Jimmy V Week ends tonight with the Jimmy V Classic in MSG. The first game of the night pits Davidson against West Virginia. Davidson's Stephen Curry is averaging 31.3 ppg and 6.4 apg. On Saturday against NC State, Curry scored 44 points for the second time this season (crazy stat - NC State came into the game allowing 53.8 ppg, which Curry almost scored himself).
West Virginia is not going to stop Curry. If you take away the game against Loyola where they face guarded him with two guys, Curry is averaging 36.5 ppg and put up 44 in the two games against major conference opponents. So unless Huggins wants to throw two guys on Curry, you are not going to stop him. For West Virginia to win, they are going to need to do what Oklahoma did and shut down the rest of his team. The Sooners held Andrew Lovedale (14 and 10 per) to just 10 points and 8 boards on 4-12 shooting, but those numbers look much better than the way he played. He was completely ineffective against the Griffins inside and ended shooting face-up jump shots the entire game. Against NC State, Lovedale went for 12 points and 9 rebounds (7 offensive), but overall was much more active and effective than he was against the Sooners.
The other thing the 'Neers need to do is to make life as difficult as possible for Curry. Be physical with him. If he is cutting or coming off of a screen, give him a good bump. Hold his jersey when he is trying to move. Give a hard, but clean, foul in the early going to set the tone. If he is bringing the ball up offensively, have someone defend him 94 feet so he has to work to get the ball up. Attack him on the defensive end. Basically, what they need to do is go back to the film of the Elite 8 game against Kansas, where the Jayhawks kept throwing bodies at Curry until he finally wore down at the end. If the Mountaineers can get Curry tired or frustrated (which is much, much easier said than done because the kid is in marathon runner shape and is as collected as any college player I've ever seen), it will make their lives a lot easier. WVU probably needs to hold him to 30 if they want to win. Think about that for a second. It is considered a success if you hold Steph Curry to under 30 points.
On the other side of the ball, West Virginia is coming off of two pretty good wins at Mississippi and against Cleveland State. Da'Sean Butler has filled the role of go-to scorer very nicely and Alex Ruoff is shooting the ball as well as ever (both average right around 14 ppg). The big thing for WVU in this game is going to be their aggressiveness going to the glass, especially on the offensive end. They have a ton of guys that are about 6'8" and athletic (Devin Ebanks, Wellington Smith, John Flowers, Kevin Jones, even Butler). They must take advantage of that athleticism against the Wildcats.
The nightcap in NYC is Texas against Villanova. Villanova is as beat up as any team in the country. Shane Clark and Dwayne Anderson are coming off of injuries, and big man Casiem Drummond has decided to leave the team to transfer. But they still have three great guards in Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher, and Corey Stokes. Reynolds is the best scorer of the bunch, but his point production has dropped off this year. He is averaging more assists and fewer turnovers, as he seems to be accepting of the fact that he has more talent around him this year.
I see two keys to this game for 'Nova. This first is that they are going to need one of the Corey's to step up and knock down some shots. Against a similar UCLA team, Justin Mason was all over Darren Collison through out (he did have 22 and 5 assists, but it took 22 shots and he had 6 turnovers). I look for Rick Barnes to do the same thing to Reynolds.
The other key is the rebounding battle. Texas is huge up front, and Villanova is not all that big. Texas built up a double digit lead against UCLA because they were able to control the glass, but the Bruins came back when Alfred Aboya got O-board after O-board. Dante Cunningham is a talented and athletic guy, and he, along with the rest of the Wildcats, are going to need to be all over the offensive glass.
It will be interesting to see what Texas does defensively. Tough defense forcing bad shots and turnovers has been their MO this year, and I don't expect that to change. The biggest thing for Texas is that they need to remember that they aren't a jump shooting team outside of AJ Abrams, and maybe Connor Atchley. Guys like Damion James and Mason need to focus on attacking the rim, where Texas is going to be bigger and more athletic that Villanova.
The rest of the night's games:
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Tuesday Lay-up Lines |
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