MORGANTOWN —
Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, and nothing was more necessary for the West Virginia basketball team than for someone to start hitting shots from the outside.
But who knew it would be Kevin Noreen or Aaric Murray?
Certainly not the fans who watched those big men step to the outside and knock down four of six 3-point shots as the Mountaineers won their third straight, 68-67, over Virginia Tech on Saturday, and certainly not the media, who looked on with a combination of bewilderment and misbelief.
You can add Bob Huggins to that list, too.
“I always thought Murray could make those,” Huggins said Monday before going out to wrap up preparations for today’s 7 p.m. game against Duquesne at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. “I’d never seen Noreen shoot it. I was as surprised as everyone.”
And when he says he never saw him shoot it ... he means in a game and in practice.
What’s more, he never really set anything up for him to shoot it from the outside. It was just a necessity and one that Huggins isn’t about to rein in.
As far as he’s concerned, Murray and Noreen can keep right on gunning from the outside.
“I’m all for it,” he said. “They can’t miss any more than our guards have.”
Bob Herzel
WVU hopes Murray, Noreen can come up big
- Bob Herzel
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