Published: November 20, 2008 12:18 pm            

Huggins seeks patience from Mountaineers

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins likes to see his men's basketball team at least taking the directive to heart and trying to score in transition.

He just isn't thrilled about the way the Mountaineers are going about it.

"We shoot it too quick," Huggins said. "We want to be able to score early and we want to be a transition team that scores in transition, but when we don't score in transition, we've got to be able to rebound it. When we shoot it that quick out of the offense, we just don't rebound it well. I'd rather have a little more ball movement."

The Mountaineers (1-0) begin the four-game, three-site Las Vegas Invitational with tonight's 7 p.m. game against Longwood (2-1) inside the WVU Coliseum. They then play host to Delaware State on Nov. 25 at the Charleston Civic Center before moving on to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas to play Iowa on Nov. 28 and either Kansas or Kentucky a day later.

In these next two games, WVU will renew its emphasis on easy scores.

"The last two games (an exhibition win against Mountain State and a season-opening victory against Elon), we haven't had to dictate tempo," point guard Joe Mazzulla said. "I'm sure once we start to play better teams, it's going to be a lot different as far as knowing when we need to run and when we need a good possession.

"It's a learning curve and we still have a lot to learn. It's almost like we're preparing ourselves for the Iowas and Kentuckys and Kansas States. We really don't stress the things we're doing well. We're worried about what we're doing wrong."

The process is at least slowed by trying to incorporate new starters and new players and split the minutes among nine or 10 capable players. In the season opener against Elon, the Mountaineers shot 58.6 percent and scored 96 points, but they did so with just four fastbreak points despite 24 Elon turnovers.

"It's something Coach says is not a matter of if we can do it, it's a matter of we can do it and we have to be tough enough to do it consistently," forward Da'Sean Butler said. "Honestly, you have to will yourself up and down the court. It's not just speed to get up and down. It's a matter of will to beat your man up and down the court."

WVU believes it's well armed for the challenge. Huggins said the Mountaineers have "a lot guys who can put pressure on rim" as well as players who are getting better at defense, and bad shots by the opponent leads to easy shots for the Mountaineers, so long as they want to run.

"We're in better shape," Mazzulla said. "We don't have any loafs, any 6-foot-10, heavy, slow-footed guys. We're all pretty athletic, even the bigger guys, and we all can run the floor. I think we're more equipped for this than in the past."

        

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