Mazzulla’s play critical to WVU’s first league championship

NEW YORK- It's been quite an up-and-down season for West Virginia point guard Joe Mazzulla. In Saturday's 60-58 Big East Conference Championship win over Georgetown, Mazzulla's positives far outweighed any flaws.

With fellow point guard Truck Bryant struggling throughout the conference tournament, WVU head coach Bob Huggins elected to play Mazzulla 29 minutes, including all but one in the second half.

Mazzulla answered the call and was instrumental in leading the Mountaineers to their first ever league championship.

"It means everything. Not only to everyone (on the team) but to the program, the university and the state," Mazzulla said.

Despite missing all six of his field goal attempts, the junior was a perfect 6-of-6 at the free throw line, and proved to be clutch by connecting on a pair with 27 seconds left. Mazzulla entered the contest just 19-for-41 at the charity stripe.

"For a guy that they don't think can shoot, he went to the free-throw line and made shots for us," Huggins said.

Although he didn't hit a field goal, Mazzulla's offense was one of the keys to the game,according to his head coach.

"I thought he ran our team. He broke the defense down (and) got the ball to the basket for us," Huggins said.

Mazzulla also had seven assists without a turnover, a telling stat of a point guard's play.The rest of West Virginia's team had six assists and 11 turnovers.

"When you control the game and put people in spots to make shots it gets easy to have assists," Mazzulla said.

Mazzulla is usually called upon to provide a spark for WVU and apply tough defensive ball pressure.

A few backs, however, Huggins didn't see as much of that as he would've liked and started growing concerned about Mazzulla's passion.

"I didn't think Joe was giving us what we needed. He and I had a talk about that," Huggins said.

Mazzulla responded with a strong showing down the stretch, including eight points in 24 minutes in the Mountaineers' 53-51 semifinal victory over Notre Dame.

The junior was quick to credit a turnaround in his performances to his fiery head coach.
"He did more than just sit down and talk but that's what's great about coach Huggins.

He's a great motivator and he doesn't sugarcoat things. He'll get the best out of you whether it's asking nicely or doing it his way. He's done it all year and it'sjust how you respond to it," Mazzulla said.

Mazzulla's value to WVU doesn't usually show on a stat sheet. He is the team's 10th leading scorer with 2.1 points per game and has attempted only 53 field goals all season. Before the Notre Dame game, Mazzulla hadn't taken six shots in a contest this season.

For someone who doesn't focus much on scoring, he has an innate ability to change the complexion of the Mountaineers, which is something his teammates recognize.
"As long as Joe keeps playing as he is, we're going to feed off his energy and go as far as he takes us," said senior Wellington Smith.

Not many teams can say that about a backup point guard, but Mazzulla proved it's true throughout his performances at Madison Square Garden.

gregory.carey@mail.wvu.edu