WVU Basketball

With the Mountaineers down to only eight scholarship players coming into the Louisville game on Wednesday, the diminished roster affected West Virginia the way Rick Pitino would have hoped tonight.

In the first half, most people would think the Mountaineers would just roll over after the walkout of Dan Jennings last weekend, in addition to the suspension of Casey Mitchell on Monday after violating team rules for the second time this season.

Well, I guess most people would be eating their words tonight against the Cardinals, as Joe Mazzulla went off for 18 points as well as making two three-point shots after only making one to this point this season.

In addition to the offensive breakout of Mazzulla, the Mountaineers as a whole were able to crash the boards in building an 11 point halftime lead, 37-26, in a whole team effort.

Dalton Pepper, after being buried on the bench, made an appearance in the first half as the second leading scorer, with seven points of his own in the first 20 minutes in Louisville.

With any hot first half of basketball, the likelihood of cooling off definitely happened to WVU as the Cardinals went to their inside game, where the Mountaineers couldn’t be successful in the first half.

In a tough scene midway through the second half, freshman Gorgui Dieng fell up and over Cam Thoroughman, slamming his head on the floor for a few tense moments on the court.  Dieng was able to walk to the back under his own power after lying on the floor recovering during a media timeout.

With the short bench for Bob Huggins, Louisville was able to pick away at the first half lead by use of the Cards’ three-point shooting ability, which leads the Big East this season.

The lead finally evaporated as the score fell to a 42-42 tie with about 10 minutes to go in the game behind a healthy dose of pressure defense stifling the Mountaineers.

For Joe Mazzulla, the basketball must have been just like kryptonite to Superman as he didn’t attempt a shot in the second half, barely even touching it after the great start for the team in the first half.

Until two foul shots by Deniz Kilicli and one by Kevin Jones late, the Mountaineers went more than 13 minutes without a basket, letting the Cardinals build a lead of their own behind Chris Smith and Peyton Silva, each scoring 12+ points in the game.

After the drought from scoring, Pepper was able to knock down a three with only about a minute to go in the game trimming the Louisville lead down to one point, 53-52 in the second half. The Mountaineers would then take the lead with a put-back from Jones with 40 seconds to go in the game; at the same time Pitino was negated a timeout request from the officials.

After the great comeback by WVU, it fell on deaf ears as Silva drove the lane for the game-winning shot, dropping the Mountaineers to 4-3 in the Big East.

If one would want to point to the reason the Mountaineers lost in Louisville on Wednesday night, it would be the excessive amount of jump shots from 15 to 18 feet from the basket instead of trying to drop the ball down to Kilicli in the paint, as he has been effective in previous games this month.

With that being said, let’s get to the stats from what would have been, after tonight’s game, West Virginia’s third win against a ranked opponent this season.

Players of the Game

West Virginia: Joe Mazzulla—18 Points, Five Rebounds, One Assist, One Steal

Louisville: Chris Smith—15 Points, Six Rebounds, Two Assists, Two Steals

Shooting

West Virginia: 19-55 Field Goals Made-Attempted (34.5 Percent)

Louisville: 21-56 Field Goals Made-Attempted (37.5 Percent)

Foul Shooting

West Virginia: 11-18 Free Throws Made-Attempted (61.1 Percent)

Louisville: 5-10 Free Throws Made-Attempted (50.0 Percent)

Rebounding

West Virginia: 31 Rebounds, 10 Offensive Rebounds

Louisville: 34 Rebounds, 13 Offensive Rebounds

Turnovers

West Virginia: 15 Turnovers (Leaders: Joe Mazzulla and Darryl Bryant with four.)

Louisville: 12 Turnovers (Leader: Stephan Van Treese with three.)

This article and others like it can be found at SportsHaze.com.

When Darryl "Truck" Bryant came to West Virginia three years ago, he did so as one of the crown jewels of Bob Huggins' first recruiting class for the Mountaineers. An ESPNU Top 100 prospect, graded at 92nd overall, and was expected to man the point for West Virginia's return to national prominence.

In the two-and-a-half seasons since then, Truck has been a solid point guard, averaged 10.4 points for his career, was a starter on the Mountaineers' first Final Four team in half a century and seemed to find his niche as a consistent third option on offense. However, after a very tumultuous week in Morgantown that saw the team lose two players, including leading scorer Casey Mitchell possibly for the year, West Virginia's season could hinge on Bryant's ability to be much more than that.

