Published: March 23, 2008 01:37 am         

Huggins to face familar foe in Xavier

WASHINGTON D.C. — It will be like old times for Bob Huggins when his West Virginia team returns to the floor for the Sweet 16 in Phoenix. The opponent will be Xavier, who was Huggins’ crosstown rival in Cincinnati during his 16 years with the Bearcats.

Xavier has always been a problem for Huggins. He was 8-8 against the Musketeers while in Cincinnati and is 8-9 for his career against them, having lost to them while at Kansas State.

The Mountaineers have played only one game against Xavier, winning in 1980.

Xavier, coached by Sean Miller, who had his own run-ins with West Virginia as a point guard at Pitt, is a balanced team that has six players who scored in double figures this year, all between 10.0 and 11.7 points a game.

The Musketeers are led by Josh Duncan, who averages 11.7 points a game, and on the boards by Derrick Brown, who averages 6.6 rebounds a game.

Like WVU, Xavier is not very big, it’s tallest players being Duncan, Jason Love and Charles Bronson, all listed at 6-9.

West Virginia 73

Duke 67

Joe Mazzulla came off the bench to lead No. 7 West Virginia to an upset of No. 2 Duke, sending the Mountaineers to the Sweet 16.

Mazzulla narrowly missed a triple double as he inspired a second-half rally. He finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists but his hardnosed play was what pushed WVU from a 5-point halftime deficit to the victory.

Joe Alexander led WVU in scoring with 22 points, while Alex Ruoff added 17.

West Virginia completely dominated the boards, with four players pulling down more rebounds than any Duke player did.

NOTES

• A year ago, under John Beilein, West Virginia was a weak rebounding team, being outrebounded by almost four a game for the season and by seven a game in the Big East. When Bob Huggins came in he demanded rebounding be the No. 1 emphasis. Think it didn’t pay dividends? Against Duke the Mountaineers pulled down 47 rebounds to just 20 for the Blue Devils, especially hitting the offensive boards hard with a 19-7 advantage. The 47 rebounds matched the season high.

• Joe Alexander scored 22 points to lead WVU in scoring. He has led the Mountaineers in scoring 18 times and the team is 14-4 in those games. Alexander has scored in double figures in 13 straight games.

• West Virginia has advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the third time in the last four years. The other year, the Mountaineers won the NIT title.

• WVU coach Bob Huggins, who has had problems with official Ed Hightower over the years, was tagged with an early technical by the official.

• The game was marred by 49 personal fouls, Duke hitting 24 of 32 free throws and WVU 19 of 22.

     

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.