LV Cardfreak on WVU/UCLA tomorrow

[Russ Smith]

Looks like WVU may catch a big break, UCLA insiders reporting that Collison injured his left shoulder in the USC game, missed the last 2 practices, and is a gametime decision for tomorrow.

Westbrook would start if DC can't, Westbrook is going to be really good but he's a SG learning to play PG, would be pretty tough for UCLA to handle that zone and halfcourt trap with a freshman PG.

Personally I'd hold DC out the conference games are more important at this point anyways.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

29-22 WVU with the lead.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Update: 43-25 now.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

64-59 with 27.3 left on the clock.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

64-60

 

[Mulli]

Is LVCardfreak playing or coaching or something?

 

[Russ Smith]

Damn nice comeback but just too much to overtake. If Shipp makes that FT to get it to 3 we have a chance. That's a tough team to come back on they don't turn it over and they spread the court and make FT's.

Westbrook as I feared was overmatched at PG today, totally confused on both ends. I think he got a little bit too personal too he thought he got fouled and got no call and tried to force a play at least 3 times. Result, foul, turnover, airball. He's very confident but he's a bit out of control, some of those drives there was clear contact but he's going out of control so it's either going to be a no call or a charge, he probably got away with 2 or 3 charges.

Shipp's health is really a concern he's not the same kid since missing the USC game, can't elevate at all. Mata sat out the whole 2nd half with a sore knee apparently but Aboya played so well it didn't matter.

Hopefully DC is ok but it sounds like he could have played today they just decided to hold him out which is fine with me.

Always want to win but that's great experience on the road and will pay dividends in the tournament.

Boy do I like that Ruoff kid, Gansey junior!

 

[LVCARDFREAK]

Damn nice comeback but just too much to overtake. If Shipp makes that FT to get it to 3 we have a chance. That's a tough team to come back on they don't turn it over and they spread the court and make FT's.

Westbrook as I feared was overmatched at PG today, totally confused on both ends. I think he got a little bit too personal too he thought he got fouled and got no call and tried to force a play at least 3 times. Result, foul, turnover, airball. He's very confident but he's a bit out of control, some of those drives there was clear contact but he's going out of control so it's either going to be a no call or a charge, he probably got away with 2 or 3 charges.

Shipp's health is really a concern he's not the same kid since missing the USC game, can't elevate at all. Mata sat out the whole 2nd half with a sore knee apparently but Aboya played so well it didn't matter.

Hopefully DC is ok but it sounds like he could have played today they just decided to hold him out which is fine with me.

Always want to win but that's great experience on the road and will pay dividends in the tournament.

Boy do I like that Ruoff kid, Gansey junior!

WVU is tough at home but I am shocked at hwo well they played considering how awful they looked against Pitt just 3 days ago. Shot 28.8% fromt he floor.

Great win for WVU. Ruoff is fantastic and it is amazing they did this w/o Beilien in the lineup either. He has been the most consistent for WVU this year. WVU is a tough place to play. They crank the music and the kids are very well, antagonistic to say the least.

No one expected this team to be sitting at 19-5 right now. This is a young team. if they can get through this rough stretch where they play 3 top 20 teams and win a couple of game in the Big East Tourney, they might have a high enough seed to make some noise in the NCAA tourney

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

It's going to be interesting to see how UCLA plays doen the stretch against Arizona, UW, and Wazzu (yes, excluding the trainwreck in Tempe was intentional). The Bruins have not played well on the road thus far.

 

[Russ Smith]

It's going to be interesting to see how UCLA plays doen the stretch against Arizona, UW, and Wazzu (yes, excluding the trainwreck in Tempe was intentional). The Bruins have not played well on the road thus far.

Absolutely agree all 3 losses on the road. On the bright side they could have won all 3 games, but on the downside same pattern in all 3, zone defense and spread court offense beat them.

