November 26, 2007
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| Alex Ruoff | |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Following a 1-1 mark in the Stubhub! Legends Classic in Newark, N.J., last weekend, West Virginia (3-1) returns to the WVU Coliseum to face Maryland Eastern Shore (1-5) on Tuesday, Nov. 27, at 7 p.m.
The Mountaineers dropped the opening game Friday evening, 74-72, to then-No. 7 Tennessee before rebounding on Saturday afternoon with a 75-61 victory over New Mexico State.
Junior guard Alex Ruoff leads a balance West Virginia attack, scoring 16.5 points per game. Sophomore Da’Sean Butler is next in scoring averaging 13 points per contest. The Newark, N.J., native scored a team-best 16 points against Tennessee. Senior point guard Darris Nichols is chipping in with 11.8 points and dishing out three assists per game.
Junior forward Joe Alexander rounds out the Mountaineer double digit scorers averaging a little more than 10 points per game while hauling in a team-best 7.3 rebounds. Alexander is coming off his second career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds against New Mexico State.
Coach Bob Huggins is encouraged by the progress Alexander is making to become a more aggressive player and a better rebounder.
“I thought he was more assertive on Saturday in the second half. Joe is very capable of getting six or eight points a game off of the offensive glass,” Huggins said. “In the second half he got at least four I can think of. If he gets four in the first half he gets eight points off the offensive glass.”
Huggins has observed that the Mt. Airy, Md., native is still in thinking mode rather than just reacting instinctively as the coach would prefer his players to do.
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“Joe is very young in the game. He has to think about things now. This is a hard game to think in - it happens too fast. It’s a reaction game not a thinking game,” Huggins said. “I think once Joe gets to where he reacts rather than thinking about what he is going to do, you’re going to see an entirely different player.”
Alexander and the rest of his teammates will get a chance to take another step in the learning process under Huggins when they play host to Maryland Eastern Shore Tuesday night.
The Hawks, which play in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), are a guard-dominated team led by 6-foot-2 junior guard Ed Tyson who averages 20.2 points per contest. His backcourt mate Marc Davis is next in scoring, averaging 9.7 points per game.
“Their guards are good. They played Iowa right down to the end at Iowa. It was a two-point game at halftime and wasn’t decided until the last two or three minutes,” Huggins said. “They’ve got guards that are very capable of having big games.”
This will be the second meeting between WVU and Maryland Eastern Shore. Last year the Mountaineers scored a season-high 95 points against the Haws en route to a 95-49 win. UMES is coming off a 71-58 loss to Gulf Coast University on Saturday.
Huggins expected his team to ratchet up the intensity in Newark last weekend and says they are working to play with the same enthusiasm regardless of the opponent.
“It shouldn’t change. Honestly I thought we played with as much intensity against Prairie View as we did against Tennessee. We played with pretty good intensity,” Huggins said. “I expect them to come out and play hard every game. They practice hard every day so I don’t know why you would come out in a game and not go hard.”
West Virginia has won 16 games in a row against non-conference teams at the WVU Coliseum and holds a 9-0 all-time record against teams from the MEAC.
Fans that can’t make it out to the Coliseum can view the game live online on a pay-per-view basis through MSNspotsNET.com. The game can be accessed for $11.95. CSTV All-Access monthly and yearly subscribers do not have access to this service.
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