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Seton Hall Preview
By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
December 25, 2009
 WEST VIRGINIA GAME NOTES | SETON HALL GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Cam Thoroughman was on his way up to the scorer’s table just as Wellington Smith was about to drill a huge second-half 3-point basket against 15th-ranked Ole Miss.
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Wellington Smith had a career-high 19 points to lead West Virginia to a 76-66 victory over 15th-ranked Ole Miss Wednesday night in Morgantown.
AP photo
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Bob Huggins, having lived for years in the same town that produced Captain Hook himself, Sparky Anderson, figured he might as well ride this one out a little longer. The good ones have a sixth sense about these things, and Huggs was dead-on with Smith Wednesday night.
“Honesty I thought he was tired,” Huggins said. “He didn’t rebound the ball and he was standing defensively. It’s amazing what happens to you when you make a few shots.”
Smith hit two more 3s after that (five in all) for a career-high 19 points to help West Virginia to a 76-66 victory over the Rebels.
Smith had a pretty good idea the hook was coming after he had just made a turnover.
“I was like, ‘Alright here we go.’ Coach is so serious about keeping the ball, no turnovers and all of that stuff. I know when I’m coming out,” Smith said.
In fact, Smith has been reeled in so many times that he has no problem rattling off all of the things that can get you pulled out of a game.
“If I don’t box my man out and he gets a rebound or I turn the ball over – if I do something stupid I know I’m coming out,” he said. “So I was like, ‘Alright, I’m just trying to help my team out anyway.’”
Smith figured he might as well line up another long bomb from the corner. Why not? He was headed for the chair next to assistant coach Larry Harrison anyway. So Wellington let it rip ... nothing but net.
“I decided to shoot the shot, made it, and tried another one,” Smith said. “I didn’t see Cam over there anymore so I was like, ‘Alright, I’m still in the game – I’m good.’”
He was good.
Smith’s 19 points and 7-of-9 shooting were a big boost to a team looking for some offense with leading scorer Da’Sean Butler having an off-night with 9 points. Seventeen of Wellington’s 19 points came in the second half when the sixth-rated Mountaineers were able to pull away from the Rebels.
“Wells has shot it well,” said Huggins. “When he gets on balance he shoots it well.”
Smith was playing the five spot in West Virginia’s all-big starting lineup that Huggins introduced for the first time this season against the perimeter-oriented Rebels. In this configuration Huggins put 6-foot-9 Devin Ebanks out front.
Shooting over it was like trying to eat soup with a fork. West Virginia’s length gave Ole Miss big problems on the perimeter, the Rebels shooting just 5 of 24 from 3-point distance and scoring nearly 20 points below their season average.
Huggins explained afterward that using a big lineup makes it much easier for West Virginia to switch everything on defense.
“I think our length bothers people. We’re long now,” Huggins said. “It’s hard to see over us and around us, plus we rebound it so much better.”
After spending three days digesting their poor defensive performance at Cleveland State last Saturday, the Mountaineers came out inspired Wednesday night against Mississippi.
“Defensively that’s more like us,” Huggins said.
And Smith’s long-range marksmanship is more like what he was used to doing in prep school when former coach John Beilein recruited him to West Virginia in the first place.
“When Beilein was here he let everybody shoot the ball. We kind of practiced shooting the ball every day just like we do with Huggs,” Smith said. “That was what I was kind of recruited for and it has kind of followed over. Cam Thoroughman was supposed to be a two-guard. Things change. I’m playing a five now and that’s big for us and that shows all of our mobility to do that.”
The irony of what took place Wednesday night when Huggins played five interchangeable players is that Beilein was always striving to do that when he was at West Virginia.
“We just kind of find a way to make it work,” Smith said of the big lineup. “The whole coaching staff did a great job of preparing us for that.”
A big lineup could also be in store for perimeter-oriented Seton Hall on Saturday afternoon when the Mountaineers take on the 9-1 Pirates at the Prudential Center in Newark. Six-five guard Jeremy Hazell leads Seton Hall in scoring with an average of 20 points per game.
The Pirates are coming off a 94-56 victory over Navy Tuesday night. Seton Hall’s only loss was a 71-65 verdict against Temple on Dec. 19.
Saturday’s game will be Seton Hall’s eighth straight at home.
CBS will televise the game nationally with a 3:30 p.m. tip off slated.
Briefly:
The West Virginia-Seton Hall game is the only Division I basketball contest scheduled for Saturday.
Wellington Smith (Summit, N.J.), Da’Sean Butler (Newark, N.J.), Kevin Jones (Mt. Vernon, N.Y.), Truck Bryant (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Devin Ebanks (Long Island City, N.Y.) and Danny Jennings (Staten Island, N.Y.) all grew up within a short drive of the Prudential Center where the Mountaineers will play Seton Hall on Saturday.
Butler is 32 points shy of passing Damian Owens for 11th place on West Virginia’s all-time scoring list with 1,616 points. Butler presently shows 1,585 career points.
Butler has performed well when returning to his native New Jersey. As a freshman Butler had back-to-back games of 17 points against Rutgers and 21 points against Seton Hall. Last year, Butler had 18 points in West Virginia’s 92-66 win over the Pirates at the Prudential Center.
Hazell led all scorers with 29 points in that game.
West Virginia has won the last four against Seton Hall and six of the last eight.
New Mexico State transfer Herb Pope has given Seton Hall a much more formidable inside presence this year. The 6-foot-8, 236-pounder is averaging 14 points and 11.9 rebounds per game. Pope is originally from Aliquippa, Pa.
The Pirates have a slew of transfers and it will be interesting to see how quickly some of them can become factors. In addition to Pope, the Pirates have Keon Lawrence from Missouri, Robert Mitchell from Duquesne and Jeff Robinson from Memphis.
Lawrence and Robinson have played just two games for the Pirates since becoming eligible.
West Virginia is 6-8 in all-time Big East openers while Seton Hall is 12-18. The Pirates have dropped their last two Big East openers at Syracuse in 2009 and at home against UConn in 2008.
More than half (30 of 58) of Bob Huggins’ wins at West Virginia have come away from the WVU Coliseum.
The combined record of West Virginia’s nine opponents so far this year is 62-45 while the combined record of Seton Hall’s 10 opponents is 50-63. The Pirates have faced only two teams with winning records (Cornell and Temple).
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