At 13-5, West Virginia's season has exceeded expectations thanks to their ability to adopt their coach's playing style: doing the little things, playing tough-as-nails defense and thriving on offensive rebounds. As important as those things are to succeed in college basketball, it's hard to compete in March without someone who can take over a game offensively.

That's where Truck comes in.

Of the remaining players on the West Virginia roster, Bryant is the only one with the potential to become a go-to scorer. Kevin Jones has had a very nice year, averaging nearly 14 points per game, but his offense comes from rebounds and broken plays. Deniz Kilicli has some great low-post moves, but is way too raw to depend on consistently. John Flowers and Joe Mazzulla have emerged as great "glue-guys," but neither will ever light up a scoreboard. That leaves Bryant as the Mountaineer with the best chance of tossing up a 25-point night, much like he did earlier this season against Marquette. 

If Bryant is able to improve on his current 12.1 PPG average while still running the offense it will allow the rest of the team to do what they do best. Flowers can focus on crashing the boards with fellow banger Cam Thoroughman, and Mazzulla can use his speed to get to the basket. Most importantly, Jones can stay in the paint, where he is one of the best scorers in the Big East.

Thus far in his career Bryant has yet to consistently put up numbers, but that doesn't mean he can't. With De'Sean Butler and Devan Ebanks on the roster the past two seasons Bryant was a third-option at best, and has been sharing the backcourt with the shot-happy Mitchell most of this season. Now, with Mitchell gone for at least a few games, it's time to see what Truck can do.

Coming out of high school, ESPN called Bryant "a combo guard with the ability to light it up offensively." With the teeth of the Big East schedule ahead of them, West Virginia needs that Truck Bryant to emerge. Their Big Dance chances might just depend on it.

West Virginia Men’s Basketball coach Bob Huggins announced that leading scorer senior Casey Mitchell has been suspended indefintely due to an unknown violation of team rules.

For the 2010-2011 season, Mitchell was averaging nearly 17 points per game in addition to almost four rebounds per game this season for West Virginia.

As the rest of the team moves on, West Virginia will be with only eight scholarship players for their contest on the road with No. 23 Louisville as they try to extend their five-game Big East winning streak.

For Mitchell, this is the second violation of team rules within the span of nearly four months as he was sat down in mid-October by Huggins before the regular season began in November.

After the suspension announcement today and the Dan Jennings walkout during the South Florida game on the 23rd in Morgantown, the chances of a deep run in the Big East tournament and/or NCAA tournament have been gashed for the Mountaineer faithful this season.

As more information of this situation comes up, Sports Haze will update you on the situation facing West Virginia for the remaining portion of the schedule.

This article and other breaking news can be found on SportsHaze.com.

After a heartbreaking loss to rival Marshall on the 19th, Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers left the sting of the Thundering Herd upset behind them in extending their win streak to four in Big East play this year.

Unlike in the Marshall game this week, the Mountaineers came better prepared in this game as West Virginia never relinquished the lead after grabbing it midway through the first half.

For South Florida, the offense started as well as unfortunately ended with star forward Augustus Gilchrist, who totaled 20 points for the game as well as 10 rebounds for the game.

Gilchrist accounted for nearly half of the team’s total made field goals in the game with six as South Florida combined for 16-51, also only making one three point shot in 13 attempts.

Casey Mitchell, who fell silent offensively in the last game, was able to fall back into his groove in recording a double-double of his own for WVU, collecting 13 points, in addition to 14 rebounds this afternoon.

Also for the Mountaineers, John Flowers kept his hot streak going in the past few games as he filled the stat book for West Virginia. He played the entire 40 minutes today, while keeping the team on track in the imperative Big East race.

Bob Huggins will need to move on from this win today as the Mountaineers will travel to the Louisville Cardinals. This will mark their first meeting in the program’s new KFC Yum! Center arena in downtown Louisville, replacing Freedom Hall this past season.

With that being said, let’s get to the stats of how West Virginia was able to get another win in conference play against the Bulls.

