Duke Gets; West Virginia Second Round

Did you know that the last time West Virginia Mountaineers played Duke Blue Devils; Brian Zoubek had only one rebound?

Hardly the dominant force he is today, or maybe it is just the beard, as he is averaging 10 rebounds in this year’s tournament. He is the driving force behind Duke’s dominance on the boards.

The game was two years ago in the second round, where the Mountaineers prevailed 73-67.

The make up of both teams is different now.

Joe Mazzulla a reserve back then, had a break out game with 13 points 11 rebounds and 8 assists.

Coach Krzyzewski called him the “mvp” of the game.

Today Mazzulla’s prospects do not look as promising as it was back then.

Injuries and a few erstwhile decisions have kept him from blossoming into his full potential.

The good news for Mountaineer fans is that he is healthy these days.

Inserted into the starting line up after an injury to the starting point guard, Mazzulla found his old self against Kentucky last Saturday.

He finished with 17 point as he sent John Wall packing.

Another Mountaineer starter on that 2008 team was Da'Sean Butler, who averaged 12 points that season and had yet to evolve into the Mr Big Shot of college basketball he is today.

In that game he scored only eight points but grabbed 5 rebounds which helped West Virginia out rebound Duke 47-27.

At that time Duke had to play small using freshman Kyle Singler at power forward and sophomore Lance Thomas at center.

In round two next Saturday Zoubek is hoping to be more of a factor than he was in the previous game.

“We’ve gotten back to the basics of doing what it takes to win,” Zoubek said. “Every single game, we get out there and play defense, and that keeps us in games even when our offense isn’t doing so well.

This up coming Final Four game might be decided on defense, as Bob Huggins teams are notorious for this. So Zoubek may be right in predicting that defense will see them through.

In the previous encounter Duke shot 38 percent. The only shining light in that game for the Blue Devils was Jon Scheyer.

Playing a reserve role, he finished with 15 points and made all nine of his free throws.

Another guy who is probably looking forward to this game would be Nolan Smith.

He was only a freshman who logged a dozen minutes in that game but still it must be nice to be able to get a second chance at the guy who torched you as a freshman.

Not that redemption will be his motivation but Smith always gets assigned the speedy guard, from Jerome Randle, Lewis Jackson and Tweety Carter.

This matchup might be the key to the game as Mazzulla has become the catalyst in Bob Huggins’ attack.

Another thing to note is that West Virginia was a seventh seed back then while Duke was a number two seed.

This year they are the highest seeds left in the tournament, with Duke a one and West Virginia a two.