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CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Need an alternative to tonight's Capital City Classic? Try this on for size.
West Virginia State will play host to the University of Charleston at 7:30, renewing the Kanawha County rivalry that has been dominated by the Yellow Jackets as of late. State has won 11 of its last 13 games against the Golden Eagles.
UC coach Mark Downey has experience in the rivalry as a player, having played two years for the Golden Eagles after spending two seasons at Wheeling Jesuit. Despite participating in the rivalry for the first time as a coach, Downey isn't in the dark about State's recent success against UC.
"I played in it, so I know a little bit about it, but when I played in it neither team was toward the top of the rankings, we were both around the middle of the pack," said Downey. "But State's been up there for the past few years. [State] Coach [Bryan] Poore does a good job. It's going to be something where I'm going to try to kick him and he'll try to kick me [tonight]. In the past we haven't been at the top of the rankings so we're trying to get where they're at."
The Yellow Jackets enter tonight's game with the better record at 9-5 overall and 8-2 in the West Virginia Conference. UC sits at 6-8 and 4-6, but a couple of factors could swing in the Golden Eagles' favor.
The first is the health of State point guard and leading scorer Cookie Miller, who missed Saturday's 93-69 win over Seton Hill with a shoulder injury. Poore says Miller is a game-time decision but would have been a no-go if the game had been played on Monday.
Also, UC has quietly played much better as of late. The Eagles have won three of their last four, all conference games, and have held the lead in the second half in five of their six league losses.
Poore said the Eagles, despite their record, offer plenty for his team to worry about.
"The biggest thing is rebounding, they really hit the boards," Poore said. "We have to hold our own on the rebounding side of it and defend them. They have great athletes and their chemistry is coming together a little bit for them. We've got to keep them in front of us because they are all capable of putting it on the floor and driving to the basket."
The Golden Eagles lead the WVC in rebounding margin at plus-8.2.
The Jackets have won four of their last five, with the only loss being a two-point overtime defeat to Pitt Johnstown. Poore, who has been at the helm for all of State's recent successes, likes how his team has played of late.
"The last couple of games I've been pretty pleased with where we are for this time of the year. It was slow coming together this year I think, but right now we're playing pretty good," Poore said. "We've got to continue to create our own identity for this team and not play like last year's team and years before, but we're a little bit better at going to the basket and getting teams in transition and playing fast and pressing when we want to."
While Kanawha County's premier college grudge match will be overshadowed by the game at the Charleston Civic Center, both Downey and Poore say there are plenty of people, players and coaches who will be focused on Institute tonight.
"Anytime you've got two schools 8 miles apart, you will run into each other's alumni and friends, and people that work in the other school, and it makes for a good rivalry because you want to go around town saying that you won," said Poore. "It's a lot of fun. Before it was with Greg White, who I coached under, and now it's with Mark, and I have a lot of respect for Mark, the coach that he has become, and the job he's done."
"[A win over State] would be huge. We're all playing for the same thing, we want to get into the NCAA tournament, and to do that we're probably going to have to win our tournament," Downey said. "We're trying to get the highest seed we can possibly get and we want to be playing our best basketball at the end of the year. A win over State would help immensely. It'd be worth a lot of points in the rankings and we haven't beaten anyone in the top of the rankings yet.
"I told the guys, we haven't had a game where everyone's played well where we can put 40 minutes together. If they figure out how to do that, they might be dangerous moving on through the rest of the year."
