Guys, UB is playing West Virginia Friday. In the NCAA Tournament. I figure you might not be aware, so I'm here to tell you.
We've already had some preview material, and we'll have more. This evening I present a brief Q&A with Matt from SBNation's WVU blog The Smoking Musket. I asked these questions earlier in the week, so my apologies that they're not really in depth. At the same time, I'm not finding much in the way of WVU analysis outside of
Must Reads
Must Reads
-Press Virginia
-Offensive Rebounding
-Healthy Staten
anyway, so it is what it is.
***
1. It's unfortunate - and I've already seen this mentioned on the Smoking Musket - that this is a 5-12 matchup because it will immediately get pegged as an upset to watch without much else being said about it. If you had 10 seconds of soundbite to use, what would be most important for you to highlight about WVU?
We going to press until one of the teams dies.
2. Beyond that, can you give first just a broad, three- or four-point description of the team and what we'll see on the floor? I know it's vague but all I really know is Bob Huggins. I see quickly a very deep bench and a team that likes to play fast.
Like I said, we're going to press. It's going to be unending. I can count on one hand the times we haven't pressed off of a make this season, and we press off misses sometimes as well.
This is a new development for WVU basketball, and one that has worked out amazingly well this year. We're running about 10 or 11 deep with quality players and that really helps our style. We're able to press constantly while our opponents get tired and make more errors.
Beyond that, we're not a great shooting team, but we more than make up for it with our ability to offensive rebound. Devin Williams and Jon Holton are both monsters on the glass and putbacks are a big part of the offense.
We've been a feast or famine team with outside shooting-with more famine for most of the year-though we've heated up a bit recently. Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles are probably our best three point shooters.
3. The next biggest thing that stands out to me is WVU's schedule. We could only dream of so many chances to earn quality wins, and when LSU is your worst loss, and by a good margin, you know you're doing something right. Is a #5 seed about what you were expecting?
Yeah, I've been set on the 5 seed for a while now. I was kind of hoping to draw a 6 seed in Pittsburgh, to be honest, though Columbus isn't a half bad place in terms of distance as well.
This year's schedule was honestly a tad weaker than some in the past. Bob Huggins is not one to run away from any team, and it definitely helps us in terms of tournament selection. 20 wins is normally all we need for an at-large bid, and anything more than that gets us a pretty high seed.
4. This is a neat little pod, with Maryland and Valparaiso in the other game. Terps fans are already looking ahead to Kentucky it seems, but I'm interested in the two schools that recently shuffled conferences. How has your basketball program changed since the move to the Big XII?
I'll be straight up and say that I miss the basketball aspect of the Big East. There is absolutely nothing that beats the 16-team Big East tournament in Madison Square Garden (winning the damn thing is one of my all-time favorite WVU sports memories), and you really love to hate a lot of the teams in conference.
That being said, the Big 12 is a really fun league as well. You get Kansas twice a year, and a whole host of fun teams and big time opponents. It's just...different. Kansas City isn't New York, but on the whole it's a fun league.
***
Big thanks to Matt at the Smoking Musket. We'll have more preview stuff tomorrow. Go Bulls