by Dave Hickman, Staff writer , Charleston Gazette

In fact, the Beckley school twice has given the Mountaineers fits. In 2007, WVU won 88-65, but it was a six-point game with less than 71/2 minutes to play. Last year, after falling behind 20-2, MSU clawed back within 10 before losing 98-78 in a game in which Da'Sean Butler scored 38 points.

And this might be coach Bob Bolen's best Mountain State team of the three. The Cougars are already 4-0 with four easy wins.

The main reasons are a pair of transfers who have never faced West Virginia, at least not in an MSU uniform. Nick Aldridge is a 6-foot-7 forward who began playing after last year's first semester, and then there is Alvin Mitchell, who made his debut this season.

Both have Cincinnati connections. Mitchell, in fact, was the Bearcats' second-leading 3-point shooter last season but was suspended twice and eventually dismissed from the team. The 6-5 junior started UC's game against West Virginia last season but scored just two points.

Aldridge transferred to Cincinnati last year from Western Carolina, but never played there before he, too, was asked to leave the Bearcats. That came after he was arrested on a drug charge, to which he later pleaded guilty. At Western Carolina he was a freshman all-conference performer and was averaging 18.8 points as a sophomore when he was suspended and then quit the team just six games into the 2007-08 season.

"They've got Division I-caliber players and Bobby does a great job coaching them,'' Huggins said. "And these have always been tough games for us.''

Mountain State isn't limited to those two, either. In fact, 6-6 Andrew Lee was the NAIA player of the year last season and both he and Aldridge were All-America picks.

Here's just a sampling of what the three have done in four games to date, albeit against NAIA and Division II-level competition. Lee nearly had a triple-double in an opening win over Davis & Elkins with 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. In that same game, Aldridge was 16-of-21 from the floor and scored 40 points. And in Tuesday night's 107-74 rout of West Virginia Wesleyan, Mitchell made 4-of-6 3s and scored 31 points.

Oh, and just for kicks, Bolen this season brought in the tallest player ever to play college basketball - 7-foot-8 Paul Sturgess, who is believed to be one of the three or four tallest people alive today. From England, Sturgess played the last two years at a junior college in Florida and averaged less than three points and three rebounds per game.

But at MSU he's more than just a novelty act. In that Tuesday win over Wesleyan, Sturgess had six points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots.

Today's game is the first of two exhibitions the Mountaineers play, but the other - against the University of Charleston - isn't until Dec. 5. In between, West Virginia will play five regular-season games - the opener a week from today against Loyola (Md.), a Nov. 24 game in Charleston against The Citadel and three games in a tournament in California during the long Thanksgiving weekend.

West Virginia's women's team will also play a home exhibition game today, facing Glenville State at 6 p.m.

Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickman1@aol.com

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