Shipp really worries me, Roll is an every other game player one good one invisible. Shipp finds a way to get 9-10 points but they need more than that from him, it's too easy for teams to key on Afflalo and Collison, they need that 3rd scorer. Luc had been doing it the last few games but WVU exposed him again, he dominated small frontlines in Oregon, OSU and USC, but couldn't score against WVU.

Big win for UA. Right now WSU looks to be playing the best ball in the conference.


Stanford/UW today should be interesting to see if they can rebound from the WSU loss.

 

[Russ Smith]

FYI today's rumor is that Collison and Mata are both likely out for the ASU game next week. Collison was medically cleared to practice and play yesterday but couldn't go. unclear whether that was his call or Howland's. Kellogg implied on air that Howland made the call to sit him. So I think he should be ok to play against ASU if they need him if he was technically cleared to play yesterday?

Mata is more unclear, CBS didn't even notice he wasn't in the game the whole 2nd half, it's a knee, he limped off, but it's unclear what sort of knee injury and how bad.

Maybe they will rest both for UA but that could cost them. ASU is losing a ton of close games, and if both kids go a week between playing they could be really rusty againt UA on the weekend and we all know playing at UA is never easy.

 

[SO91]

That was a bad loss for the Bruins. I'm a UA guy but I hate to see Pac-10 schools lose out of conference games

 

[Russ Smith]

That was a bad loss for the Bruins. I'm a UA guy but I hate to see Pac-10 schools lose out of conference games

Didn't really hurt UCLA, may have hurt the conference on the heels of UA blowout loss to UNC and Stanford losing to Gonzaga(who beat UNC earlier this year).

UCLA probably falls to about 5 or 6 in the rankings now, not a huge drop, WVU is right on the bubble of the top 25.

I think most realize UCLA didn't have their starting PG for the whole game, and their starting C for the whole 2nd half. So I don't think it would hurt dramatically in seeding.

I figure UCLA is a 1 or 2 seed this year barring a meltdown late season. And that meltdown IS possible when you consider they now have 4 injured starters although Collison's appears to be a short term thing. Mata, Mbah a Moute and Shipp are all going to essentially finish the year injured, the first 2 with knee problems, the latter with a hamstring problem.

 

[Russ Smith]

UCLA falls to 7 in the coaches poll behind Pitt and Texas A&M. I can see Pitt they beat WVU at home last game, but UCLA beat A&M and have the same record so falling behind them for a loss with injured starters seems odd?

I figure UCLA is no lower than 6th when the AP poll comes out.

 

[Renz]

I figure UCLA is no lower than 6th when the AP poll comes out.

The Bruins are 5th in the new AP poll.

 

[Skkorpion]

I watched that UCLA loss and I watched a lot of Pitt games when Howland coached there. At Pitt, it seems to me his teams always seemed to find ways to lose in the Big East tournament and the NCAAs.

Howland is a great recruiter but I'm not impressed with his game coaching.

 

[Russ Smith]

I watched that UCLA loss and I watched a lot of Pitt games when Howland coached there. At Pitt, it seems to me his teams always seemed to find ways to lose in the Big East tournament and the NCAAs.

Howland is a great recruiter but I'm not impressed with his game coaching.

I think Ben can coach, there are a few things he does I don't agree with but you can't argue results. UCLA has two McDonald's AA's on their roster right now and one, Keefe a freshman, barely plays. To be 21-3 with this roster and their schedule is quite impressive, especially with all the injuries.

Things he does I don't agree with.

Never changes defenses, will only play man to man, rarely presses, asks his kids to pick up just over halfcourt and play tight man to man. When you have injuries etc liek they do now, a team like WVU is VERY hard to play liek that. They're hard to play healthy, UCLA is so aggressive and WVU uses it against them with back cuts and curl cuts.

The way he uses his timeouts has always bugged me. Saturday twice he called a timeout when a dead ball would have been a tv timeout. So we ran a play, dead ball another timeout. They run out of timeouts almost every game. For the most part it's worked. He loves to call timeouts after made baskets to set up his defense.

