Published: March 23, 2008 11:28 pm         

Huggins is familiar with Xavier

MORGANTOWN — Xavier, West Virginia University’s next opponent in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, certainly is no stranger to Bob Huggins.

The Mountaineers’ magnificent first-year head coach was 8-8 against the cross-town Musketeers during his 16 years at the University of Cincinnati. He also lost to Xavier while at Kansas State.     

“Well, I know who the coach is,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said after his third-seeded team’s 85-78 victory over Purdue in its second-round NCAA game at Washington’s Verizon Center. Miller is 1-1 against Huggins. 

Huggins, the man Xavier fans loved to hate all those years, stayed to watch the Musketeers battle from behind to join seventh-seeded West Virginia, which upset No. 2 seed Duke 73-67 earlier in the day, in the Sweet 16.

Now the two teams move on to the West Regional site of Phoenix for a Thursday night contest. The game will tip off at 7:10 p.m.

“Certainly I’m happy for our university, and how much this means to our state,” Huggins was quoted in the Cincinnati Enquirer. This will be Huggins’ first appearance in the Sweet 16 since he took the Bearcats there in 2001.

West Virginia’s record now is 26-10, the school’s best ever under a new coach. The Musketeers, members of the Atlantic 10 Conference, are 29-6 and have won 15 of their last 17 games. 

The Mountaineers are on a roll, having won eight of their last 10 contests.

Xavier has more size than probably any team it has faced this season, with five players taller than 6-foot-6, including two at 6-9. It has five scorers averaging double-digits and is outscoring its opponents 75.5-62.7.

The Musketeers are shooting 47.8 from the field to 40.6 and managing a 35.8-30.2 margin in rebounding. 

WVU is averaging 74.8 points to 63.1, goaling on 45.5 percent of its shots to 41.9, and outrebounding opponents 35.9-33.6.

Leading Xavier is 6-9 senior Josh Duncan (12.1 points, 4.7 rebounds), followed by 5-7 senior guard Drew Lavender (11.0, 2.6), who leads in assists with 149. Others are 6-8 sophomore forward Derrick Brown (10.9, 6.7), 6-6 junior forward/guard C.J. Anderson (10.7, 5.9) and 6-6 junior guard/forward B.J. Raymond (10.1, 3.1).

Stan Burrell, 6-3 senior guard, is averaging 9.8 points and has 132 assists. Jason Love, 6-9 sophomore forward/center, is scoring at a 6.1 clip and averaging 5.4 rebounds a game.

Joe Alexander continues to lead the Mountaineers with 16.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. The 6-8 junior had a game-high 22 points and 11 rebounds in the win over Duke.

But it was reserve Joe Mazzulla who was considered the MVP by most observers. He finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, the majority coming in the second half. Alex Ruoff chipped in 17 points and six rebounds.   

Xavier, which is 5-1 on neutral courts this year, posted victories over Indiana (80-65), Cincinnati (64-59), Virginia (108-70), Auburn (60-57) and St. Joseph’s (76-72).

West Virginia won the only other previous meeting between the two teams, 82-65, in the WVU Classic at the Coliseum in the 1979-80 season.