The Arkansas Razorbacks not only gave West Virginia their first loss, they handed Mountaineer head coach John Beilein an early Christmas present. You knew when Popeye got a grip on a can of Spinach that he would be snapping things back together to ship shape in a hurry. That’s no canned spinach in Beilein’s hand, it’s a remote control. The film of the title game of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando is being consumed, and in a matter of hours the modified Princeton offense will be flexing it’s strength like a bicep with a sailor’s tatoo.
Meanwhile, before Sidney Lowe takes the Wolfpack to Morgantown, he and his assistants will have an opportunity to regroup from their first loss of the season. They will undoubtedly see some encouraging things in the film room of what happened in the ACC opener against UVA, a 67-62 loss in Charlottesville. What doesn’t need much film to explain itself is the method Beilein’s last opponent used to approach the game. After reviewing the motion offense and 1-3-1 defense that WVU teams are notorious for, Arkansas head coach Stan Heath went into Sunday’s showdown with a clear message to his players.
“We had to attack them,” Heath said. “We couldn’t play east and west. We wanted to have a vertical attack. We wanted to get through some of those gaps and seams and try to play north and south.”
Wild as the Hogs were at times (19 to’s), the attacking scheme resulted in about as many high percentage shots as you could ask for. Couple that with a resounding 38-18 rebounding edge, and you get a game that was not as competitive as the final score might suggest.
The WVU Mens Basketball team resembles a rock band (The System) that has disbanded and since hired some fresh faces around front man Beilein. A solid recruiting class (including 7’1″ transfer Jami Smalligan, a Pittsnogle type), and a potential million dollar buy out later, leave us to wonder if the coach can be to the modified Princeton offense what John Fogarty was to Credance Clearwater Revival. Or, if too many gifted and gutsy players left the system Beilein is so busy breaking down in studio, I mean film room, right now.
Darris Nichols (pg, and leading scorer), Frank Young (wing with good mid range game), and Alex Ruoff do the primary ballhandling and outside shooting. While both Joe Alexander and Rob Summers have decent post games, rebounding has caused them problems. In essence, this is really a clash of styles and basketball philosophies. No one can argue with the great run Beilein has had at WVU the past few seasons. Winning on the road in a Big East environment is extremely difficult these days, and it will take an extreme effort by the undermanned Wolfpack. If you have gotten this far and read about Beilein’s efforts to get the team on track after tasting their first defeat, then you have to go back to the message Coach Lowe has been telling his players.
