My Fiver on WVU's victory in the 3rd place contest at the Battle of Atlantis...
1. Game ball #1 to Amani Hansberry. He was clearly outsized in the paint as WVU's "5", but my man ended up with 13 points, 10 rebounds (4 OR), 2 assists and 2 steals in 39 minutes. He was a warrior. I felt that the Louisville loss could've been avoided, despite the terrible officiating, if we had been up to the task on the glass. We were yesterday, and Hansberry was damn impressive in there.
2. Game ball #2 to Toby Okani. Love having Okani on our squad - he gets after it defensively, much like Sincere Harris, but unlike Harris his game on the offensive end is not limited. He attacks with reckless abandon, and his treys from the corner yesterday were HUGE.
3. Game ball #3 to Tucker DeVries. I posted in the game thread yesterday before the tip that DeVries was due to go on a heater. Well, there it is. 26 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds on 8-12 shooting from "3" - it was an amazing performance. He was entering Mike Gansey vs. Marquette territory before he cooled off a bit down the stretch. Loved seeing him fearlessly nail that three-pointer at the start of OT to give us some breathing room. One thing I've noticed is that his ability to get free vs. P5 competition is far more difficult than vs. the Robert Morris's and Iona's of the world. This three game stretch is going to pay dividends for a long time because it showed Tucker and Darian DeVries just what they'll need to do, and how hard they'll need to work, to free up Tucker for looks. Now they know.
4. Big credit to Darian DeVries for his decision to ride the hot hand. After Tucker drained back to back treys with just under four minutes to go in the first half, Okani snagged a defensive rebound, and the camera panned to Darian DeVries, who was signaling in a play to Javon Small. We then ran a beautifully crafted double screen at the top of the key, where Tucker swung around from left wing to right, rubbing off both screens, catching the pass from Small, and firing - swish - WVU in the lead. We run some really, really high level offense and we have a multitude of options each possession. If I am going to be critical about anything, it's the fact that we started going pure ISO and burning clock with around 6 minutes to go in regulation, nursing a 5-point lead. I know our guys were gassed, but Arizona really had problems defending us when we ran our stuff. I'd like to see us be more aggressive, and run more offense down the stretch. For the 2nd game in a row, we ran ISO with the ball in hand on the final possession and didn't really get a good look. But, to open OT, we started running offense again, and voila, we jumped out to a big lead.
5. 5-2 through 7 games with wins over UMass, #3 Gonzaga, #24 Arizona. I was 100% confident that Wren Baker had made a great hire with Darian DeVries. Now, it's beyond question. And it's not just the results, it's the way we play. It's poetry in motion. The extra pass to an open shooter, the unselfishness of play, the defensive connectivity, the tenacity. It's refreshing. Saw some posts on here about Bob Huggins, and I'll just say this - It's time to simply turn the page, thank Huggs for what he did while he was here, and know that we are in good hands. Now we have a very winnable stretch of games starting with Georgetown in Morgantown on Friday. Because of the brand name and their pissant fans, I still get pumped to beat Georgetown, BTW. But we should be riding high on a 5-game win streak heading to Kansas on New Year's Eve. Then, a January meat grinder begins, but that's OK. We're going to have a shot. We're going to have a shot in every game from here on out.
1. Game ball #1 to Amani Hansberry. He was clearly outsized in the paint as WVU's "5", but my man ended up with 13 points, 10 rebounds (4 OR), 2 assists and 2 steals in 39 minutes. He was a warrior. I felt that the Louisville loss could've been avoided, despite the terrible officiating, if we had been up to the task on the glass. We were yesterday, and Hansberry was damn impressive in there.
2. Game ball #2 to Toby Okani. Love having Okani on our squad - he gets after it defensively, much like Sincere Harris, but unlike Harris his game on the offensive end is not limited. He attacks with reckless abandon, and his treys from the corner yesterday were HUGE.
3. Game ball #3 to Tucker DeVries. I posted in the game thread yesterday before the tip that DeVries was due to go on a heater. Well, there it is. 26 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds on 8-12 shooting from "3" - it was an amazing performance. He was entering Mike Gansey vs. Marquette territory before he cooled off a bit down the stretch. Loved seeing him fearlessly nail that three-pointer at the start of OT to give us some breathing room. One thing I've noticed is that his ability to get free vs. P5 competition is far more difficult than vs. the Robert Morris's and Iona's of the world. This three game stretch is going to pay dividends for a long time because it showed Tucker and Darian DeVries just what they'll need to do, and how hard they'll need to work, to free up Tucker for looks. Now they know.
4. Big credit to Darian DeVries for his decision to ride the hot hand. After Tucker drained back to back treys with just under four minutes to go in the first half, Okani snagged a defensive rebound, and the camera panned to Darian DeVries, who was signaling in a play to Javon Small. We then ran a beautifully crafted double screen at the top of the key, where Tucker swung around from left wing to right, rubbing off both screens, catching the pass from Small, and firing - swish - WVU in the lead. We run some really, really high level offense and we have a multitude of options each possession. If I am going to be critical about anything, it's the fact that we started going pure ISO and burning clock with around 6 minutes to go in regulation, nursing a 5-point lead. I know our guys were gassed, but Arizona really had problems defending us when we ran our stuff. I'd like to see us be more aggressive, and run more offense down the stretch. For the 2nd game in a row, we ran ISO with the ball in hand on the final possession and didn't really get a good look. But, to open OT, we started running offense again, and voila, we jumped out to a big lead.
5. 5-2 through 7 games with wins over UMass, #3 Gonzaga, #24 Arizona. I was 100% confident that Wren Baker had made a great hire with Darian DeVries. Now, it's beyond question. And it's not just the results, it's the way we play. It's poetry in motion. The extra pass to an open shooter, the unselfishness of play, the defensive connectivity, the tenacity. It's refreshing. Saw some posts on here about Bob Huggins, and I'll just say this - It's time to simply turn the page, thank Huggs for what he did while he was here, and know that we are in good hands. Now we have a very winnable stretch of games starting with Georgetown in Morgantown on Friday. Because of the brand name and their pissant fans, I still get pumped to beat Georgetown, BTW. But we should be riding high on a 5-game win streak heading to Kansas on New Year's Eve. Then, a January meat grinder begins, but that's OK. We're going to have a shot. We're going to have a shot in every game from here on out.
