SportsLine.com Report
March 17, 2000

Round 1: Buckeye backcourt bounces Mountaineers

There wasn't much doubt that point guard Tyson Patterson could hold his own with any player in the country, but he was outdone by a tough-to-stop tandem of Ohio State guards as Appalachian State was eliminated from the tournament in an 87-61 rout in Nashville.

The Southern Conference didn't prepare the Moutaineers well enough for the Big Ten champions. OSU's backcourt tandem of Scoonie Penn and Michael Redd combined for 44 points and keyed a strong start that had the Buckeyes ahead 23-7 before Appalachian State could get oriented.

"It's almost like we were deer in headlights," Appalachian State coach Buzz Peterson. "We were just startled there for the first few minutes."

Patterson scored 15 points to lead ASU. Rufus Leach had 11 off the bench for Appalachian State, which has making its second NCAA Tournament appearance.

How They Got There

The Mountaineers parlayed their third consecutive Southern Conference North Division championship into their first NCAA Tournament bid since Bobby Cremins led them to the Big Dance in 1979.

Buzz Peterson's team wrapped the regular-season title up early and claimed the top seed into the conference tournament. There, the Mountaineers did what they could not do last year when they defeated the College of Charleston in the title game.

While the largest part of the nation has been fighting for tournament berths, the Apps had a week to decide on Selection Sunday snacks -- their bid was wrapped up on March 5.

Starting Lineup

• PG Tyson Patterson (5-9, 165, Sr.): One of the nation's great unknown talents, he was named the SoCon's Player of the Year and the conference tournament's outstanding player for scoring 21 points in the title game after accounting for 28 and 19 in the initial rounds. Patterson only scores big when he needs to. He's averaging 14.4 points, but is more valuable for what he does for his teammates and defensively, averaging 6.8 assists and 2.8 steals. He commits more turnovers than you would like from your point guard (3.1 turnovers per game), but for everything else he does, it's a fault coach Buzz Peterson can live with.
• SG Matt McMahon (6-1, 180, Sr.): The former walk-on didn't develop into the kind of scorer Peterson had hoped he would be, though it was tough for any other shooting guard to go off with the way Rufus Leach played off the bench. Instead, McMahon is a nice defensive presence and is a 3-point shooter the opposition must respect.
• SG Shawn Alexander (6-2, 195, So.): If Peterson stays around Boone much longer, Alexander is one of the players he can base his teams around. After chipping in 6.9 points and 2.8 rebounds as a freshman, Alexander pumped up both figures this season, averaging 11.2 points and 5.1 rebounds while starting 30 of 31 games. If a team commits its defense to Patterson or Rufus Leach, Alexander is the guy who makes them pay; he broke the 20-point mark twice this season and hit the high teens on several occasions.
• PF Cedrick Holmes (6-5, 220, Sr.): While Patterson and Leach gets all the accolades, Holmes does the dirty work as well as anybody in the SoCon. Only Patterson logs more minutes than Holmes (29.1 per game) and he's always at a height (and usually at a weight) disadvantage against power forwards. No matter, he's more athletic than just about anybody he faces and works like a rented mule on defense. He averages 11.8 points and 7.9 rebounds, and can be an interior offensive nuisance should an opponent try to take away the perimeter game.
• C Corey Cooper (6-7, 290, Jr.): What size Holmes lacks, Cooper more than makes up for. The beefy junior college transfer will wear down anybody who tries to earn his tuition in the paint. He's also an offensive option, scoring 8.1 points per game and shooting 54 percent. He's also a guy you don't mind having in the game late as he knocks down his free tosses at a 70 percent clip.

Keys to Success

If the Apps aren't shooting it well, they might as well go home. Appalachian State averaged a SoCon-best 80.5 points a game and its 49 percent field-goal shooting and 40 percent 3-point accuracy was also a conference standard. The Apps are also among the best defensive and rebounding teams in the SoCon. Whether that success equates against the big boys remains to be seen, but the baskets are the same at the NCAA Tournament as they are in Boone, N.C. If the Apps' shots fall, they'll be a team that can pull an upset.

The Coach

Mountaineer fans have been fearing the end of this season since late last spring. That was when Peterson was not only rumored to have spoken with Southwest Missouri State about the job vacated by Steve Alford, but to have already taken the job. Those reports never came true, but the seed has been planted -- Peterson is a hot commodity and bigger schools with bigger budgets would love to have him come to town and do what he has done for the Apps.

If his resume was incomplete before this season, it's now filled out. He has led the Apps to three North Division titles in his four years, a SoCon Tourney title and an NCAA berth. There are already coaching vacancies, and Peterson's name will come up again. The only question is, will he stay or will he go?

The latter is probably inevitable. ASU fans just hope it's later rather than sooner.

The Bench

When the season began, the Mountaineers weren't exactly sure what they had in Rufus Leach. Then he went out and scored 28 points in a season-opening loss to guard-heavy Oklahoma State.

If there was a national sixth-man of the year award, Leach would be one of the leading candidates. He's one of those rare guys with the talent to start but an ego that allows him to come off the bench. The 6-2 community college transfer hasn't started a game, but still leads the Apps in scoring (16.6 points per game) and shoots the lights out from 3-point range, hitting a SoCon-best 100 treys and doing it at just a tick under 43 percent, also tops in the conference. He had 10 games where he scored 20 points or better and hit for a season-high 30 against East Tennessee State.

The nation's leading scorer among non-starters, Leach provides instant offense and can snap the Apps out of any funk. That ability earned him a spot on the SoCon all-conference team.

Buddy Davis, a 6-6, 230-pound sophomore also sees quality time off the bench. He started seven games this season, and Peterson will throw him in the starting lineup occasionally, just to mix things up. Defense is not his forte, but he's a decent scorer who can spell Cooper and Holmes with little letdown.

Josh Shehan (6-8, 250, Fr.), Mike Patten (6-6, 185, Fr.), Jonathan Butler (5-11, 175, So.) and Nick Huge (6-4, 195, Fr.) are all youngsters who see minutes and give the Apps the deepest rotation in the SoCon.

Offense

The Apps like to push it, with Patterson leading the break. The senior point guard breaks down a defense and then either scores himself, kicks it out for a trey or finds one of the big boys inside for a basket. As much as coaches hate to sell out to stop one player, there's not much choice against Patterson.

Defense

Peterson has a nice array of quick guards who get out and hassle the perimeter, while Holmes and Cooper patrol the paint. Opponents shoot 42 percent against the Apps, and the team's 10.5 steals per game was also tops in the SoCon.