My fiver on WVU's victory over Northern Iowa (NIU!) on Tuesday night...
1. Can't underscore enough the importance of a hard fought victory at this point where our guards lead us to the win. If we are going to make a run this year - and it is wiiiiiiiide open right now out there - we are going to need good to great guard play to get there. We are going to need guards who score, and create scoring opportunities for our bigs who feed off of them. It doesn't work the other way around, not anymore. Watching Deuce McBride, Sean McNeil, Jermaine Haley, Taz Sherman and Emmitt Matthews Jr. go to work down the stretch last night was a thing of beauty. We stopped letting the game simply unfold in front of us like a bored crowd, and we instead decided to force the issue and go down swinging. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
2. Emmitt Matthews Jr.'s game-changing put-back was one of the best athletic plays in the clutch that I've ever seen made by a Mountaineer. It reminded me of a Lester Rowe alley-oop to beat St. Joseph's years and years ago (which was waved off when we were in the locker room, then changed back to "good" by A-10 officials one day later to give us the win). Matthews put it all on the line to make that play - his timing on put-backs this year has been impressive as hell.
3. Northern Iowa's pack line defense drove us insane the first 32 minutes of this game. They dared us to shoot from the outside, and we couldn't. There was nothing inside, unless Culver, Routt and Oscar could find a way to make hook shots (not gonna happen). However, once we threw the game into full-throttle by going full Press Virginia, everything changed. McNeil loosened them up from the outside, along with a timely Chase Harler trey, and we began to turn them over. Then Deuce started hitting from all over. These pack line teams like a nice, orderly game, where they can set up and pack things in. There's a reason that Press Virginia went 2-0 vs. UVA recently. If we play a pack line team again, I say turn it up. Press full bore for 40 minutes, run our guys into the game in waves, and make it as chaotic as possible. The best way to beat a pack line team is to never let them get set up and create chaos.
4. Sean McNeil is not a one-trick pony - that kid can play. Through five games, it's clear that McNeil is our best outside threat. That much is clear. But, watching McNeil play defense last night was an eye-opener. I had seen tape on him from Sinclair CC where he was stealing the ball, going coast-to-coast, and finishing. But, I shrugged that off as not indicative of what he'll do at this level because of the level of competition. Last night, he was downright fiery on defense and helped turn up the dial on the press. He was in "attack" mode on offense and that included taking the ball past the three-point line for pull-ups and dribble drives. One thing about McNeil and Deuce...they can get their shots off over most any guards. Both McNeil and Deuce elevate to a point where hardly any defenders can stop them. They both have a chance to be really special.
5. Oscar Tshiebwe is a hell of a player. Ditto that for Derek Culver. But, if they have any interest at all at playing on the next level, they will learn to hit a 10-15 foot jump shot. No, you don't have to go full Sags Konate and start launching threes like you are Steph Curry. But, if a defender is going to sag 7 feet off of you, and you're standing at the foul line, you better be able to hit that jump shot -- just like Devin Williams and Kevin Jones did quite often. If they can't make that little jumper on occasion, then they're not going to get many good looks this year, save for cleaning up after our guards or on our occasional fast breaks. The tape is out there on them by now...they need to start hitting those jump shots.
1. Can't underscore enough the importance of a hard fought victory at this point where our guards lead us to the win. If we are going to make a run this year - and it is wiiiiiiiide open right now out there - we are going to need good to great guard play to get there. We are going to need guards who score, and create scoring opportunities for our bigs who feed off of them. It doesn't work the other way around, not anymore. Watching Deuce McBride, Sean McNeil, Jermaine Haley, Taz Sherman and Emmitt Matthews Jr. go to work down the stretch last night was a thing of beauty. We stopped letting the game simply unfold in front of us like a bored crowd, and we instead decided to force the issue and go down swinging. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
2. Emmitt Matthews Jr.'s game-changing put-back was one of the best athletic plays in the clutch that I've ever seen made by a Mountaineer. It reminded me of a Lester Rowe alley-oop to beat St. Joseph's years and years ago (which was waved off when we were in the locker room, then changed back to "good" by A-10 officials one day later to give us the win). Matthews put it all on the line to make that play - his timing on put-backs this year has been impressive as hell.
3. Northern Iowa's pack line defense drove us insane the first 32 minutes of this game. They dared us to shoot from the outside, and we couldn't. There was nothing inside, unless Culver, Routt and Oscar could find a way to make hook shots (not gonna happen). However, once we threw the game into full-throttle by going full Press Virginia, everything changed. McNeil loosened them up from the outside, along with a timely Chase Harler trey, and we began to turn them over. Then Deuce started hitting from all over. These pack line teams like a nice, orderly game, where they can set up and pack things in. There's a reason that Press Virginia went 2-0 vs. UVA recently. If we play a pack line team again, I say turn it up. Press full bore for 40 minutes, run our guys into the game in waves, and make it as chaotic as possible. The best way to beat a pack line team is to never let them get set up and create chaos.
4. Sean McNeil is not a one-trick pony - that kid can play. Through five games, it's clear that McNeil is our best outside threat. That much is clear. But, watching McNeil play defense last night was an eye-opener. I had seen tape on him from Sinclair CC where he was stealing the ball, going coast-to-coast, and finishing. But, I shrugged that off as not indicative of what he'll do at this level because of the level of competition. Last night, he was downright fiery on defense and helped turn up the dial on the press. He was in "attack" mode on offense and that included taking the ball past the three-point line for pull-ups and dribble drives. One thing about McNeil and Deuce...they can get their shots off over most any guards. Both McNeil and Deuce elevate to a point where hardly any defenders can stop them. They both have a chance to be really special.
5. Oscar Tshiebwe is a hell of a player. Ditto that for Derek Culver. But, if they have any interest at all at playing on the next level, they will learn to hit a 10-15 foot jump shot. No, you don't have to go full Sags Konate and start launching threes like you are Steph Curry. But, if a defender is going to sag 7 feet off of you, and you're standing at the foul line, you better be able to hit that jump shot -- just like Devin Williams and Kevin Jones did quite often. If they can't make that little jumper on occasion, then they're not going to get many good looks this year, save for cleaning up after our guards or on our occasional fast breaks. The tape is out there on them by now...they need to start hitting those jump shots.
