West Virginia In And Duke Out

Well what a great day in the ACC tourney and beyond. I just recently added this video to this post so you get what I am talking about near the bottom of this post, when I refer to the dangers of West Virginia as a bubble team.

The main story of interest in the state of North Carolina is the NC state Duke game going into OT, where as I stated in an earlier post Duke just didnt have the depth to match their reputations. I had pointed out that every long grinding game this year against physical opponants has had the same toll on Duke with fouls and lack of inside depth. NC State moves on, Duke puts its mind back on the big dance to save some face. Duke would sure make a nasty 6 or 7 seed for some unlucky at large team, but the formula to beat them seems clear, go inside all day, play physical and get to the foul line against their lack of team depth.

The more interesting overtime game for me was the West Virginia vs. Louisville game. I am the sixth man of the year and I apparently play for West Virginia. The moment I tuned into the game West Virginia began an 18 point run to take the lead. I have made it clear that with no Charlotte in the dance I would be pulling for West Virginia as they have the game style and back story I think warrants my support.

I turned on the game today with West Virginia down by 17 points. This is a coincidence since this is the largest defecit of the game. I watched 8 minutes oif game clock tick off from the moment I sat down and never saw Louisville score. This is not why I am pulling for them, which is the amazing part.

I had said I would pull for these guys in the dance about a month ago, when it was clear Charlotte had no chance this season.

So why am I pulling for West Virginia?
>#1 Pittsnogle and Gansey: Two great players that were on their sofas and looking to get drafted and didnt. I watched the draft pulling for lots of early second round prospects and saw many letdowns. Also seeing Stinson go unchosen was a shame, though hes doing well in Europe.
Kevin Pittsnogle is a great inside outside presence. He is 6′11″ 250lbs and shooting 43% from the arc? This sounds like the same formula that got Utah’s Okur into the NBA all star game this year.

Also, Kevin had a wife and child already while playing in college, and this is where I really first wished to see him get the chance and subsequent contract to take care of everything from there on out. When you dedicate your life to sports you understand the slim chance to get a return on your investment, so I hoped he would get to live in the house his hard work had built. When you see this sort of “on TV” only character in a setting of a family you can’t help but to wish him the best and hope he backdoors his way back to the NBA.

Along with this great player was Mike Gansey, whom I only got a good chance to see in the conference tourney to NCAA’s but when you add a second 40% plus outside shooter to the deadly gameplan that the mountaineers emply its hard not to root for a team that can create points in huge chunks with such skills.

This years team lacks the obvious leaders, but the strategy is the same. WV puts up 25-35 3 pointers per game with a hope that 15-20 go down, in which case any oppoanent will as well.

Tonight’s game was very different, as the Mountaineers 18-0 run had nothing to do with outside shooting. I think only one 3 was hit in that stretch. The West Virginia team fought back from 17 down with defense that was just too well put together and Rick Patino had no answers for. WV shifted from 1-3-1 to 2-3 to man to man seemingly on every possession and everytime Louisville seemed to be throwing passes right oto WV defenders completely surprised by what they had just done. The WV coach should be proud to have clearly outcoached Rick Pitino in this game.

On the other end of the floor, WV has such a dangerous game from outside that Louisville was stretched to breaking point on defense.

The Louisville defense seemed so spread out that even in the set game it looked like a half court press. The Louisville squad had 3 defenders standing outside the 3 point arch for most of every possession. With this being the case, West Virginia was in a constant state of cutting to the lane and backdoor. Round and round the offensive players cut in the thin spread defensive zones. Throughout the game nice feeds to offensive players moving wide open in the stretched out zones got well ahead of the defenders for easy layins. West Virginia was scoring inside all game with the space their outside shooting had afforded them.

West Virginia would be one of the most dangerous bubble teams in the tourney based on their style of play. I am sure all of the 2 throguh 7 seeds are hoping the get left out of the tourney so you dont have to roll the dice on them hitting 17 3-pointers. The way they play is really a crap shoot for opposing defenses, and this makes them a nasty underdog.

For their very well laid out and simple game plan, great offensive motion and surprsingly intelligent defensive shifting this is a team I hope does not get left out of the dance. The are ripe to break someones heart in the round of 64. With a bombs away appraoch they could make for a sportcenter moment or two and have to be feared since when the shots fall sao do higher seeds.