MEN’S HOOP PREVIEW GU To Face Cellar-Dweller West Virginia By Tom Kenny Hoya Staff Writer

Charles Nailen/The Hoya Sophomore forward Mike Sweetney goes up for a shot against Syracuse. The Hoyas beat the Orangemen 75-60.

After what could turn out to be a season-saving win Monday night against No. 14 Syracuse, the Georgetown men’s basketball team takes a step down in competition tomorrow when they play host to the West Virginia Mountaineers at MCI Center. West Virginia enters the game with a record of 8-11 overall and 1-6 in the conference. They sit alone in last place of the West Division of the Big East. Their head coach of the last 24 seasons, Gale Catlett, took a temporary leave of absence for undisclosed medical reasons Monday after more than 700 consecutive games on the sidelines for the ountaineers. His nephew and former assistant coach Drew Catlett will coach the team on an interim basis.

This certainly appears to be a game with which the Hoyas should have no trouble. They are at home. They are coming off a huge win. They are facing a team in disarray that easily has the worst record in their division. Tomorrow’s game should be a perfect opportunity for the Hoyas, now 13-7 overall and 4-4 in conference, to pull over .500 in the conference and begin a winning streak, as they enter a critical juncture in their regular season.

However, every Hoya fan knows that this team has been slightly less than consistent thus far this season. It is sometimes hard to believe that the team that pummeled Boston College and the one that was trounced at Pittsburgh are one and the same. Dropping tomorrow’s game after such a big win would not be out of the question for this Georgetown team.

The biggest problem for the Hoyas tomorrow would be a letdown after Monday’s victory. However, after four days off, they should be refocused and ready to play. They will need to be. While the Mountaineers have struggled mightily this season, they are not without talent. Earlier in the year, they beat a Tennessee team that knocked off Syracuse just last weekend.

Senior forward Chris Moss and freshman guard Jonathan Hargett both rank in the top 20 in the Big East in scoring with averages of 16.7 and 14.4 points per game respectively. Moss is also seventh in the Big East in rebounding with an average of 8.3 boards per game. Hargett was one of the most highly regarded freshmen in the Big East entering this season and was named Preseason Rookie of the Year in the conference in November. Since then, he has struggled and had to miss two games due to knee surgery. Since returning though, he has averaged more than 14 points per game.

While losing their longtime coach will surely be difficult for West Virginia, often struggling teams respond well in the intermediate aftermath of a coaching change. The Mountaineers have already done so as they defeated Providence at home Wednesday night, 89-81 to pick up their first Big East win and end their nine game losing streak.

To find a perfect example of a struggling team responding well to a coaching change, just look to the Hoyas of 1999. After Craig Esherick took over for John Thompson in January of that year, Georgetown, struggling mightily before the change, responded well and beat Providence in Esherick’s first game. In the following weeks, they dropped a pair of two point games to eventual NCAA Tournament teams, St. John’s and Syracuse. They also hung tough with eventual national champion Connecticut before losing 78-71. The Mountaineers of this year have more than enough talent to be as pesky to NCAA caliber teams as were the Hoyas of 1999.

Still, Georgetown is a better team than West Virginia and cannot drop games such as this one at home if they intend to hear their name called on selection Sunday. With a rematch at Syracuse and a home date with Connecticut remaining on the schedule, games against West Virginia, Notre Dame and Seton Hall are virtually must-wins. Despite their talent, the Mountaineers are last in the Big East in offense and second to last in defense while the Hoyas stand first and fourth in those categories respectively. As long as the Hoyas can play close to the level they sustained against Syracuse, Notre Dame and Boston College earlier this year, they should pick up their 14th victory of the season.