My Fiver on WVU's victory over the 2nd-ranked Cyclones in Morgantown on Saturday...
1. Javon Small is officially in the same conversation as Greg Jones, Mike Gansey, Jevon Carter, Deuce McBride as one of the greatest WVU guards of the modern era. Pick your play from this game:
(a) The two end-of-shot-clock miracles
(b) The dagger trey at the end to put the game away
(c) The steal and put back off of a Jon Powell miss in the 1st half...
But my favorite play of the game was with WVU leading 51-49, under 2 min to go, and Small took the ball right at 6'9" Joshua Jefferson on a straight line drive, leapt into the air, drew the contact, hung strong, and scored at the rim with an and-1. Lid came off of the Coliseum. Just a big time play by a big time player in crunch time. Gotta ask the question...Can Jevon Small be WVU's Kemba Walker in March?
2. That's as close to a pure Pack Line defense as you'll see. WVU completely shut down the driving lanes to the basket, in a complete reversal from the Arizona game where we gave up a veritable layup line. In this game, Darian DeVries was absolutely fine if Iowa State wanted to live by the three or by the jumper, but he would not let them have the lane. After the game, DeVries confirmed as much, and said that his message to the WVU squad was to "rake" the drivers as they tried to penetrate...and you could see it. Time and time again, including Iowa State's first and last possessions of the game, they had a guy drive, and we had a sea of arms rakin' at the ball, popping it loose, leading to live ball turnover run-outs to the other end. It was defensive master class, holding Iowa State to a full 20+ points below their season average and forcing them into 1-17 from "3", 14 turnovers, leading to a 19-2 WVU edge in fastbreak points.
3. Now THAT is the Amani Hansberry we saw at Atlantis before the Mercyhurst douche rolled him up. 4 treys and 6 rebounds from the big guy. The more we can get from Amani beyond the arc, the better...you put him out there with Jon Powell on one side, Jevon Small on the other, and you are going to get wide, wide driving lanes.
4. I did not have Eduardo Andre with a strip-steal on Iowa State's end, coast-to-coast with an and-1 finish on the other end of the floor. That was an eye opener. He has given us so much more than I ever thought he would....and you gotta thank the coaches for a lot of that development. It's refreshing to see bigs get coached up like this, from learning to properly screen and roll, to staying connected on Defense, to finding ways to disrupt passing lanes.
5. In a prior post, I had mentioned that a 4-4 January would be very good for this team. We now stand at 3-2 in Jan., with Arizona State at home, and a trip to woebegone K-State coming up this week. We can't fall asleep gazing at our own headlines, or else we could slip up and lose a game or two against this type of opponent. But, I don't expect that with DD and this crew. I expect 2-0 this week. A 20-win season is well within our sights right now as we stand at 13-4 overall...and a 2-win week puts us at 15 victories before a very fun home date vs. Houston on January 29. I'm starting to feel greedy...and that Houston last second win at UCF has me thinking that the Cougars are not going to have a fun time at the Coliseum at the end of the month. Could a 6-2 January be possible? Either way, this is freaking fun. Man i missed this. Let's go!
Watched a podcast this week called Group of 68 or something like that, where they were talking about WVU's wins this year over top ten teams and one of the three guys said that he thinks WVU has the look of a team who can make a deep run into March - and if we get Tucker DeVries back - he said we remind him of the UConn team with Shabazz Napier and Jeremy Lamb that cut down the nets. I'm not expecting DeVries to return, but the UConn comparison got me thinking of the other guard-led UConn team that cut down the nets with Kemba Walker carrying them to the trophy. If our other guys stay healthy....It's not beyond the realm of possibility....
1. Javon Small is officially in the same conversation as Greg Jones, Mike Gansey, Jevon Carter, Deuce McBride as one of the greatest WVU guards of the modern era. Pick your play from this game:
(a) The two end-of-shot-clock miracles
(b) The dagger trey at the end to put the game away
(c) The steal and put back off of a Jon Powell miss in the 1st half...
But my favorite play of the game was with WVU leading 51-49, under 2 min to go, and Small took the ball right at 6'9" Joshua Jefferson on a straight line drive, leapt into the air, drew the contact, hung strong, and scored at the rim with an and-1. Lid came off of the Coliseum. Just a big time play by a big time player in crunch time. Gotta ask the question...Can Jevon Small be WVU's Kemba Walker in March?
2. That's as close to a pure Pack Line defense as you'll see. WVU completely shut down the driving lanes to the basket, in a complete reversal from the Arizona game where we gave up a veritable layup line. In this game, Darian DeVries was absolutely fine if Iowa State wanted to live by the three or by the jumper, but he would not let them have the lane. After the game, DeVries confirmed as much, and said that his message to the WVU squad was to "rake" the drivers as they tried to penetrate...and you could see it. Time and time again, including Iowa State's first and last possessions of the game, they had a guy drive, and we had a sea of arms rakin' at the ball, popping it loose, leading to live ball turnover run-outs to the other end. It was defensive master class, holding Iowa State to a full 20+ points below their season average and forcing them into 1-17 from "3", 14 turnovers, leading to a 19-2 WVU edge in fastbreak points.
3. Now THAT is the Amani Hansberry we saw at Atlantis before the Mercyhurst douche rolled him up. 4 treys and 6 rebounds from the big guy. The more we can get from Amani beyond the arc, the better...you put him out there with Jon Powell on one side, Jevon Small on the other, and you are going to get wide, wide driving lanes.
4. I did not have Eduardo Andre with a strip-steal on Iowa State's end, coast-to-coast with an and-1 finish on the other end of the floor. That was an eye opener. He has given us so much more than I ever thought he would....and you gotta thank the coaches for a lot of that development. It's refreshing to see bigs get coached up like this, from learning to properly screen and roll, to staying connected on Defense, to finding ways to disrupt passing lanes.
5. In a prior post, I had mentioned that a 4-4 January would be very good for this team. We now stand at 3-2 in Jan., with Arizona State at home, and a trip to woebegone K-State coming up this week. We can't fall asleep gazing at our own headlines, or else we could slip up and lose a game or two against this type of opponent. But, I don't expect that with DD and this crew. I expect 2-0 this week. A 20-win season is well within our sights right now as we stand at 13-4 overall...and a 2-win week puts us at 15 victories before a very fun home date vs. Houston on January 29. I'm starting to feel greedy...and that Houston last second win at UCF has me thinking that the Cougars are not going to have a fun time at the Coliseum at the end of the month. Could a 6-2 January be possible? Either way, this is freaking fun. Man i missed this. Let's go!
Watched a podcast this week called Group of 68 or something like that, where they were talking about WVU's wins this year over top ten teams and one of the three guys said that he thinks WVU has the look of a team who can make a deep run into March - and if we get Tucker DeVries back - he said we remind him of the UConn team with Shabazz Napier and Jeremy Lamb that cut down the nets. I'm not expecting DeVries to return, but the UConn comparison got me thinking of the other guard-led UConn team that cut down the nets with Kemba Walker carrying them to the trophy. If our other guys stay healthy....It's not beyond the realm of possibility....
