Mountaineers Win, But the Future is Uncertain
The West Virginia Mountaineers rebounded from their worst loss in ten years by trimming St. John’s 64-60. Never mind that the Johnnies are probably the worst team in the Big East, it was a win to advance the Mountaineers’ record to 11-1. It will probably be enough to keep them in the Top 25, though just barely.
Everyone pretty much expected WVU to blast St. John’s out of the Coliseum, but they didn’t. Why, you ask? It’s simple, as Ross Perot used to say. Our team is dependent—really dependent—on outside shooting. In the games they won over LSU, GW, and North Carolina State, they were hitting the outside shot with great accuracy. The last two games (coincidentally Big East games), they’ve shot in the 20-30% range from beyond the arc. They continue to play great defense, though they leave too many folks open beyond the arc. Still, when you’re hold opponents to less than 70 points nearly every game, the defense is pretty good. Rebounding continues to be a problem and always will be until some new blood enters the program or Beilein changes philosophy. I don’t look for either one of these things to happen (Beilein’s system doesn’t allow for the easy rebound), so we’re stuck with that.
What a change from the years Gale Catlett ran the old UCLA high post system. Then, we were always looking to power inside and second chances. With Beilein’s system, we shoot the outside shot and hope we hit it. Is it just me or is that philosophy a little flawed? As we saw against Villanova (who got their clock cleaned by Notre Dame proving to all WVU fans that they are not the number one team in the country), we either hit the outside shot against good competition or take a butt whipping. I truly expect more butt whippings on the road in conference play.
Tuesday marks another WVU-Marshall basketball game which is known as the Capital Classic (I’ve seen it spelled ‘capitol’ more than once, thus proving that all those Marshall grads who work for the Charleston papers are here for a reason). By all indications, this should be a blowout with WVU winning by 20, but it won’t. Marshall gets up for these games so much I expect a close game with a possible win by the green clad team.. The scenario goes like this…WVU is still off on their three point efforts (Beilein was notably slowed by his injuries from the Villanova as was Collins, who isn’t much of a factor no matter what—sorry, guys, but I fail to see any value in starting Collins outside of experience. Nichols cleans his clock), and Marshall is shooting lights out. On most nights (especially in the Big East) that would mean a loss for the good guys by 20, but here they lose by 5. Talk about waking up a fan base real quick!
Everyone pretty much expected WVU to blast St. John’s out of the Coliseum, but they didn’t. Why, you ask? It’s simple, as Ross Perot used to say. Our team is dependent—really dependent—on outside shooting. In the games they won over LSU, GW, and North Carolina State, they were hitting the outside shot with great accuracy. The last two games (coincidentally Big East games), they’ve shot in the 20-30% range from beyond the arc. They continue to play great defense, though they leave too many folks open beyond the arc. Still, when you’re hold opponents to less than 70 points nearly every game, the defense is pretty good. Rebounding continues to be a problem and always will be until some new blood enters the program or Beilein changes philosophy. I don’t look for either one of these things to happen (Beilein’s system doesn’t allow for the easy rebound), so we’re stuck with that.
What a change from the years Gale Catlett ran the old UCLA high post system. Then, we were always looking to power inside and second chances. With Beilein’s system, we shoot the outside shot and hope we hit it. Is it just me or is that philosophy a little flawed? As we saw against Villanova (who got their clock cleaned by Notre Dame proving to all WVU fans that they are not the number one team in the country), we either hit the outside shot against good competition or take a butt whipping. I truly expect more butt whippings on the road in conference play.
Tuesday marks another WVU-Marshall basketball game which is known as the Capital Classic (I’ve seen it spelled ‘capitol’ more than once, thus proving that all those Marshall grads who work for the Charleston papers are here for a reason). By all indications, this should be a blowout with WVU winning by 20, but it won’t. Marshall gets up for these games so much I expect a close game with a possible win by the green clad team.. The scenario goes like this…WVU is still off on their three point efforts (Beilein was notably slowed by his injuries from the Villanova as was Collins, who isn’t much of a factor no matter what—sorry, guys, but I fail to see any value in starting Collins outside of experience. Nichols cleans his clock), and Marshall is shooting lights out. On most nights (especially in the Big East) that would mean a loss for the good guys by 20, but here they lose by 5. Talk about waking up a fan base real quick!
posted by Ronnie Flamingo at 10:11 AM
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