By Dave Morrison
MORGANTOWN — Bob Huggins doesn’t think it necessary to use Le Moyne’s upset of Syracuse in an exhibition game last week as motivation for his team heading into today’s 1 p.m. exhibition game with Mountain State.
Tickets are $16 and can be purchased at the Coliseum.
“I don’t need to do that,” Huggins said.
Likewise, Bob Bolen, Mountain State’s coach, doesn’t feel the need to use that upset as a promotional tool.
“They know about it, I heard a couple guys talking about it,” Bolen said. “ But we didn’t have a team meeting to tell them about that game.”
After all, it is an exhibition game.
It doesn’t really count.
Just don’t tell that to the two coaches, who are all too familiar with the other’s program, being that they are friends off the court.
“Just playing against that level of competition is great for us,” Bolen said. “They will be far more talented than anyone else we’ll play. And we’re getting to go up against a legitimate Top 10 program.”
“They’ve been the national champion, national runner-up, they are a Top 5 program in the NAIA,” Huggins, a former NAIA coach at Walsh College, said. “They’ve given us a good game the last two years. It’s a great game for us. It gives our young guys a chance to play in front of, hopefully, a packed house and get used to the environment.”
Huggins knows MSU’s personnel stacks up among the best in the nation as far as small-school basketball goes.
“Their leading scorer (Nick Aldridge) was all-conference at Western Carolina, Alvin Mitchell played at Cincinnati ... they’ve got Division I-caliber players,” Huggins said. “And Bobby does a good job coaching them. They really play hard. It’s been a good game for us every year.”
In fact, MSU stacks up for this game potentially in better shape than it has for either of the past two games.
Aldridge, who missed the game last year, does have Division I talent, point guard Barry Wellington is a small-Division I transfer and there is Mitchell.
“I’m looking forward to playing in the Coliseum again,” Mitchell said. “That might have been one of my better games last year. I scored like two points, but I played like 19 minutes. I know from playing against (Devin) Ebanks and (Da’Sean) Butler, they have a lot of talent.”
Andrew Lee played in the game last year.
“That’s the one I marked, even though it’s an exhibition game,” Lee said. “I know (John) Flowers really well and it’s going to be a good gauge to tell us exactly where we are.”
West Virginia fans will also get a chance to get a first look at All-America nominees Butler and Ebanks as well as a bevy of Huggins recruits that has WVU in the AP Top 10 at No. 8.
“I wouldn’t say we’re there yet,” Ebanks said. “We still have a lot of chemistry to catch up on. But I’d rather play a team like Mountain State in an exhibition game than go play a scrimmage.”
“They play hard and they play physical and they have a variety of people who can post up and are very versatile,” Bolen said. “It’s always been a challenge and it always will be. Coach Huggins has a tremendous program and we’re proud to go up there and play.”
Bolen did offer one observation from the exhibition portion of the schedule.
“Campbellsville got blown out by Kentucky by almost 50 points, Louisville beat Georgetown (Ky.) by 12 and UCLA beat Concordia by one,” Bolen said. “That’s a 50-point blowout, a double-figure victory and one-point win. And I guarantee you this, West Virginia is better than any of those three (Division I) teams.”
