West Virginia Pre Game Discussion

[kghoya]

WVU was in a dogfight with South Florida at home today.

This game is really important when it comes down to securing one of those top 4 spots in the Conference.

The Hoyas need to take care of business at home if they want those byes.

I hope we get to see more out of Sapp and Wright on Thursday because the team needs them.

[sleepyjackson21]

This game is big. Gotta take care of business. Just like with the Providence game, we need to bounce back after a loss and regain momentum.

[lichoya68]

agree this will be tough need a game and THIS COUNTS NOT LIKE TODAYS SCRIMMAGE WHICH REALLY MEANT NOTHING MUST WIN TOP FOUR IS WHAT WE GOTTA SCORE CANT PLAY ON TUES or WED IN NYC NOPE GO HOYAS ps coulda won if dajuann hits the critical free throws adn greg no t yup it was four point i think twice and just couldnt do it BUT DIDNOT GIVE UP GO HOYAS BEAT THE ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[njhoya06]

Hugely important.

REBOUND! (even a little) and we win.

[vcjack]

The eers aren't playing good basketball right now but they still have that whole "rebounding" thing that they could hurt us with.

On the grand scheme of things this game is much more important than the Duke game so we need this win.

[hoyafrigginsaxa]

West Virgina EDITED. I don't care if we win or lose this game. We showed we can beat duke.... on a neutral site...tonight and i love our chances in march. Elight 8 game agianst them...i think we can win. I hope that's the matchup. I REALLY hope. Good work team. keep improving. We'll win something. let's just wait and see what it is once you get to the final 4 anything can happen.

[tpk3]

they miss mazzula rght now. huggins gets them to play tough though. i expect a win. back to physical conference play.

[SirSaxa]

WVU is always tough.... but not as tough as they are at home.
If GU plays at a high level, we win.

It will be very interesting to see how the team responds to the loss at Duke and the benchings/rotations we saw in the second half.

[lichoya68]

need to win wil be tough come on yoounings and bench go hoyas go greg payback for that phantom foul take it out on the foul errrrrs g hoasy

[HealyHoya]

Forget Dook. This game is of vastly greater importance. Win conference games. No excuses. No nonsense about phantom technical fouls, how we're a "better" team than a team that just beat us by nine, blah blah, blah. Win conference games -- that's all that matters.

[Hoya50]

this team's success will be driven the play of the guards. starting now, i believe jt iii's top priority is getting consistent play from wright/sapp/clark. i concur that wright is playing the best out of the 3, but all need some improvement.

wright - improve d, better shooting
sapp - get head into the game
clark - lose frosh jitters, get more familiar with offense

i will be looking for improved guard play starting against wv and continuing forward.

[SoCalHoya]

Sapp's three to win it last year! And then Jr.'s block...

[jgalt]

Jan 18, 2009 14:02:08 GMT -5 SirSaxa said:

WVU is always tough.... but not as tough as they are at home.
If GU plays at a high level, we win.

It will be very interesting to see how the team responds to the loss at Duke and the benchings/rotations we saw in the second half.

definately

i would be nervous if this was in morgantown, especially because i can only imagine how upset those fans still are. if the hoyas stay focused they should get a solid win

[royski]

Jan 19, 2009 0:29:52 GMT -5 SoCalHoya said:

Sapp's three to win it last year! And then Jr.'s block...

Best finish of the season imo, narrowly ahead of Roy for 3 and stone cold Wallace making all 3 free throws at Marquette.

[joey0403p]

very imporant game - need to get back on track. I just hope we don't have any kind of hangover from the weekend. WVa will bring it. i don't care how wva is playing now - its a BE game , we should learn that from providence...

[HoyasAreHungry]

gona be alot of WVU fans in the booth like against the Cuse gotta bring the noise students and non-student fans!

[Big Dog]

We need 3-0 here leading up to the Marquette game on the 31st.

[CAHoya07]

Gotta shore up the defense. In the five games since we beat UConn, we haven't held an opponent under 70 points. We've given up an average of 73.6 a game, and we've gone 2-3 in that stretch. I want to see more of the lockdown D that we've seen in seasons past. I'm not sure if this team is as good defensively as those teams, but we're going to have to step it up if we want to go places come March.

Also, it's a trite point, and I know this team will never be a good rebounding team (with the way our offense is set up, will a JT III-coached team ever be a good rebounding team?), but outrebounded by Duke? An unathletic white dude named Singler grabbing 16 boards on us? We've gotta fix that. But who's really gonna crash the glass for us, outside of Monroe? Again, the team needs to step it up.

[Filo]

Someone posted the stats on another thread -- surprisingly, Duke is a good offensive rebounding team. Unsurprisingly, Singler had a lot of rebounds. Face facts, the dude is good. Very good. Calling him unathletic is just plain silly (I guess you were being slightly tongue-in-cheek there).

[saxamaphone]

According to kenpom.com, Duke is 13th in the nation in rebounding, gathering 40.7% of their own misses. For comparison, Pitt is at 44.2% and the D-I average is 33.3%.

WV is 5th at 43.9%, so we better hit the glass or take care of the ball better, especially considering they force a lot of turnovers.

Also of note, WV is a terrible team from the line - 65%.