BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Providence @ West Virginia

January 17, 2006


West Virginia is coming off a 104-85 home win over Marquette in a game that saw the Mountaineers bury the Golden Eagles in a barrage of 20 made 3-pters. WVU is 4-0 in the Big East for the first time in their conference history and look to make it 5 straight tonight against the Friars before they venture out of conference for games with UCLA and Marshall.

Providence dropped their third straight to open the conference schedule last weekend by falling at Notre Dame, 92-77. Providence is not a strong rebounding team and has trouble taking care of the ball, let alone their perimeter defense was shredded from beyond the arc against Notre Dame, West Virginia must be licking their chops in this one.

Each team is on the thin side, usually playing 7 or 8 players. With PC, that is all they have. The similarities end there as the Friars have 6 freshmen and sophomores in their 8-man rotation while the Mountaineers have 7 juniors and seniors among their top 8 (5 seniors). PC turns the ball over almost 16 times a game and WVU turns it over just 9 times, while forcing 18 a game on defense. Offensively, each team puts up about the same amount of points, but the Friars are dead last in the Big East, allowing 76 pts a game, over 80 a game on the road. When the Friars are on the road, their opponents score an average of 10 pts higher than their season average against PC, so, it looks good for West Virginia to score in the mid 80's, at least.

Providence is young and will compete the entire game and with just 8 players available, they will put up some numbers, however, much of it might game when the game is already in hand. Experience and shooting of WVU should carry the Mountaineers, as 12-pt favorites, from wire to wire in this one.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

West Virginia 86 Providence 72

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BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Marquette @ West Virginia

January 14, 2006


Marquette got its feet wet on the road in the Big East this week with a win at Seton Hall. Things will be much tougher when they travel to Morgantown to face the Mountaineers on Saturday.

Steve Novak scored 25 pts against Seton Hall on Wednesday, including the go-ahead 3-pter in the last 4 minutes as the Golden Eagles were able to hold on at the end. A pair of freshmen guards, Dominic James and Jerel McNeal also form a dangerous tandem in the backcourt and look to be wise beyond their years on the court. They will have to play very disciplined basketball at both ends of the floor against the experience and disciplined style of the Mountaineers.

With Steve Novak standing at 6'10 and averaging 16.4 PPG, shooting 46% from the 3-pt arc (56-123) and the 6'11 Kevin Pittsnogle, who averages 20 PPG and shoots 48% from beyond the arc (37-77), you have a marquee match-up of two of the most unique players in college basketball. Both seniors, they have been known to light it up from deep, but often overlooked is Kevin Pittsnogle's overall offensive game, which he will shown with some tough jump hooks from the block. Novak is simply a pure shooter that can create his look off the bounce as well as any big man I have ever seen. He is much more than a catch and shoot standstill shooter from deep, which he doesn't get enough credit for either.

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The deciding factor in this game will likely be the supporting casts. For the Mountaineers they have Mike Gansey, the do-everything F/G in their system who averages 19 PPG, 6 rebounds and 2.4 assists a game. What is even more impressive is he shoots a mond-boggling 61% from the floor, showing how effecient the WVU offense is. Joe Herber (leads WVU with 5.8 assists/game), Frank Young and Patrick Beilein all average arounf 9-10 PPG. WVU has 5 seniors and a junior in their top 6 rotation and usually will not go past 7 players for significant time. They are prone to being outrebounded badly, but they offset that by only averaging 9 turnovers a game while opponents turn it over 18 times a contest. They also shoot 75% as a team from the line. They will not beat themselves.

Marquette will rely on James and McNeal to attack the WVU 1-3-1 zone trap and deliver the ball to Novak in spaces where he can fire away. They will be without freshmen Wesley Mathews and senior Joe Chapman and sophomore Dan Fitzgerald will try to fill his role as the 3rd guard. Ryan Amoroso starts at the C spot and JUCO Jamil Lott and Osmane Barro also rotate in the front court with Amoroso and Chris Grimm could also give some minutes if needed. Marquette is also an excellent foul shooting team, hitting at a 76% clip as a team. They can get a little antsy and be prone to turning the ball over and their work on the boards could use improvement, but they should be at least even with WVU today in that regard.

