WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Is going unbeaten - or even staying with azero in the loss column - overrated?
The subject isn't the NFL Colts and their resting-regulars lossSunday, although West Virginia plays basketball only an hour's drivefrom Indianapolis today.
When No. 4 Purdue (12-0) entertains the sixth-ranked Mountaineers(11-0) at Mackey Arena in a major marquee ESPN telecast, somebody'sgoose egg is going to be history by late afternoon.
Then there will be five unbeatens - and it's a long way tothirtysomething-and-oh. No major college club has done it since abeloved team in this state, the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers.
Don't get WVU Coach Bob Huggins wrong. He wants to win every gameas much as anyone. However, he doesn't seem sure his Mountaineers -"younger than I think most people realize we are" - play all thatrelaxed with that zero on their backs.
"Everybody has comfort zones," Huggins said after WVU's thirdteeth-grinding victory in four games, a 63-62 decision Tuesday nightover Marquette on Da'Sean Butler's 20-foot jumper. "And I don't knowhow comfortable we are being where we are."
Is today's game - other than being the kind of intersectionalmatchup that the NCAA Tournament selection committee loves - moreimportant than the remaining Big East Conference dates to come forWest Virginia?
"I don't know if it is or not," Huggins said. "Let's be honest,we could have lost the last three (or three of four). Maybe weshould have lost the last three."
The one thing the WVU coach does know is that at Purdue, his teamis finishing "one hard stretch. It's been hard for everybody."Today's game will be the Mountaineers' fifth (three of those on theroad) in 14 days and fourth in 10 days. The nailbiters have beenbuzzer beaters at Cleveland State and over Marquette, and anovertime survival at Seton Hall.
While the veteran coach grasps what today's game meanspotentially down the road when the NCAA committee is splitting hairsto make seeds, his players - comfortable at 11-0 or not - enjoy theperks of playing a team like the Boilermakers.
"These are the kind of big games, if you're a player, that youreally want to play," WVU sophomore Devin Ebanks said. "The idea isto go out there and prove not that just we belong where we are, butthat we're better than No. 6.
"We work hard in practice to get to where we are, and so we needto go out at Purdue and do our business. I don't think we werelooking past Marquette to Purdue. You've got to handle the taskthat's next, and we just didn't play the kind of defense we have.
"At Purdue, if you get a lead, you can't relax."
Asked if he were happy to be entering 2010 with an 11-0 record,Huggins said, "It beats the alternative." Asked if he's gettingtired of his Mountaineers squeaking past foes, he said, "I get moretired when we lose."
The appreciation of where West Virginia's 2009-10 team stands inschool annals is there, however. The last time WVU reached 11-0 in aseason was 52 seasons ago, on Jan. 8, 1958 with a win at Villanova.Jerry West was a 19-year-old sophomore then. The Legend and Logo is71 now.
That team started 14-0, a WVU record. In 1945-46, West Virginiawon 13 before it lost. The next season, the start was 12-0. Thosethree teams are the only ones in Mountaineer history who have toppedthe current 11-0.
In his long coaching career of 650 victories, Huggins had fourseasons start 11-0 or better at Cincinnati - the best was a 15-winopening in 1998-99 before a loss at UNC-Charlotte.
However, just as memorable to Huggins is a Cincinnati season thatstarted with a zero in the left column. His point was that it's notjust how you start.
"We opened Gallagher-Iba Arena (at Oklahoma State in 2001-02),and we got smacked," Huggins said. "It may have been 9 or 10 points(69-62 actually), but it seemed like 90. It seemed like we werepushing a rock uphill the whole game.
"I come in (the locker room) and I'm going berserk. We got backto the hotel and one of my assistants says, 'We've got to get betterplayers.' Now, this is a guy who never even had his a- outrecruiting and he says we've got to get better players.
"I told him, 'I should fire you right now.' ... Our job is tomake them better, try to accentuate the positives they do and stayaway from the negatives. That's coaching. That's what coaches do.
"Being undefeated, my point was we lost in Gallagher-Iba Arena,but after that night we went out and won 20 in a row. That's notbad.
"I think you have to be a really stupid person to have to lose tolearn. I think we should have learned from the Cleveland State game.I think we should have learned from the Seton Hall game. I think weshould have learned from (the Marquette) game."
The point being, win or lose at Purdue, it's not the end of theworld or even close to the end of the season for the Mountaineersand Boilermakers. The Big East and Big Ten are big deals.
Whatever happens at sold out Mackey, Huggins hopes his teamlearns that and heeds the lesson as the calendar turns.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS West Virginia Universitys Devin Ebanks saidhe looks forward to big games like todays matchup with unbeaten andfourth-ranked Purdue.
No comments:
Post a Comment