Players of the Game

South Florida: Augustus Gilchrist – 20 Points, 10 Rebounds, Block

West Virginia: John Flowers – 13 Points, Seven Rebounds, Two Assists, Three Steals, Three Blocks

Shooting:

South Florida: 31.4 Percent from the Field (Leader: Augustus Gilchrist - 50 Percent)

West Virginia: 33.3 Percent from the Field (Leader: Kevin Jones – 40 Percent)

Foul Shots

South Florida: 13-18 Free Throws for 72.2 Percent (Leader: Augustus Gilchrist – 8-11 FTs)

West Virginia: 10-16 Free Throws for 62.5 Percent (Leader: Joe Mazzulla – 3-4 FTs)

Rebounding

South Florida: 38 Rebounds, 11 Offensive Rebounds (Leader: Ron Anderson – 15 Total)

West Virginia: 38 Rebounds, 17 Offensive Rebounds (Leader: Casey Mitchell – 21 Total)

Turnovers

South Florida: 16 Turnovers (Leader: Augustus Gilchrist with Six)

West Virginia: 6 Turnovers ( Leader: Deniz Kilicli with Two)

As the Mountaineers and Marshall Thundering Herd met in the West Virginia state capital, West Virginia was unable to extend their winning streak to five as they were outmuscled by their southern rival, 75-71 on Wednesday night.

In the basketball series, WVU hadn’t lost to Marshall in Charleston since the Herd was able to knock off the Mountaineers in back to back years in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Deniz Kilicli, who played a major part in the upset of Purdue on the 17^th, was the lone bright spot for the Mountaineers in the early part of the game, as many of the Mountaineers were plagued with foul trouble along with the turnover bug that has been featured in nearly every Mountaineer game this season.

As the first half ended, Damier Pitts and the Thundering Herd were able to take advantage of excellent free-throw shooting, missing only four of 15 attempts in the first 20 ugly minutes of the game, leading to a 35-21 lead at intermission.

Once the second half began in earnest, the Thundering Herd was able to take control of the game right off the bat as they were able to attack the Mountaineers, who were still stuck with the poor shooting from the first half.

After Marshall was able to stretch the lead out to more than 20 points, Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers were able to claw their way back into the game as the clock dropped past the 10 minute mark in the second half.

As West Virginia worked its way back within 10 points, Marshall was being hurt by the same thing that helped give them their halftime lead, as WVU cut their deficit down point by point at the line with Joe Mazzulla and John Flowers leading the way.

In the end, the Mountaineer comeback was not to be as Marshall was able to hold off the charge from West Virginia. The loss drops the team to 12-5 as well as the Herd improving to 13-5 in 2011.

With that being said, let’s get to the stats breakdown of how the Mountaineers were able to send the rival Thundering Herd back to Huntington with another win tonight.

Players of the Game:

West Virginia: John Flowers – 16 Points, Seven Rebounds, Assist

Marshall: Damier Pitts – 25 Points, Four Rebounds, Four Assists

Shooting:

West Virginia: 32.7 percent from the Field, 26-35 from the Free-Throw Line

Marshall: 39.3 percent from the Field, 23-35 from the Free-Throw Line

Rebounding:

West Virginia: 37 Rebounds, 15 Offensive Rebounds

Marshall: 28 Rebounds, 10 Offensive Rebounds

Turnovers:

West Virginia: 15 (Leader: Darryl Bryant with five)

Marshall: Nine (Leader: DeAndre Kane with three)

So how many people predicted the West Virginia Mountaineers would upset then No. 12 Georgetown and No.8 Purdue in the span of a week?

Oh, no hands rose, huh?

With the Mountaineers changing their fortunes after early season struggles, Bob Huggins was able to avenge their loss on New Year’s Day 2010 to Purdue in West Lafayette, utilizing the team's ability to crash the offensive boards since the beginning of their four game winning streak on the 4th of January at DePaul.

In the first half, sophomore Deniz Kilicli kept the Mountaineers’ close to the Boilermakers with his inside scoring ability, grabbing rebounds off misses from the dangerous Purdue duo of E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson, who combined for 40 points today.

With the second half beginning with a one point West Virginia lead, Kevin Jones and John Flowers made their presence felt with impressive outside shooting games that included several deep two and three-point plays late in the ball game.

For Purdue, forward Johnson gave WVU headaches throughout the length of the contest as he went 10-17 from the field accounting for 26 of the Boilermakers’ 64 points when the game went final.

The aforementioned Moore and Lewis Jackson also lifted Purdue today as they scored 14 and 10, respectively.

With WVU finding a line-up formula, Huggins can maximize his team’s ability to grab rebounds, and keep the hot streak that Jones and Flowers have been on going for now and—with any luck—the remaining schedule for 2011.

With that being said, let’s go to the stats to show how the Mountaineers knocked off their second Top 15 team in a week.

