New faces, same Mountaineers to challenge Pitt

It’s a good thing the Pitt men’s basketball team had a rare nine-day layoff between… It’s a good thing the Pitt men’s basketball team had a rare nine-day layoff between conference games. That should have given head coach Jamie Dixon enough time to prepare his players for what looks to be one of his team’s toughest tests this season.

The Panthers will make the short trip to one of the conference’s toughest places to play, the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, W.Va., when they take on the Mountaineers at 7:30 tonight.

The Coliseum is always a raucous environment to play in, especially when the rival Panthers come to town, but this year the surprising Mountaineers have given their fans much to cheer about.

Despite losing five of their top six scorers from a team that went to the Sweet 16 a year ago, the Mountaineers are an impressive 18-4 (through 22 games last season they were 17-5).

Not only have the Mountaineers seen an improvement in the wins column, but their success has manifested itself throughout the stat sheet. The Mountaineers are scoring more points per game than they did a year ago (73.4 to 72.7) and also are holding their opponents to fewer points per game (58.2 to 62.7). Their 15.2 margin of victory is good enough for second in the Big East.

The Mountaineers also have a higher shooting percentage from the field and from 3-point range than they did a year ago while also a grabbing more rebounds and blocking more shots than last season.

So where are all these numbers coming from?

“You see the exact same plays, but it’s not Pittsnogle out there making 3s,” Pitt junior Keith Benjamin told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He used to kill us. Now, it’s someone else. They have more athletes, better jumpers and the same number of shooters.”

WVU starts two seniors, a junior and two sophomores and brings a freshman off the bench. While none of those players are superstars, five of those six are averaging at least 9.6 points a game.

Senior forward Frank Young spearheads that balanced attack. Young is averaging 14.5 points a game and leads the conference in 3-point field goals with an impressive 3.27 a game.

While Young paces the scoring, the younger Mountaineers keep head coach John Beilein’s squad rolling. Sophomore forward Joe Alexander averages 12.7 points a game, while junior Darris Nichols averages 10.2.

“The names may have changed, but they’re very similar in what they’re doing and what their skills are,” Dixon told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “That’s what they recruit. They get guys who can play in their system. The names are different, but their tendencies are pretty much the same.”

Off the bench, freshman Da’Sean Butler averages exactly 10 points per contest and was just named Big East Rookie of the Week for his performance in two road wins against Rutgers and Seton Hall where he scored 17 and 21 points, respectively.

Other than senior starter Rob Summers, the only WVU starter not to score in double figures is sophomore Alex Ruoff. Ruoff just misses that total with 9.6 points, but his role with the team cannot only be measured by points. Ruoff is second in the Big East with 5.45 assists per game and third in the conference with 2.23 steals per game.

This balanced attack of the Mountaineers has been good enough to help the team win five of their last six games with the only loss coming in overtime at Cincinnati.

“It’s a testament to coach Beilein and their system,” senior Levon Kendall said in the Post-Gazette “They’re getting it done. It’s the same formula that they’ve had in the past. They know what they do and they do it well.”

While the young Mountaineers are currently unranked nationally, WVU has a great opportunity to make some noise on the national level. Tonight’s game against the No. 6/7 Panthers will be just a warm up for when they host former Pitt head coach Ben Howland and the No. 2 UCLA Bruins on Saturday. It will be the first time the Coliseum will see two top-10 teams in consecutive games since the facility opened in 1970.

All of that, on top of an already intense backyard rivalry between Pitt and WVU, should make for a crazy place to play for the Panthers, who have been relatively unsuccessful there (6-22 all time).

Dixon will look to join Howland as the only two Panther coaches to win twice at the Coliseum.