Final Four Preview: Duke vs. W. Virginia

March 30, 2010

I was absolutely blown away when I took a look back at the West Virginia Mountainteers schedule this season. Not only did they come into the NCAA tournament on a 6 game winning streak, but they did it in the toughest conference in college basketball. Of the Mountaineers 6 losses, only 1 came against a non-tournament team, and 2 were against teams not ranked in the top 25. Now they will face a streaking Duke Blue Devils squad that is looking to add another National Championship to their already impressive collection.

A last second lay-up in the Big East Championship game against a tough Georgetown squad may have been the spark plug that this team needed to propel them into the Final Four. Head coach Bob Huggins has been successful at every stop in his coaching career. He’s a tremendous recruiter with a good eye for talent. However, what takes Huggins to the next level of coaching is his motivational skills. He has been able to keep his team focused despite losing their best guard Darryl Bryant with a broken foot. At this point in the tournament coaching is a huge factor. Tom Izzo proved that Sunday as his Michigan St Spartans took down a red hot Tennessee Volunteers team despite not having their best player available.

The Mountaineers have plenty of length which makes them difficult to score against and defend. Da’Sean Butler is the leading scorer on the team from the forward position. Four of W. Virginia’s top 5 scorers are forwards. Kevin Jones, Devin Ebanks and Wellington Smith contribute 32 points, almost 20 rebounds and 5 assists per game to an offense that averages 73 points. The speed of these big men is what makes them so hard to handle. Generally guard play is the most important key to making a deep run in the NCAA tournament, but the Mountaineers have taken down some of the best guard combinations thus far. Missouri, Washington and Kentucky all have tremendous players in the guard position, but none of them were able to get open shots or easy buckets in the paint against W. Virginia.

Duke has a much different style then those other schools. They too have tremendous forwards that are capable of scoring from anywhere on the court. The Blue Devils may average almost 5 more points per game, but that number may be deceiving. The ACC conference is not known for defense while the Big East is a grind week in and week out.

Coach K is getting the most out of his players this year. It seems like every night another player emerges to carry this team to a win. Sunday it was Nolan Smith’s turn. He had a career high 29 points in a hard fought game against Baylor with several big shots in the closing minutes to seal the deal for Duke. Jon Scheyer leads the team in scoring with an 18.2 point per game average. He’s followed by Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith. There is a significant drop off after this trio in regards to scoring, but it doesn’t seem to affect the outcome of games. Duke has won 16 of there last 17 games with the lone loss coming at Maryland.

This should be a great game. Both teams have the upper hand to win the National Championship as the other Final Four game is between two #5 seeds. Expect a low scoring slug fest that is decided in the final moments. The way this tournament has gone I wouldn’t expect anything less.

Written by Glenn Andrew · Filed Under NCAA Basketball

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