Lamar Preview from WVU site

[Guest mffl]

Pretty good write up, he compares Lamar to DePaul, a team that took them to OT and only lost by 6 in their last meeting.

Lamar Preview
By Grant Dovey for MSNsportsNET.com
March 20, 2010

AUSTIN, Texas – The West Virginia University women's basketball team will be looking to stop the offensive-minded Lamar Lady Cardinal in first round action of the 2010 NCAA Tournament on Sunday, March 21, at the Erwin Center on the campus of Texas.

  The Mountaineers will be making their third trip to the tournament in the past four years, while Lamar will be making their second trip to the Big Dance and first since 1991. Lamar has been compared to Big East foe DePaul, a team that the Mountaineers have been known to have trouble with in conference play.

“DePaul plays a lot of open four out, five out stuff. After they miss buckets, they throw over the top like Lamar does,” coach Mike Carey said. “We've got to do a good job getting back, but also we've got to take advantage of their size or lack of size.”

Like the way junior Sarah Miles makes the West Virginia team run, Lamar's Jenna Plumley plays very similar to Miles and was recently named the player and newcomer of the year in the Southland Conference after transferring from Oklahoma.

“Overall, she's a very good player. She can shoot, she can dribble and she basically is the team's offense,” Miles said of Plumley. “I'm just going to go out and play defense on her like I would any other point guard.”

The Lady Cardinal have three players scoring double figures with Plumley averaging 14.4 points per game, Darika Hill averaging 13.4 and Kalis Loyd averaging 13.2. Plumley is currently fourth in the nation in assists and fifth in 3-pointers.

The team is also averaging 75.9 pointers per game, while the Mountaineers only average 63.3, but hold their opponents to 51.8. The Mountaineers have only given up 75 or more points twice this season, both in losses to Connecticut and Ohio State.

“Every game we concentrate on our defense. We're a defensive team,” junior Liz Repella said. “So that is a challenge, and I think we're looking forward to that, stopping them. With that being said, though, we're going to concentrate on our offense too. We need to score.”

The game will tip off at 9:30 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN2 with Carter Blackburn and LaChina Robinson on the call. Travis Jones will also be doing the MSN radio broadcast of the game.

Notebook:

# In today's press conference, a reporter compared the recent successes of Lamar to when Carey first took over West Virginia and was able to transform women's basketball into a winning program.

Carey joked that longtime friend and current Lamar coach, Larry Tidwell, was trying to make him feel bad that it was Lamar's first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1991.

“I heard that today at the meeting, he gave me that old song and dance. I told Larry don't try to soften us up,” Carey said. “We're going to come and try to win just like he is. Nobody is going to feel sorry for either side.

“I told him, Larry, you and I are friends. We're not friends right now until after the game.”

# Speaking of Lamar's 1991 run, they were able to advance to the Elite Eight that season with wins over Texas, LSU and Arkansas before losing to Virginia. Another interesting stat is that all of those games were in the state of Texas.

# Sarah Miles has been the star of the show for the media with her return to her home state of Texas. Miles' was hounded at today's press conference about how many family members would be in attendance.

“At least 25 Miles' are going to be here, 25 people from the Miles family,” Miles said. “That's Miles, not the miles distance.”

This will also be the first time that her family has been able to see her play in person since coming to WVU. But what does Miles really miss about Texas?

“Breakfast tacos,” Miles said. “Most people don't know much about that.”

# As far as the weather is concerned, the team and staff were hoping to go to a warmer Texas than Morgantown. However, today's high of 43 degrees was nowhere near the high of 70 in Morgantown.