Relentless West Virginia Guards Just Keep Going and Going

Jordan Harrison (13.1 points per game), Sydney Shaw (9.4 ppg) and Gia Cooke (10.3 ppg) provide non-stop energy for West Virginia that Kentucky must cope with today at 5 p.m. when it plays the Mountaineers in the NCAA Tournament second round.

It will be a home game for West Virginia and that trio definitely helps influence the crowd’s impact on the game with their play.

“They’re just relentless. Their tenacity is unbelievable. They just keep going. I wonder sometimes do they have an extra battery pack in the back? Because they just keep going,” Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks said. “They play very well off of each other. They know how to funnel somebody to a certain area.

“They look to attack. They understand the system exceptionally well and then you get them on the offensive end and they know how to create opportunities for themselves.”

West Virginia is best known for its relentless, pressing defense but Brooks said that trio also makes a big impact offensively.

“They don’t just have to score points off their defense. They can run their sets and those kids are crafty. They play hard. They play as hard as anyone that we’ve seen all year,” Brooks said Sunday. “We know obviously the crowd is going to be a part of it. We know that. We played at LSU and it was, I don’t know, 13,000 and we came away with a win. We played at Louisville and it was 10,000 or 11,000 and we came away with a win.

“We have been in environments before. This environment is fun. Yesterday was electric. It was loud. But I think that we prepared for that and like I told the kids, what was it? Thirteen thousand yesterday? Not one of them can come on the court. None of them can come on the court and we just have to pay attention to what’s on the court.”

Brooks said West Virginia forwards Carter McCray (11 points, 7.9 rebounds per game) and Meme Wheeler (14.5 points, 8.6 rebounds per game) add physicality for West Virginia.

“We watched them play quite a bit and they’re physical post players with touch around the basket. We have to do our best to keep them away from it,” Books said. “Our length, obviously, helps us a lot. It’s how we’ve been able to guard post players throughout.

“But they’re tremendous, relentless. They go off the ball, the glass. They’re the first ones who know whether they think they made it or missed it and they do a really good job of getting second-chance opportunities. They’re physical. The ball is going to go up on the rim.

“We’re going to have to go, make sure we fight for every rebound, give ourselves a chance and not give them second-chance opportunities because it’s not just guard-oriented. Their guards are terrific but their post players are fantastic as well and we understand that and we respect that.”

Kentucky wing Amelia Hassett believes playing in the SEC has UK ready for West Virginia.

“I think the conference we play in definitely prepares us. They have a lot of great post players in the SEC, so I think just playing the schedule that we did definitely will help us prepare,” Hassett said.

Brooks knows the storyline for tonight’s game is West Virginia’s quickness versus UK’s size.

“I’m sure they view their quickness to their advantage and we view our height to our advantage in a lot of different ways, whether it’s been breaking a press or defending the lane,” the Kentucky coach said. “Obviously we’re playing on their home court and they’re going to have a tremendous advantage in that manner.

“But it’s going to be two really good teams with contrasting styles, probably a little bit. Who is going to will their way to win is just a matter of playing in March and having the right attitude and being able to understand and deal with anything that happens.”

Brooks knows limiting turnovers — and more importantly points off turnovers — could be a key for Kentucky today.

“We have to make sure that the turnovers don’t lead to points. It’s a live ball. You can’t let one turnover turn into two that turns into a bad shot,” the Kentucky coach said. “You also have to attack it and be smart about it. You don’t want to just pull the ball back out all the time. But you don’t always want to take a quick bad shot. There’s a lot to it. That’s why it’s so disruptive.

“We got to make sure that we’re confident with it and looking for advantages to take off of it and not just trying to retreat from it. Sometimes you have to attack a press to be successful. They do a tremendous job.”