By: Mitch Vingle, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 15, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
SAN DIEGO — The WVU’s men’s basketball team had no problems getting to the Pacific Coast and this sun-splashed city.
It’s landed. It’s practiced. It’s met the media.
Now, though, the goal of the No. 5 seed Mountaineers is simply to make a splash at the NCAA tournament — beginning at approximately 4 p.m. Friday at the Veijas Arena on the campus of San Diego State University. The game will be televised by TNT.
“We’re ready,” said WVU guard James “Beetle” Bolden. “We talked a little bit as a team. We’re focused and I think we’re ready to go out there and play.”
The Mountaineers (24-10) enter with a final Associated Press ranking of No. 15 and a current USA Today coaches poll ranking of No. 14. WVU’s opponent is No. 12 seed Murray State (26-5), which won the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships.
The focus in WVU’s camp, however, has been squarely on the practices leading into the first round. Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins this week pointed back to 2016 and the less-than-stellar practices heading into the loss to Stephen F. Austin. On Thursday, though, he seemed somewhat pleased.
“We’re better than we were then,” he said. “They could have been better. They could have been worse. … We were OK [Wednesday]. Actually, I thought we were pretty good. Most of us. Everybody wasn’t, but most of them were.”
Where it appears West Virginia will have to be very good on Friday is against Murray State’s trio of 3-point shooters. The Racers are led by point guard Jonathan Stark, the OVC Player of the Year and tournament MVP. He led Murray State’s league in scoring for a second straight year at 21.8 points a game.
Also, though, Terrell Miller, a 6-foot-8 wide body, can step out and hit the trey. He’s averaging 14.7 points and 8.2 rebounds. MSU as a team is hitting 37.9 percent of their 3-point attempts (WVU is at 35.3), but Stark (41 percent), Miller (39.2) and Hawkins (39.5) combine to hit 40.2 percent of the time.
“We worked a lot on getting back in transition,” said Mountaineer forward Teddy Allen. “Getting to the shooters. Know who the shooters are. We went over the scouting report a lot, so we know who can shoot and who we need to find in transition.”
On the other end, Murray State will have to handle West Virginia’s press. The Racers run a two-point-guard offense, which should help break that, but MSU coach Matt McMahon said Thursday his team must be prepared.
“We haven’t played anyone to the level of what they do,” McMahon said of the Mountaineers. “They’re second in the country in forced turnover percentage — and they hit you for 40 straight minutes. We’ve played against pressing teams, but we know this will be different.”
WVU is now No. 10 nationally in turnovers forced at 16.5 a game. Murray State is averaging 11.9 turnovers.
McMahon, meanwhile, pointed to rebounding as a key.
“I think it’s a big factor in winning,” he said. “We’ve been a good rebounding team all season long. Now this is about to be another level.”
West Virginia is No. 5 nationally in offensive rebounds, averaging 14 a game.
In addition, there are individual matchups. WVU team leader Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles will have to contain Murray State point guards Stark and Ja Morant. And vice versa. Also, Mountaineer sophomore Sagaba Konate will have to handle Miller. And vice versa.
“He’s a big body,” Miller said of Konate. “He plays hard. That’s all I’ve seen on him on film.”
Aside from all, though, there’s a matter of how each team handles the spotlight of March Madness.
“I think that’s been one of our strengths of our team,” McMahon said of MSU. “The ability to focus on the next most important thing, the task at hand, not getting too caught up in the moment and the hoopla that surrounds this great tournament.”
Huggins was asked about the hype as well as the travel.
“I think if anybody is equipped to do it, we can do it after what we do in our [Big 12] league,” Huggins said. “We fly across the country constantly, so our guys are pretty used to it.”
Last year, the Mountaineers were eliminated in the Sweet 16 in San Jose, California, by tournament runner-up Gonzaga, 61-58. It was West Virginia’s seventh Sweet 16 appearance since 1998 and 10th overall.
Mitch Vingle can be reached at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.
