Team-First Attitude
November 17, 2003 02:01 PM | General
November 17, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Even though freshman Jerrah Young may be one of West Virginia’s best rebounders right now, the 6-foot-6, 205-pound Chicago resident is probably going to sit this season out as a redshirt.
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| Jerrah Young averaged 18 points and 15 rebounds per game last year in high school. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“Jerrah Young is one of those guys who can rebound everything,” praised Coach John Beilein. “He doesn’t care who it’s against. We’re working on his perimeter game and we want to be sure we’re doing the right thing.”
According to Beilein, the right thing means not rushing Jerrah Young along too quickly. Young is the perfect example of Beilein not getting too far ahead of himself and building the WVU program hastily. He is probably good enough to give West Virginia quality minutes off the bench this year, but why not let him watch, learn, get bigger and get adjusted academically?
Beilein figures it this way, “If any of these guys redshirt it is a promotion not a demotion. It’s saying we want you here five years and you’re going to be darn good. We want you to play your four best years.”
Young, who just turned 18 in August, is in total agreement.
“If it’s better for me and it will help me get better in the long run I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ll learn the system, I’ll still have four years to play, get stronger, work on my shot, so it will be better for me.”
Jerrah Young possesses the team-first, me-second approach that Beilein wants in all of his players. Young entertained offers from Bowling Green, Toledo and Iowa, but fell in love with West Virginia, the coaching staff, and the players when he made his official visit last fall.
“When I came on my visit, at first I enjoyed the coaching staff talking to them on the phone and then I enjoyed the players. I like the way they play and I liked the Conference; I thought it would be a good fit for me,” he said.
Young says it was tough telling Iowa he was going to go to West Virginia, but in his heart he knew he made the right choice.
“I told the Iowa assistant that I enjoyed this one and I think it will be a better fit,” he said.
Young felt more comfortable playing in a structured offensive system, having learned the motion offense at St. Rita High School in Chicago. He averaged 18 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots per game playing power forward as a senior for Coach John Bonk, earning third-team all-state honors.
Young says recruiters really began taking notice of him after he was invited to ABC camp in New Jersey and then later that summer playing AAU basketball for the Illinois Fire. Still, he only received lukewarm interest from local schools Illinois and DePaul.
In reality he says that was for the better, “DePaul and Illinois wouldn’t fit with the way I played,” Young admitted. “The offense I played in in high school is similar to what we do here now. Most of my friends went to DePaul and there were not many spots open anyway.”
Young was pleasantly surprised with Morgantown. The city was actually bigger than he thought it was.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be as big as a city but it’s bigger than I thought it would be. There’s a lot to do plus the people here are nice,” said Young, who plans on majoring in sports management.
About 11 members of his family found that out first-hand when they drove 10 hours in a car with him to help him get ready for his first semester of college.
“They had never been to West Virginia and saw how it was, looked around, and I think they stayed for about three or four days and then they left,” Young said. “At first they were thinking it was kind of far but my mother, uncles and other family members are going to watch the games on TV so it wasn’t a big deal.”
At present, Young is trying to get adjusted to Beilein’s complex offense and work on his outside game.
“It’s kind of a big transition from high school to college, longer days and harder practices, but I’m getting used to it. It has been kind of tough because there are a lot of plays to learn from high school ball but I’m adjusting to all of the things I’ve got to learn,” he said.
Just because Young isn’t in the plans this year doesn’t mean West Virginia doesn’t have big plans for him. Young needs to add weight to his lanky frame to help absorb the pounding his body will take in the Big East; he must also become a more consistent outside shooter.
“I think I’ll be ready for it,” said Young, who would like to weigh 220 at the start of next year.
“We can’t lose sight of the fact that this is a long process and we haven’t completely fixed the situation we were in a couple of years ago,” added Beilein.
A big part of fixing the situation is not getting skipping important steps in the process. Redshirting Jerrah Young may turn out to be one of those important steps.
Briefly ...
The first two substitutes off the bench were Patrick Beilein, who is backing up Herber, and D’or Fischer, who is behind Pittsnogle. There is also the possibility of Fischer and Pittsnogle playing at the same time. When that happens, Pittsnogle moves to power forward.