He doesn't make in game adjustments, like the Florida game last year, he refused to call off the double in the post or the pressure on the ball because it was one dunk after another.

That said, he's a terrific coach, can't think of anybody I'd prefer at UCLA over him. UCLA never plays anything but man to man because Wooden didn't and many UCLA fans think it's an insult to play any zone. I don't agree but that's how it is. UCLA fans still criticize his offense some but I think he's proven this year that he can coach offense he's clearly changed it to feature Collison's quickness more. Next year with Kevin Love he'll feature the post more.

I know that NBA scouts love him, they said that Farmar, Bozeman and Hollins were all extremely well coached in college and I know Rambis was raving about how quickly Farmar picked up the triangle offense, said it was obvious he was really well coached in college.

 

[SO91]

I should have said a bad loss for the conference. I agree with you in that they should be a 1 seed, possibly 2. BTW why does it seem like UCLA has injury problems every year?

 

[Russ Smith]

I should have said a bad loss for the conference. I agree with you in that they should be a 1 seed, possibly 2. BTW why does it seem like UCLA has injury problems every year?

Last year most of them seemed to be in practice except for Farmar and Mata colliding essentially breaking Mata's leg during a game.

This year, mostly in games. I think Ben might run overly physical practices, but both Collison(the USC game) and Mata (WVU game) got hurt in games. Luc was fighting Tenditis all year and then strained the knee in a game. Shipp hurt his hammy in a game too. He did admit after both the Oregon loss and the Stanford loss the players had dead legs from over practicing, but he might have just been covering for the loss.

Could be connected to the weight program though, I've wondered that before they get players quite a bit stronger, it's obvious, but I wonder if they lose some flexibility and end up with more injuries?

 

[Skkorpion]

I hate UCLA basketball -- a condition I learned while at Notre Dame and have no control over -- but I'm so sick of Duke and North Carolina dominating the TV showings, I'd love it if the whole PAC 10 kicked ass in the tournament.

I'm even hoping Lute and UA do well, at least until Sendek gets some players in here.

 

[SO91]

I'm even hoping Lute and UA do well, at least until Sendek gets some players in here.

I know it must have been painful to write those words

 

[Skkorpion]

I know it must have been painful to write those words

hehe. As an ASU grad, I pine for the days when we had talent like Alton Lister and Byron Scott. Sendek will lead us back to be able to compete with UA again.

 

[SO91]

I hope so...I like a good competitive state rivalry

 

[devilfan02]

hehe. As an ASU grad, I pine for the days when we had talent like Alton Lister and Byron Scott. Sendek will lead us back to be able to compete with UA again.

I really hope Sendek will be able to get the most out of the talent he's bringing in. Harden has all the tools to be one of the best in ASU history, Boateng is a legit post presence that can relieve Pendergraph of double and triple teams, and McMillan should provide us with a floor leader and very good PG defense.

The main problem with Sendek is his offense is EXTREMELY hard to watch and it makes Robs offense look like D'Antonis. He seemed to do fine while at NC ST and I'll take that same success here. Anythings better then finishing 8th-10th in the PAC-10 every year. It's tough to judge Sendeks offense now because he has absolutely no athletes to work with. We are arguably the worst Div 1 basketball team in the country this year, I can't wait for all the above mentioned to get on campus

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I really hope Sendek will be able to get the most out of the talent he's bringing in. Harden has all the tools to be one of the best in ASU history, Boateng is a legit post presence that can relieve Pendergraph of double and triple teams, and McMillan should provide us with a floor leader and very good PG defense.

Agree on everything but Eric Boateng. If he's a legit post presence then Jordan Hill is a 20/10 threat.

I also find it amusing how ASU fan excuses Sendek's preformace this year by saying "wait until he gets his own players" yet that was never applicable to Mike Stoops. Pretty funny how that has worked out.