Herber Adjusting
November 25, 2002 01:15 PM | General
November 25, 2002
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Just because freshman Joe Herber didn’t score a single point in West Virginia’s season-opening 59-46 victory over Delaware State last Friday night doesn’t necessarily mean he played a bad game.
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| West Virginia freshman Joe Herber is making the transition from European to American basketball this year. |
To the contrary, Herber actually had a solid all-around floor game producing three rebounds, five assists and a block during a team-high 34 minutes in his first crack at collegiate basketball.
The Darmstadt, Germany, native probably isn’t going to lead the team in scoring this year, but his ascension up the WVU depth chart has been eye opening, even to him.
“I didn’t really expect to start when I came here,” admitted Herber in nearly perfect English. “I wanted to play as much as I could. I’m really satisfied with the situation and I’ve just got to keep working hard to maintain this status.”
Just six months ago, Herber, 19, was playing for a club team in Germany and had professional offers to play in Europe.
West Virginia coach John Beilein knew about Herber while coaching at Richmond, but he wasn’t sure he would continue to recruit the 6-foot-6, 205-pound guard when he was hired to take over the WVU post last April.
After a few days on the job, Beilein evaluated the team’s talent and came to the conclusion that Herber could help.
“He was going to visit Richmond on a Friday and I took the job here on a Thursday,” Beilein told the Charleston Gazette last month. “So we made a last-second phone call and said, ‘You’re not going to visit Richmond right now.’”
Beilein hastily rearranged to have Herber visit WVU and signed him a short time later.
“One of my goals was to come to the United States and play,” Herber said.
He took eight years worth of English classes and had two U.S. coaches on his German club team, leading credence to that notion.
Herber averaged 15 points per game last year for TV Langen Club (high schools in Germany don’t offer prep basketball). He shot 37 percent from international three-point range and 75 percent from the free throw line.
His first visit to the United States came two years ago as a member of the German Under-20 national team. However, his first taste of American basketball came in 1996 as a 13-year-old watching Kentucky defeat Syracuse in the NCAA championship game.
Now, the communications major is one of four freshmen playing a prominent role on a rebuilding West Virginia basketball team. In addition to Herber, this year’s freshmen class includes 6-foot-10 center Kevin Pittsnogle, 5-foot-10 guard Jarmon Durisseau-Collins and 6-foot-4 guard Patrick Beilein.
Herber says it hasn’t been too difficult adjusting to American basketball.
“To be honest, there has not been that big of an adjustment really because I’ve played against good competition over there,” he says. “It is a little bit quicker over here and some of the rules are different.”
Herber says he’s had to adjust to different rules regarding inbounding the basketball, backcourt dimensions and a long shot clock.
Herber’s best attributes are his court vision, ballhanding ability for his size and his shooting touch. However, Herber believes he must continue to improve his ballhandling.
“I’m comfortable handling the ball but it’s something that I have to continue to work on, especially against small, quick guards,” he said. “We have a lot of two-guard sets so we share the ball a lot too.”
As for his first game against Delaware State, Herber remarked: “I would say my first performance was average. I didn’t score at all but that’s all right with me as long as we win.”
Herber understands also that West Virginia’s schedule will become drastically more difficult, beginning with Monday night’s game at Duquesne.
“We have to work on a lot of things,” he admitted. “It’s a pretty good feeling to win the first game and build up some confidence. We’ve still got a lot of stuff to work on but a good foundation has been laid.”
Monday night’s game against the Dukes (0-1) will tip off at 7:30 p.m. MSN’s pre-game coverage begins at 7 p.m. and can be accessed on the Internet at MSNsportsNET.com.
