Mountaineers Take on Rutgers

By John Antonik for WVUsports.com
January 03, 2012 03:30 PM

Kevin Jones scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in West Virginia's 67-48 loss to Seton Hall last Friday night.

All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo

WEST VIRGINIA GAME NOTES | RUTGERS GAME NOTES

Bob Huggins is looking for a little more energy and enthusiasm from his basketball team when the Mountaineers return to the floor to face 8-6 Rutgers Wednesday night at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J.

West Virginia (10-4, 1-1) is coming off its worst performance of the season last Friday night at Seton Hall, the Mountaineers scoring a season-low 48 points and the senior combination of Kevin Jones and Truck Bryant made just eight of their 32 field goal attempts against the Pirates.

“Obviously we didn’t defend and we were inept offensively so we tried to shore up those two areas as best as we can,” said Huggins of the work his team has done since then. “That’s as bad offensively as we’ve been. We started out the game by missing some easy shots. We just never got it going from the beginning.”

In addition to having a quick two-day turnaround following the Villanova win and Bryant’s cold shooting, the Mountaineers were also hampered by injuries to Jones and Deniz Kilicli. Jones sprained his ankle and Kilicli was kicked in the stomach during the game. Huggins said both should be fine for Rutgers.

“KJ sprained his ankle so he was not the old KJ,” said Huggins. “He tried to play through it but anybody who was there saw he wasn’t moving; he couldn’t jump and was just really limited with what he could do.

“You take him out of the equation and Truck goes 3 for 16 (shooting) and we’re not very good.”

Despite those issues, Huggins believes a team playing with more energy and enthusiasm could have overcome those things.

“We didn’t get to the ball and we didn’t do a very good job. You couple that with not being able to make a shot then it makes it very difficult,” Huggins said. “When you don’t make a shot it just gets tighter and tighter and tighter. People guard the paint more and more. You’ve got to be able to spread them and make some shots. AB (Aaron Brown) didn’t make shots and he has been making shots when he’s open. Truck had played much, much better from the Kansas State game to the Seton Hall game and he played like he played against Mississippi State and the results were kind of the same.”

In Rutgers, Huggins sees a lot of similarities to what his team encountered against Kansas State in a game played in Wichita back on Dec. 8. The Scarlet Knights are going to pressure the basketball and help on defense.

“We played against I think an outstanding Kansas State team. Their ball pressure bothered us initially, but we were able to hang in there and win the game,” Huggins said. “Baylor threw up a 2-3 zone with probably more length than we’ve played against in a long time and I thought we did a great job against that.”

Rutgers (0-1 in Big East play) most recently dropped a 67-65 decision at USF last Sunday, three days after beating 10th-ranked Florida 85-83 in double overtime at home.

Freshman guard Eli Carter poured in 31 in the Florida win and added 23 against USF, 18 of those coming in the second half. Carter leads the Scarlet Knights in scoring with an average of 13.5 points per game and Huggins says it looks like Rutgers is going more to Carter in late-game situations.

“He plays off the bounce. They are going to ball screen for him a lot,” he said.

Huggins is also impressed with Rutgers’ athleticism, especially 6-foot-6 junior forward Dane Miller, who shows averages of 6.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

“Dane Miller is an elite athlete,” said Huggins. “He is as good an athlete in our league.”

Most of Rutgers’ offense comes from outside the paint.

“They play extremely hard. They do a great job of getting to help and I think, lately, their guards have played really well and made big shots,” Huggins said. “They are doing a good job of rebounding the ball, particularly at the offensive end. I think that’s going to be a challenge for us, particularly if we play small.”

Five of Rutgers' six losses this season have been by a margin of six points or less.

Tip off for Wednesday night’s game is 7 p.m. and it will be televised on the Big East Network, seen locally on ROOT SPORTS in Pittsburgh. Other markets carrying the telecast include SNY (New York), MASN (Capital region). The game will also be televised on ESPN3 and can be accessed through ESPN Full Court.

Last week, the Mountaineer Sports Network announced its radio coverage for the Rutgers men's basketball game going on concurrently with the football team’s game against Clemson in the 2012 Discover Orange Bowl.

MSN’s radio coverage for the Rutgers game can also be accessed on Sirius Satellite radio channel 93.

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