TAMPA, Fla. - There was a potential positive involved in West Virginia's basketball team having to wait until late Tuesday night to find out who its first-round opponent would be in the NCAA tournament.
TAMPA, Fla. - There was a potential positive involved in West Virginia's basketball team having to wait until late Tuesday night to find out who its first-round opponent would be in the NCAA tournament.
And a handful of the Mountaineers did just that. Bob Huggins, though, was not among them.
The positive spin? Well, while being forced to wait for Clemson to play its way into the No. 12 seed and a spot opposite fifth-seeded West Virginia here on Thursday, the Mountaineers got more of an opportunity to polish their own game.
That's often overlooked in the buildup to important games, or so says WVU guard Joe Mazzulla.
"I say that because last year we had, I think, five or six days to prepare for Duke. And I thought that was too many days,'' Mazzulla said, referring to the national semifinal loss in Indianapolis. "We got away from what we wanted to do and we really concentrated on them for five straight days. I think this is better for us, where we focus on us. It's almost like a regular-season game, where you have a day and a half to prepare for them.''
Indeed, that's all the time West Virginia has, beginning at roughly midnight Tuesday - when Clemson knocked off UAB 70-52 - and ending Thursday when the tournament's round of 64 tips off at 12:15 p.m. at the St. Pete Times Forum. So between last Wednesday's loss to Marquette in the Big East tournament and today's first practice for a known opponent, Huggins had little choice but to abandon game prep and concentrate only on improving what his own team does.
But as he points out, with a depleted roster that's not always as easy as it sounds.
"I think it [being able to practice just what his team does] would be a plus in the right situation,'' Huggins said. "But I've said this before - and I love him, he's been great for us - but when you've got Craig Carey playing power forward [on the scout team], that's not really testing Kevin Jones.
"It's hard for us to get a lot out of what we're trying to do offensively because we don't have enough bigs to be able to assimilate anything anybody's going to do. And I think that's been a problem towards the end of the year.''
TAMPA, Fla. - There was a potential positive involved in West Virginia's basketball team having to wait until late Tuesday night to find out who its first-round opponent would be in the NCAA tournament.
And a handful of the Mountaineers did just that. Bob Huggins, though, was not among them.
The positive spin? Well, while being forced to wait for Clemson to play its way into the No. 12 seed and a spot opposite fifth-seeded West Virginia here on Thursday, the Mountaineers got more of an opportunity to polish their own game.
That's often overlooked in the buildup to important games, or so says WVU guard Joe Mazzulla.
"I say that because last year we had, I think, five or six days to prepare for Duke. And I thought that was too many days,'' Mazzulla said, referring to the national semifinal loss in Indianapolis. "We got away from what we wanted to do and we really concentrated on them for five straight days. I think this is better for us, where we focus on us. It's almost like a regular-season game, where you have a day and a half to prepare for them.''
Indeed, that's all the time West Virginia has, beginning at roughly midnight Tuesday - when Clemson knocked off UAB 70-52 - and ending Thursday when the tournament's round of 64 tips off at 12:15 p.m. at the St. Pete Times Forum. So between last Wednesday's loss to Marquette in the Big East tournament and today's first practice for a known opponent, Huggins had little choice but to abandon game prep and concentrate only on improving what his own team does.
But as he points out, with a depleted roster that's not always as easy as it sounds.
"I think it [being able to practice just what his team does] would be a plus in the right situation,'' Huggins said. "But I've said this before - and I love him, he's been great for us - but when you've got Craig Carey playing power forward [on the scout team], that's not really testing Kevin Jones.
"It's hard for us to get a lot out of what we're trying to do offensively because we don't have enough bigs to be able to assimilate anything anybody's going to do. And I think that's been a problem towards the end of the year.''
Still, when given lemons, make lemonade. And in at least looking at as a plus the opportunity - actually, the necessity - of ignoring an opponent in favor of self-improvement, the Mountaineers did just that. They made the best of it.
"Yeah, I think that's better for us,'' Mazzulla said. "We're able to worry about us and go over some key points about what both teams do. But for the most part it's about us. And then we'll worry about [the opponent] after we find out what happens.''
"That is a good point. We can focus more on us as opposed to what the other team does,'' John Flowers said when presented with Mazzulla's theory. "Joe's a pretty smart guy, isn't he?
"It's just doing the little things like boxing out and playing solid defense and playing smart. Those are the things we can work on.''
That, and on their minds, as well, said Kevin Jones.
"I think it gives us less time to psyche ourselves out and gets us more prepared to play,'' Jones said. "I like that short span. At least for this team, I think that's when we get the most prepared for an opponent.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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