West Virginia has lofty goals in mind while playing in the Cancun Challenge

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Jermaine Haley was quick to note that the West Virginia men’s basketball team is not all that interested in having fun in the sun this week in Cancun, Mexico.

“This is a business trip, plain and simple,” the Mountaineers’ senior guard said. “We know there are some attainable goals in front of us if we stay focused and keep improving as a team.”

The Mountaineers (4-0) will face Northern Iowa (6-0) at 8:30 p.m. today in the first round of the Cancun Challenge, at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, with a second game on Wednesday against either Wichita State or South Carolina.

As far as goals, the Mountaineers could take a major leap forward from putting last season’s 15-21 mark in the rear-view mirror, as well as possibly getting back into the national top 25 rankings with a sweep in the Cancun Challenge.

WVU has not been a top 25 team since the first week of last season.

“We’ve got to be able to go take care of business,” WVU center Derek Culver said. “We know we’re about to face some better teams, which I think will be good for us.”

Aside from the Challenge, WVU also has an upcoming home game against Rhode Island (4-2) on Dec.1. The Rams’ two losses this season are on the road against Maryland and a neutral-court loss against LSU.

On Dec. 7, WVU will travel to Madison Square Garden to face St.John’s (5-2) in the Big 12/Big East Battle.

All four games will offer their own challenges to a WVU defense that is still adjusting to a different way of handling ball screens that the Mountaineers unveiled in their 68-53 victory at Pitt.

“We got away with what we started doing at Pitt,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “Part of that, maybem was we had guys in there that hadn’t played a bunch of minutes and then they’d start getting on the wrong side of a guy.

“We’re trying to be consistent with it and we may have made a mistake when we said, ‘Let’s go ahead and double out of it.’ Then you sit and look at the schedule and you see who you have coming up, and we’re going to need to.”

West Virginia is 13th in the country in field-goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot just 34.7 percent from the field.

None of the Mountaineers’ opponents this season has shot better than 38.7% from the field.

Northern Iowa has built its undefeated record against four teams ranked No. 132 or higher in the RPI, as well as a victory against a Division III school.

WVU — currently No. 6 in the RPI — will likely be the highest-ranked RPI team the Panthers face this season.

The Panthers are 32nd in the nation with 55 3-pointers and 6-foot-5 junior guard Trae Berhow has combined for 56 points and shot 80% (12 of 15) over Northern Iowa’s last two games against Cornell College and UT-Martin.

He scored a career-high 36 points against UT-Martin and sophomore guard A.J. Green had nine assists in that game.

“It’s like H-O-R-S-E shooting to us,” Berhow told The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa). “A.J. opened everything up. When A.J. is driving and dishing, it’s hard to guard us.”

West Virginia will have the advantage inside, as Northern Iowa plays with a four-guard lineup, but Berhow is 6-5, while Green is 6-4 and fellow starting guard Isaiah Brown is 6-7.

“They’re going to be the best team we’ve seen so far,” Haley said. “They put shooters all over the floor and they make you defend the whole court. We can’t let them get too comfortable in their offense and we have to take them out of some things and use our size to our advantage.”

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