Musings from the Mountains: WVU Basketball Notebook: NCAA Tournament 2
West Virginia will play Marshall for the first time in nearly three years tonight.
It’s being billed as a lot of things but for players on the Mountaineers team it simply serves as the next game on the quest to march on in the bracket.
“This is March. We’re here to win a National Championship. It’s just happens that we just matched up against Marshall. Don’t matter who it is,” senior guard Jevon Carter said. “We’re going to come to play and do our best and get a win.”
Junior Esa Ahmad shared those thoughts.
“Just another game,” he said.
-----------------------------
This will be the 45th total meeting between the two teams.
And by the sound of things, if there isn’t another meeting scheduled in the NCAA Tournament down the road, it might indeed be the last for a while.
The state’s only division one programs met on the basketball court annually from 1978-2015 but that series was stopped and it doesn’t sound like it’s anywhere close to a revival.
Asked about that subject following the win over Murray State, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins largely dodged the issue even going as far to say he wouldn’t be baited into addressing all the details.
“I don't want to get into all that. You're trying to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to bite on what you're trying to do,” he said.
Marshall head coach Dan D’Antoni was a little more willing.
“You will have to ask West Virginia about that. I’m not going to go just play at Morgantown, so after that ask West Virginia. I think it should be played. One time at their place, one time at our place, one time at a neutral site, whatever,” he said.
When asked if there was any room for wiggle room, he elaborated further.
“No, we’re a Division one school. You’ve got to treat us like one. I would love to play. I’ll needle them a little bit. I see somebody I can needle, so I’m going to needle them a little bit,” he said.
Like this?
“We are playing West Virginia University. I coach Marshall University where West Virginians play. We'll just leave it at that,” D’Antoni said.
Yes, doesn’t seem close at all.
-----------------------------
This won’t be the first time that West Virginia squares off against Marshall guard Jon Elmore.
The first meeting, was coincidentally the last meeting between the two schools, in December of 2015 and was the VMI transfer’s second game eligible for the Herd. He finished with 14 points, but 11 of those came from the three throw line as he was 1-9 from the floor.
“I had a torn up ankle. It was the second half, they grinded us down and wore us out. But we’re a new team, a lot of new guys and hopefully it will be a little different,” he said.
-----------------------------
Marshall has plenty of WestVirginia ties, considering seven of their players hail from West Virginia compared to three on the Mountaineers. But it's one West that will make Mountaineer fans walk down memory lane in a sense.
Jarrod West is none other than the son of the former West Virginia guard of the same name. The one that knocked down the banked three-point shot in Boise against Cincinnati to send the Mountaineers to a Sweet 16.
The coach on the other sideline being none other than current West Virginia head man Huggins and it's a moment he has to relive more than he'd like to admit.
"They show it before every game which I can't believe they would do. Every game they show Jarrod banking that shot in and the Mountaineer running out on the floor and shooting the gun and the cheerleaders and it was supposed to have been a technical, but we passed on that.," Huggins said.
The younger West averages just under 8 points per game and leads Marshall shooting 41-percent from three however he wasn't highly recruited by the Mountaineers.
"A little bit. Maybe not as much as I think I should have been, but not a whole lot, a little bit but not too much," West said.
As for the older West? It isn't hard to see where his rooting interests will lie.
"I wouldn't say he's very conflicted at all, really. I think he's definitely rooting for us really hard. He was excited," West said.
-----------------------------
West Virginia junior guard D’Angelo Hunter has been nowhere to be seen in San Diego.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the circumstances.
“He’s not here,” Huggins said.
And as for his status with the team?
“He’s not here,” Huggins repeated.
Hunter was in his first season with the program after coming from the junior college level and saw only 93 minutes of action this season scoring 1.5 points per game.
Tipoff is set for 9:40 p.m. in San Diego.
*****
After the players are interviewed there is a long break, you can skip ahead to 10:25 when Coach Huggins comes on.
