Huggstown Weekly Roundup – 12/27/12

Week In Review

December 15, 2012; Brooklyn, NY, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers guard Juwan Staten (3) during the first half of an NCAA men

The past week featured only one game: a 72 – 62 victory over the Radford Highlanders.  This was another tough game for the Mountaineers, but all that matters is we notched a W and avoided a terrible loss that would have killed our tournament resume.  We trailed most of the first half before taking the lead with 4 minutes remaining.   The second half was back and forth but the tide started to change when Huggins switched to a 1-3-1 trap defense, which really confused Radford and allowed WVU to build a lead that sealed the game.

Our shooting was slightly better, but still not great: 46% overall, 25% from 3.  Aaric Murray led the way with 23 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals in 38 minutes.  Definitely his best game of the season.  It seemed like anytime he was within 10 feet of a loose ball, he got it.  He has great hands and a nice touch inside.  The only thing I didn’t like was that he took four 3 point shots.  He can make the odd three, but that’s not his game.  Gary Browne (9 points), Juwan Staten (8), and Dominque Rutledge (8) were the other leading scorers.  There were no other Mountaineers in double digits.

Some players have seen significantly reduced playing time over the past few weeks: Deniz Kilicli, Jabarie Hinds, Aaron Brown, Matt Humphrey, and Kevin Noreen.  It seems like these guys might be the odd ones out  as Huggins tries to find a good rotation of players into the game (Volodymyr Gerun also hasn’t seen much playing time since coming off his ridiculous NCAA suspension).

December 11, 2012; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers center Aaric Murray (24) dunks the ball over Duquesne Dukes forward Kadeem Pantophlet (22) during the first half at the CONSOL Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Player of the Week:  Aaric Murray: 23 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals.

Coming Up:

Sunday 12/30 vs. Eastern Kentucky in Morgantown

Eastern Kentucky is 10-2 with no significant victories and losses to #10 Illinois and NC A&T.  They average 72 points per game and are led by junior guard Glenn Cosey (16 ppg) and senior guard Mike DiNunno (14 ppg).  Even though they haven’t played a difficult schedule EKU has been able to win a lot of games, so this will be a challenge for the Mountaineers.  It’s a win we have to have though- we can’t afford any more out of conference losses if we want to make the tournament.  And it’ll be really important to have the momentum of three wins behind us going into Big 12 play the following week.

News and Notes

• Huggins received a technical foul early in the game against Radford for repeatedly telling the referee that “They’ve been doing it all game” (pushing WVU players around inside; WVU had just been called for the same thing Radford had been doing all game).  Really, it was a weak T- Huggs didn’t even drop an F bomb in the exchange, and his complaint was justified- the officials were terrible (both ways) yet again.  Are there no good officials left?