Court Report: West Virginia
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No. 15/13 Ohio State (9-0) vs. West Virginia (9-2)
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Date: Saturday, December 27
Time: 4:00 p.m. ET
Place: Value City Arena – capacity 19,049
TV: CBS with Happy Gilmore co-star Verne Lundquist and former Buckeye baller Clark Kellogg.
Radio: WBNS-AM 1460 and WBNS-FM 97.1 in Columbus and 58 more stations across Buckeyeland on the Ohio State Buckeyes Radio Network with Paul Keels and Ron Stokes.
Series History: Ohio State owns a 9-5 record against West Virginia.
Last Game: Ohio State won 77-68 at St. John Arena back on Nov. 28, 1995. Forward Rick Yudt scored 21 points and guard Damon Stringer added 16 to lead the Buckeyes. Guards Jami Bosley and Jason Singleton both came off the bench to chip in 10 points each. Forward Shaun Stonerook netted nine points and a team-high eight rebounds.
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PROBABLE STARTERS |
WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS Head Coach: Bob Huggins |
Record: 9-2, 0-0 Big East | AP Poll: NR | RPI: 31 | SOS: 60 |
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| Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | Wt. | Cl. | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3FG% | FT% |
| F | 1 | Da’Sean Butler | 6-7 | 225 | Jr. | 15.5 | 6.2 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 0.3 | 44.9 | 37.5 | 77.1 |
| F | 3 | Devin Ebanks | 6-9 | 205 | Fr. | 7.5 | 6.7 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 41.2 | 19.0 | 52.4 |
| F | 35 | Wellington Smith | 6-7 | 230 | Jr. | 6.5 | 4.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 46.9 | 31.6 | 55.9 |
| G | 22 | Alex Ruoff | 6-6 | 220 | Sr. | 17.0 | 3.6 | 2.8 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 47.2 | 41.9 | 76.9 |
| G | 25 | Darryl Bryant | 6-2 | 190 | Fr. | 11.3 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 45.2 | 44.1 | 78.6 |
| TEAM AVERAGES | 74.6 | 40.2 | 15.3 | 9.3 | 4.8 | 43.6 | 33.2 | 62.0 | |||||
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OHIO STATE BUCKEYES Head Coach: Thad Matta |
Record: 9-0, 0-0 Big Ten | AP Poll: 15 | RPI: 12 | SOS: 124 |
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| Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | Wt. | Cl. | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3FG% | FT% |
| F | 52 | Dallas Lauderdale | 6-8 | 255 | So. | 8.0 | 4.9 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 3.3 | 69.2 | 0.0 | 51.4 |
| C | 32 | B.J. Mullens | 7-0 | 275 | Fr. | 7.8 | 4.1 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 55.1 | 0.0 | 61.5 |
| G | 21 | Evan Turner | 6-7 | 205 | So. | 16.9 | 6.8 | 3.1 | 2.9 | 0.9 | 55.4 | 66.7 | 77.2 |
| G | 33 | Jon Diebler | 6-6 | 205 | So. | 10.4 | 2.9 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 42.6 | 39.2 | 84.2 |
| G | 2 | Jeremie Simmons | 6-2 | 170 | Jr. | 7.1 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 30.0 | 34.1 | 82.4 |
| TEAM AVERAGES | 68.8 | 35.0 | 12.8 | 7.8 | 7.4 | 46.4 | 34.5 | 68.3 | |||||
Right: West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins returns to Columbus. (AP Photo)
Bob Huggins, head coach of West Virginia and born in Morgantown, returns to Columbus for the first time since 1980 when he was an assistant at Ohio State under Eldon Miller.
Huggins grew up in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, the same hometown as Miller, and played basketball for his father, Charles, at Indian Valley South High School.
Huggins then played basketball at Ohio University before transferring to West Virginia, and has a younger brother, Larry, who played at Ohio State.
After his stint as an assistant at Ohio State, Huggins went on to be the head coach at Walsh and Akron.
But Huggins is more widely known in the state of Ohio for his 16 years at Cincinnati, making him the winningest coach in terms of victories and percentage in the school’s history. Huggins directed Cincinnati to ten conference regular-season titles and eight league tournament titles.
The Bearcats appeared in post-season play in each of Huggins’ 16 seasons at U.C., advancing to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament two times in 1993 and 1996 and, in 1991-92, appearing once in the Final Four.
Those 16 years at UC, though, were tumultuous to say the least. In 1998, the Bearcats’ men’s basketball program was placed on probation for a lack of institutional control. In 2004, Huggins was arrested for driving while under the influence. In August of 2005, Huggins was forced to resign at Cincinnati.
Huggins took a year off then accepted the head coaching job at Kansas State, but only stayed one year in Manhattan guiding the Wildcats after his alma mater was without a coach when Jim Beilein left West Virgina to take the job at Michigan.
In his first year in Morgantown, Huggins led the Mountaineers to a 21-11 record as WVU advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
So far this season, West Virginia is 9-2 with marquee wins over Iowa (87-68) and Mississippi (80-78). The two losses have come at the hands of Kentucky (54-43) and Davidson (68-65).
The Mountaineers are led by senior guard Alex Ruoff, who is averaging 17.0 points per game. Da’Sean Butler, a 6-foot-7 junior forward is the team’s second leading scorer, averaging 15.5 points per contest.
