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Home > SECWB News & More! > NCAA Tournament > West Virginia v. LSU Preview
West Virginia v. LSU Preview
by LeAnne Harrington
Posted: March 19th, 2007 @ 8:55pm
Any questions that may have lingered about how the LSU women’s basketball team was handling the recent happenings regarding coach Pokey Chatman’s sudden resignation prior to the NCAA tournament were quickly dispelled with their first round dismantling of UNC-Asheville on Saturday by a score of 77-39. Their game tonight against West Virginia will be a different test, but hopefully the Lady Tigers produce the same passing grade. #11 seed West Virginia, sporting a 21-10 record, got to the second round of the tournament by dispatching #6 seed Xavier 65-52 on Saturday night.
LSU opened their 2006-2007 season with a resounding win over West Virginia. The Lady Tigers beat the Mountaineers 64-25 in that Nov.12 matchup. A lot of things have changed since then. The Mountaineers put together a 20-10 record for the regular season, including an 11-5 record in the Big East conference. For LSU, the past few weeks have been a roller coaster ride. LSU posted a semi-final SEC tournament victory over perennial powerhouse Tennessee, but lost to Vanderbilt in the conference championship finals. Still, LSU looked to be peaking at just the right time, with a record of 26-7 entering the NCAAs. Then their leader suddenly stepped away. While being hounded incessantly by the media, LSU has quietly gone about their business, preparing to push for a fourth straight appearance in the Final Four. Assistant coach Bob Starkey, a West Virginia native, took over the reigns of the Lady Tigers, and changes in the way this team plays are already evident. All 12 players saw action in the first half of their game Saturday night, and Sylvia Fowles did not score in double figures for only the second time this season. Starkey said, "We made a conscious decision before the game that we were going to play all 12 players in the first half," Starkey said. "It's been a difficult week and our staff felt like our kids' attitude and work ethic was tremendous and we wanted to give them some ownership to this game." The Lady Tigers may be running a little differently on the floor, but the results look to be the same: winning.
Look for West Virginia’s 6-foot-2 center Olayinka Sanni to have problems posting up against Fowles, one of the premiere centers in the nation. She scored just 2 points in their game in November. The winner of this game faces the winner of Stanford/Florida State game in the Fresno Regional semifinals on Saturday.
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