MORGANTOWN — West Virginia’s full-court press had very few equals a season ago.
Yet there were some, including a little school in upstate New York that is just a hop, skip and a jump from the Canadian border.
While the Mountaineers forced the third-most turnovers in the nation last season, it was Niagara that led the country.
The Purple Eagles (0-1) have not changed much of anything a year later, still pressing and challenging no matter the opponent.
That will likely include their trip to the WVU Coliseum at 2 p.m. Saturday, where the No. 16 Mountaineers (1-0) await armed with their own pressure defense.
“You can imagine it’s going to be a little bit of a track meet,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “Both teams press the entire night. They do it differently than we do. They’re a solid program. They won a ton of games last year and did very well in their league.”
Niagara is coming off a 108-84 road loss against Syracuse, but the Orange did not pull away in that game until the fourth quarter and was forced into 30 turnovers.
Niagara recorded 19 steals with its full-court pressure.
The Mountaineers took down Towson in a 44-point win in the season opener, a victory in which WVU picked up 17 steals and forced 32 turnovers.
The old basketball saying is that pressing teams hate to be pressed themselves, but that’s exactly what the case will be today for both schools.
“I don’t know that we’ll be able to call a lot of sets or actions,” Kellogg said. “It will probably be free-flowing and just letting the kids play and make the right reads.”
Niagara traveled to WVU last season, too, a game the Mountaineers won 103-52. Both teams combined for 52 turnovers and 39 steals.
WVU turned it over 20 times. It had only one game last season with more.
“We’ll definitely have to work on our press-breakers and be prepared for their pressure,” Kellogg said. “It’s great. I think the nonconference (schedule) allows you to play against a lot of different styles. This is one where I don’t know if anyone in the Big 12 plays exactly like them.”
It could be the type of game that could see WVU star guard J.J. Quinerly get back on track after struggling in the opener.
She didn’t score her first basket of the season until midway through the third quarter against Towson. By that time, she had already picked up her third foul.
Quinerly finished with 14 points in 19 minutes, but was just 3 of 10 from the floor and she committed four turnovers.
Picking up the slack was Jordan Harrison and Sydney Shaw.
Harrison finished with 23 points, eight assists and six steals.
Shaw — a transfer from Auburn — added 19 points and hit five 3-pointers.
What would it look like to get all three guards going at the same time?
“I think it would make it easy for us, because if J.J. is hot, then (the person) guarding me is going to go help,” Harrison said. “Now I’m open. It would really just keep the defense on its toes. They would have to play really good on-ball defense and not be able to rotate. That would be pretty difficult to guard the three of us.”
