The Times West Virginian

WVU Sports

January 21, 2010

HERTZEL COLUMN: Controlling Whiteside key for WVU

By Bob Hertzel

CHARLESTON — For most of this year in the universe in which he exists, which is a universe without many stars being known as Conference USA, Marshall’s Hassan Whiteside has been something of a defensive beast.

Through the season’s first 17 games, this 7-footer from Gastonia, N.C., blocked more shots than any player in Division I basketball, 95.

West Virginia University set out on Wednesday night in the Capital Classic to cut him down to size.

By halftime, Whiteside had to be feeling half his size, for sure, as the Mountaineers rotated one big man after another on him, trading altitude for attitude. If he wasn’t being pushed around by someone his own height, he was certainly being muscled by someone capable of leaning heavily upon him.

It was Wellington Smith and Cam Thoroughman and even the freshman Danny Jennings, whose muscles seem to have muscles, which is quite an attractive asset on a child that still has a whole lot of growing to do.

And so it was as this classic Classic that West Virginia would win with a late spurt ignited by its defense, 68-60, reached its midpoint, the high-flying Mr. Whiteside possessed all of two rebounds as the Mountaineers completely dominated the boards, 24-11, and only one block.

By the time it was over, we might add here, the domination on the backboards had extended to 43-26.

As the teams headed for their locker rooms, no one was talking about the shot Whiteside blocked, but the one he had blocked.

It transpired late in the half. Whiteside had been pacing back and forth on the baseline, trying to get in behind the Mountaineers. At one point he felt he had position and signaled a teammate with a subtle tic of the head that he wanted an alley-oop pass, but it never came.

Instead, he made a move and Thoroughman put a cross-body block on him and he went to the canvas, for an eight-count.

A disappointed look came across his face, but that was only momentary, for seconds later there was an opening and he went up with the ball, seemingly free to have his way with a thunderous dunk.

As he elevated, so, too, did John Flowers, soaring into the rafters and beyond. As high as Whiteside went, Flowers went higher and he stuffed Whiteside as the crowd oooowed, first for the dunk it expected, then ahhhhhed as the ball was rejected.

“I wasn’t guarding him then,” Flowers said. “I just sort of slid over on him. It was just a matter of reading the scouting report and seeing what he liked to do.”

The truth be known, at that very moment the game was decided, although Marshall would play on with heart and force the issue down the stretch, but they had found someone who could handle the intimidation factor upon which they had built a 15-2 record coming into the game.

“He’d been getting dunks and stuff in the paint,” Flowers would say after it was over.

He also, according to Flowers, had been doing his share of trash talking, which is fine with Flowers.

“He was saying things like, ‘They don’t want to guard me,’” Flowers recalled. “I like it when there’s trash talking. In fact, I like this game. The atmosphere, everything.”

Flowers wasn’t done with Mr. Whiteside yet either.

Oh, Whiteside did lead Marshall with 18 points scored, but of the shots he missed, three were credited to Flowers as blocks for there was another moment of truth in the second half when he blocked him on consecutive tries inside.

It wasn’t quite as spectacular a block, either one, but each was equally effective, keeping the ball from going into the basket. The first knocked the ball loose and Whiteside got it and went up again, Flowers were there to block it, perhaps just coming down from the first block.

It reached the point that Whiteside had to move to the outside, firing up a 3-point attempt, just his second of the season.

Wouldn’t you know it, Flowers wasn’t there to block that one.

“Funny thing was,” point guard Truck Bryant would say later, “after he hit that one he went up to Flowers and said something to him.”

Probably said something like “where were you on that one?”

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@homail.com.

Text Only
WVU Sports
  • Jones nears milestone as Notre Dame visits WVU

    That it is a crucial game in a season that seems to have nothing but, today’s 9 p.m. visit to the Coliseum by a streaking Notre Dame team comes with a historical footnote in the history of West Virginia University basketball.
    Kevin Jones enters the game having scored 20 or more points in nine consecutive games.

    February 8, 2012

  • WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion

    Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.
    A source within the Mountaineer athletic department said on Tuesday that the matter was nearing a conclusion and also told the Times West Virginian that West Virginia would be reinstating a golf team to compete in the Big 12.

    February 8, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN: WVU, Irish strikingly similar

    Consider, if you will, that it is Nov. 25 past, that the West Virginia University basketball team is running a routine drill four games into its season, getting ready for the Akron game when Kevin Jones goes down in a heap on the floor, his ACL torn, his season over.

    February 8, 2012

  • WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion

    Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.

    February 7, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN - Truck drives Mountaineers to needed win

    Perhaps it is what has kept him going through a West Virginia basketball career with as many turns as a trip to Pineville down in Wyoming County, but Truck Bryant enjoys being Truck Bryant.

    February 6, 2012

  • WVU finds a way, wins in overtime

    Truck Bryant made the headline plays, including a 3-point shot with 3.3 seconds left to play, as West Virginia saved its season with an 87-84 overtime victory at Providence, but the subheads had to be reserved for Deniz Kilicli and a pair of freshman guards.

    February 6, 2012

  • Mountaineers face critical test today at Providence

    The schedule tells you it’s another game in the marathon run that is the Big East season, a trip to Providence to play a team with only two conference victories, but somehow everyone connected with the West Virginia University program knows today’s noon meeting with the Friars is much more than that.

    February 5, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN: Jones on the brink of WVU history

    On the one hand there is yesterday’s Warren Baker, who entered the WVU Athletic Hall of Fame in the latest class for the work he did from 1973 to 1976, and on the other hand there is today’s star Kevin Jones, who has emerged from the shadows of the likes of Joe Alexander and Da’Sean Butler this year to carve his own niche in Mountaineer basketball history.

    February 5, 2012

  • WVU backs out of Florida State game

    West Virginia University has canceled its Sept. 8 football game at Florida State.
    Once again, as they have done with virtually everything since announcing they planned to move from the Big East to the Big 12, they did it behind closed doors, without any announcement or statement.

    February 5, 2012

  • WVU women upset Louisville

    It is foolhardy to put it up there with the Baylors and Notre Dames of the women’s world just yet, but really if you look closely and see potential, much of which came out Saturday afternoon when the Mountaineers upset No. 12/14 Louisville, 66-50, you realize that this team is closer to greatness than it is to mediocrity.

    February 5, 2012