Players of the Game

West Virginia – Kevin Jones: 17 Points, Nine Rebounds, Assist

Purdue – JaJuan Johnson: 26 Points, Seven Rebounds, Two Steals, Two Assists

Shooting

West Virginia – 46 Field Goal Percentage, 17-26 Free Throw Attempts

Purdue – 48.3 Field Goal Percentage, 5-7 Free Throw Attempts

Rebounding

West Virginia – 34 Rebounds, 11 Offensive Rebounds

Purdue – 28 Rebounds, Seven Offensive Rebounds

Turnovers

West Virginia – 17 Turnovers (Team Leader: Lewis Jackson – 4)

Purdue – 12 Turnovers (Team Leader: Deniz Kilicli – 4)

Upcoming Games for Both Clubs

West Virginia – vs. Marshall Thundering Herd (Charleston, WV) – Jan. 19, 2011

Purdue – vs. Penn State Nittany Lions – Jan. 19, 2011

After the big win in Washington, DC over Georgetown in their last game, the Mountaineers came into the game with the same fire tonight against the Friars as they did that helped propel them last week.

After a brief minute or two where the Friars were ahead early in the game, the Mountaineers took the lead at 4-3, continuing to play smart, and never looked back as John Flowers went off for 15 points in the first half in Morgantown.

After an atrocious Friars first half that ended 46-20, Flowers and the Mountaineers just ran Providence out of the WVU Coliseum with a good balance of scoring and pressure defense on a team known this season for being an up-tempo style of team.

The beatdown from WVU ended in a 93-63 loss, keeping Providence in the Big East basement, as Keno Davis’ club will need to pick up their play if they don’t want their season to be a loss this early in the year.

Besides the career night for Flowers, the Mountaineers were also aided by the play of Casey Mitchell and Kevin Jones. As a whole, the Mountaineers had five players in double figures in the midst of the 30-point rout.

With that being said, let’s take a look at the stats from the game showing how West Virginia outmuscled Providence on its way to improving to 3-2 in the Big East this season.

Players of the Game

Mountaineers: John Flowers—24 points, six rebounds, four assists, three steals, five blocks

Friars: Marshon Brooks—13 points, eight rebounds, assist, steal, block

Shooting

Mountaineers: 47.9 percent from the floor, 33.3 percent from the three-point line, 66.7 percent from the free throw line

Friars: 31.2 percent from the floor, 27.8 percent from the three-point line, 66.7 percent from the free throw line

Rebounding

Mountaineers: 44 rebounds, 25 offensive rebounds

Friars: 45 rebounds, 19 offensive rebounds

Turnovers

Mountaineers: 11 (John Flowers and Darryl Bryant tied with three apiece)

Friars: 15 (Marshon Brooks with five)

Next Game for Both Clubs

West Virginia Mountaineers: vs. Purdue on Jan. 16th at 1:30 PM on CBS

Providence Friars: at South Florida on Jan. 16th at 12:00 PM

This article and others like it can be found at Sports Haze.

In a bright-and-early start in our nation’s capital, the Mountaineers entered the MCI Center to take on the No. 13-ranked Georgetown Hoyas in a rematch of the Big East Championship game from last March.

For the Hoyas, the team entered today coming off an upset 61-58 loss to a resurgent St. John's team back on the 3rd of January in Madison Square Garden.

For the Mountaineers, the team came in after a near upset of their own when they nearly let an underperforming DePaul back for a win on January 4th at the Allstate Arena in the Windy City.

With the background set for the game, let’s check out the stats from the game to see how Casey Mitchell and the Mountaineers were able to win this morning and jump up in the Big East standings after a rough start.

Shooting

West Virginia Mountaineers: 21-50 field-goal attempts, 42 percent from the floor

Georgetown Hoyas: 22-44 field goal attempts, 50 percent from the floor

In a game where Austin Freeman was limited to what was said to be an illness, senior guard Casey Mitchell took over the game toward the middle to end of the second half that propelled the Mountaineers to their second straight win in conference play.

Three-Point Shooting

West Virginia Mountaineers: 6-15, 40 percent from the three-point line

Georgetown Hoyas: 5-17, 29.4 percent from the three-pointline

Throughout the game, Mitchell was able to continue to stay hot from deep, as he went four of seven, accounting for nearly half of his game-high 28 points, only three shy of his career high of 31 this season.

Turnovers

West Virginia Mountaineers: 13 combined

Georgetown Hoyas: 18 combined

The two clubs, near the top of the league in giveaways, were quite sloppy with the ball today, as many passes were picked off on the fast break, with both schools combining for more than 30 points per game, a facet of the game that has doomed the Hoyas this season.