So, what is going to happen today?? As much as I do like this Marquette team (probably do not believe it, as I have picked against them each time), I just think this is a case of too much road and too much experience on the other end. WVU just seems to be able to take adantage of any and all opportunities that presents itself and I would be very surprised if they suffered through another subpar shooting effort like that against Georgetown on their home floor.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

West Virginia 78 Marquette 70

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BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Georgetown @ West Virginia

Last year these two teams met and it was the end of a good run for one team and the start of a new beginning for the other. Georgetown had just defeated West Virginia 67-60 to move to 8-3 in the Big East (16-6) overall) while the loss dropped West Virginia to 4-7 in the conference and 14-8 overall. Georgetown lost their last five conference games and played out the string in the NIT while West Virginia won four of five remaining on the conference slate, made a run to the Big East Tournament championship game with three wins at Madison Square Garden and lost a berth in the Final Four in an overtime loss to Louisville in the Elite 8. Not too many people could have predicted such different fortunes for the two teams after that February 12th game of last season.

They meet again tonight, this time in Morgantown, for their first of two meetings in the Big East regular season. Both teams are off to 2-0 starts in the conference with Georgetown beating Providence at home and St. John's on the road while West Virginia won at South Florida and are coming off Sunday's big win at Villanova.

The Mountaineers open up as 5.5-pt favorites tonight against the Hoyas and at first glance, this looks to be a low number. However, Georgetown is a team that can match-up with Mountaineers because of their added versatility on offense and defense. Their normal line-up consists of Jonathan Wallace at the point with Ashanti Cook and Brandon Bowman at the wing positions and Jeff Green and 7'2 Roy Hibbers at the C position. Georgetown can very easily move Darrell Owens into the line-up and go smaller with Jeff Green defending WVU's 6'10 perimeter threat Kevin Pittsnogle and will actually match-up very well man to man up and down the line-up with this line-up.

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This will leave a key match-up in this game to be Brandon Bowman and Mike Gansey. Bowman is off to a slower than anticipated start this year, averaging about 12 PPG and 5 rebounds, numbers that are down from last year. Gansey is off to a 1st-team all-conference start averaging 19 PPG, 5.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.5 steals a game. With Bowman and Green, the Hoyas should not be giving up too much to the stars of WVU at their respective positions, keeping the Hoyas right in this game.

Like WVU, Georgetown runs an offensive system that is tough to prepare for and it's success is largely based on their ability to hit from the 3-pt range. Neither team is really prone to high turnovers, but the Hoyas have gone through stretches where they can go cold from the field and turn it over. Each team is not particularly deep, with WVU predominately a 7-man rotation, with five seniors and the Hoyas also using a 7-man line-up, with three seniors, three sophomores and a freshmen (Jesse Sapp).

I feel this game will be a close game with Georgetown right in it from the beginning until the end. West Virginia might be a tad flat coming off their big win, but a rabid home crowd welcoming their Mountaineers back from the road should snap any cobwebs out of their heads. Their experience and ability to make shots at the end and not beat themselves will prevail tonight in a typical Big East tilt.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

West Virginia 69 Georgetown 66

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BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: West Virginia @ South Florida

January 5, 2005

South Florida opens up their history in the Big East conference tonight by hosting the West Virginia Mountaineers. Here are some pre-game articles from around the net:

Nothing to come Easy on the Road (Charleston Gazette)
WVU REady for Big East Opener (Register-Herald)
Bulls Tackle Big East on Little but faith (St. Petersburg Times)
St Pete Times Scouting Report of WVU/USF
Worst May Be Still Coming for Beat-up Bulls


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Welcome to the Big East, Robert McCullum! McCullum and his South Florida Bulls have had their share of problems this preseason and they just do not end. They could be without walk-on point guard Chris Capko tonight after he suffered a broken nose and concussion last week in a loss to UAB. If so, that means the Bulls are without injured point guards Chris Howard, Collin Dennis and Capko and they dismissed guard David Sills prior to the season. This would leave the Bulls with just 5 scholarship players to face the experienced and very good West Virginia Mountaineers.

James Holmes will play PG for the Bulls and Solomon Jones will be called on to get the points and rebounds inside while McHugh Mattis and Melvyn Richardson will have to defend on the perimeter all night against the 3-pt shooters of WVU. Melvin Buckley has big conference experience and will be called on to rebound and score all night as well.

For WVU, they will start 4 seniors, including all-league performers in Mike Gansey and Kevin Pittsnogle as well as G Joe Herber and PG JD Collins. The 5th starter is junior Frank Young and senior Patrick Beilein is the first off the bench with sophomore PG Darris Nichols. WVU is not very deep, but John Beilein will look like he has an assembly line of players compared to what Robert McCullum has to work with.


The only way I see this came staying remotely close is if WVU decides to get extensive playing time for freshmen Alex Ruoff and Joe Alexander as well as PSU-transfer Rob Summers. That might not even matter much with a WVU team that beat Oklahoma in Oklahoma City 92-68 recently.

I have seen a line on this game of -10, I really can't believe it could be this low!

NBE Blogger Prediction:

WVU 80 USF 63

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