WVU TAKES ON DAYTON IN ROUND ONE

March 20, 2009


West Virginia enters the NCAA Tournament as a six-seed and will take on Dayton in first round action. Despite some difficulty traveling, the Mountaineers have made it to Minneapolis and will be ready to take on 26-7 Dayton Friday afternoon.

The Flyers received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament on the strength of their full season of work, which included a November win over Marquette in Chicago.

The Flyers are quite a unique team as they will play hard every second of the full forty minutes, rotating 12 players in and out of the game.

"I think the one thing that really stands out is how hard they work," WVU coach bob Huggins said of the Flyers. "They are a terrific offensive rebounding team because they work so hard at it, and... they don't run in transition, they sprint. If you watch them, they just get out and they get in lanes and sprint. And they really put a lot of pressure on your defense to make sure that you get back and find people."

"And that's, you know I think (Dayton head coach) Brian (Gregory) has done a great job of getting them all to buy in, and he's playing a lot of people. And I think they've responded very well for him."

Chris Wright and Marcus Johnson are the Flyers' leading scorers. Both players were recruiting by schools in the Big East and other top conferences, but opted to play for the Atlantic 10 program with hopes of some day being in the position they are in today, with a chance to knock off a high-major in the NCAA Tournament, but they are taking it one game at a time, no matter who the opponent is.

"You stay up watching films because it is the NCAA tournament and you have to play your best game in March, but it is just motivation to be able to play in the NCAA tournament and playing against a team like, you know, West Virginia is a good test for us, our defense," said Wright, the athletic 6'8 sophomore forward that will remind many of several WVU players.

This game is likely to be an absolute battle. Both teams are tough and really get after it on the glass. Dayton seemed to slump a bit towards the end of the season, losing in the A-10 semifinals to Duquesne, while also losing to Rhode Island, St. Louis and Xavier among their final five regular season games.

West Virginia, on the other hand, has been steadily picking up their level of play, especially with Devin Ebanks emerging as a freshman star down the stretch. Ebanks' play seems to be potentially the kind of versatile production that can carry the Mountaineers, similar to how Joe Alexander led them last season into the Sweet 16.

"In the Big East, he started blossoming and doing the things he does in practice," junior Da'Sean Butler said of Ebanks' improved play down the stretch. "It is a surprise to everybody else, but these are things we have seen him do and his abilities."

Ebanks certainly can be the x-factor. In the Big East Tournament win over Notre Dame, Ebanks grabbed 18 rebounds. The next night in an upset of Pittsburgh, Ebanks went for a career-high 20 points, only to better the mark in the loss to Syracuse the next night with 22.

With Ebanks emerging as the star he always had the potential to be, there is less pressure on Alex Ruoff and Da'Sean Butler to carry the load. They also have less attention on them from opposing defenses.

Look for the Mountaineers to be a very, very dangerous team in this tournament. Bob Huggins knows the kind of player and team he likes and he has continued to mold this squad to have the make-up he prefers. The Flyers are tough, but WVU is 'Big East-tough'.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

West Virginia 73
Dayton 62