 

Rebounding

West Virginia Mountaineers: 25 combined, 11 offensive rebounds

Georgetown Hoyas: 21 combined, two offensive rebounds

During the game, the Mountaineers were able to control the rebounding game, with Cam Thoroughman and Kevin Jones combining for five rebounds while Julian Vaughn pulled down the only two for the Hoyas.

Standings/Next Game for the Mountaineers & Hoyas:

West Virginia: Providence – January 13, 2011 – 7:00 p.m.

Standings for Mountaineers: 10-4 Overall (2-2 Big East)

Georgetown: vs. Pittsburgh - January 12, 2011 – 7:00 p.m.

Standings for the Hoyas: 12-4 Overall (1-3 Big East)

This article and others like this can be found on Sports Haze.

On Wednesday night, West Virginia lost 81-71 to St. John’s.

It was the first time they lost to the Red Storm since all the way back in 2002, Gale Catlett’s last season in Morgantown. All game long, the Mountaineers were flat out beat by a St. John’s team who, despite being much improved from last season, shouldn’t have beaten West Virginia at the Coliseum.

But this isn’t your normal West Virginia basketball team. This group just doesn’t have it like it did last season.

The first thing that the Mountaineers are missing, and it was very evident on Wednesday, is a legitimate go-to scorer that the team can look to to make a big shot with the game on the line. Of course last year, Da’Sean Butler filled this role, making game-winner after game-winner to lead WVU to a Big East Tournament Championship and its first Final Four appearance since the Jerry West era.

And when Butler graduated, that role was left empty and nobody has yet to step in to fill it for this team.

Against the Red Storm, when the Mountaineers cut the lead to three points, who took the shot to try to tie the game up?

Dalton Pepper.

Not who you want taking a big shot.

Through the first few games of the season, it looked like Casey Mitchell was going to be the guy to step into the role that Butler filled last season after his performance in the first seven games of the year. Mitchell was averaging 21.7 points per game, including a four-game stretch where he scored at least 25 points.

But since then, the senior has cooled off remarkably and, quite frankly, is just too streaky to be considered as a go-to guy on any team in the Big East.

Another guy that a lot of people have thought of as a possibility to be the main guy with the game on the line is junior point guard Truck Bryant. Armed with a similar playing style as Connecticut point guard Kemba Walker, unfortunately Truck can be thrown in the same boat as Mitchell as somebody who just hasn’t been consistent enough to be considered a top-level scorer like Walker has emerged as in the early part of the season for the Huskies.

And then there’s Kevin Jones. At the beginning of the season, he was the obvious pick to be the main scorer and, by far, one of the top players in the Big East. In fact, he was even picked as the Big East Player of the Year by a few college basketball writers — including this one.

Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, Jones just hasn’t adapted to the role of being the team’s main attraction as well as some had hoped. In fact, it looks like he’s much more comfortable as a secondary player, much like he was when Butler and Devin Ebanks were at WVU a year ago.

The second major problem that this West Virginia team is going to have as they get into Big East play is the lack of a post presence that it has.

In the Big East, you need to have a big, physical team in order to have success. This WVU team just doesn’t have it.

When you look at Deniz Kilicli and Danny Jennings, you see two big bodies you have the ability to be something special. They both have had little bursts early in the season that could make you believe that, given time, they could be very productive players in Bob Huggins’ system and the Big East. But they just don’t look like they’re getting it at this point in the season and that’s going to be very detrimental in the amount of success that this team is going to be able to have against some of the top teams in the conference.

Kilicli is a very gifted player on the offensive end of the floor, but still hasn’t improved as much on the defensive end and rebounding as much as he was expected to over the offseason. And Jennings is about the polar opposite of Kilicli. A much better defensive player, Jennings provides West Virginia with a reliable rebounder and a major threat to block shots. But if you want to see the true definition of being lost on the offensive end, look no further than the 6-foot-8 sophomore.

The two guys who are supposed to be major threats in the low post, just aren’t quite good enough just yet, to help the Mountaineers make a run in the Big East this season. And it’s not that they don’t have the talent to do it, it just doesn’t look like they have improved enough from where they were last season to make a large impact.

Look at all the Big East champions from the past five years, every one of them have had both a big-time, impact scorer and a reliable post presence down low.

West Virginia doesn’t have either right now and until that changes, expect a lot of troubles for the Mountaineers in Big East play.

Michael Carvelli covers West Virginia University men's and women's basketball for The Daily Athenaeum and you can follow him on Twitter, www.twitter.com/Carvelli3.