearing on infractions in August. Michigan is seeing how its internal investigation matches up with the NCAA findings and will consider implementing self-imposed sanctions.
The NCAA said last October that it was looking into the program following an August report in the Detroit Free Press. The newspaper, citing anonymous football players, reported that Michigan exceeded NCAA limits regarding practices and workouts in 2008 and 2009.
Read MoreCharleston Daily Mail
