Preseason Thoughts
September 18, 2003 10:18 PM | General
Friday, September 19, 2003
There will be plenty of brainpower on the bench this year for the West Virginia University basketball team.
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| Former Penn State coach Jerry Dunn joined the West Virginia basketball staff last spring. (AP photo) |
John Beilein added another important asset to his coaching staff when he had an opportunity to bring former Penn State coach Jerry Dunn to Morgantown as an assistant last spring. Dunn has big-time coaching experience in the Big Ten, including an NCAA tournament “Sweet 16” appearance as recently as 2001.
Dunn joins a talented staff that includes Jeff Neubaeur and Matt Brown. Mark it down, Neubaeur is going to be a Division I coach sooner rather than later, and Brown is a diamond in the rough.
Assembling all three of these guys on the same bench is a major coup for Beilein.
When Beilein hired Dunn it got me thinking: has West Virginia ever had a total coaching staff as good as this one starting from the head coach and going all the way through?
I went all the way back to my era in the late 1950s and there have been some good ones. Gale Catlett had an outstanding coaching staff with Gary McPherson (former head coach at VMI), Bob Smith and Lanny Van Eman.
When I played, Coach Fred Schaus hired the first assistant basketball coach in school history in George King, a former Morris Harvey and professional basketball star who followed Schaus at WVU and later led Purdue to the 1969 NCAA Finals against a UCLA team headlined by Lew Alcindor.
The group that Beilein has put together this year certainly has to rank up there with the best ever at WVU.
Year two in John Beilein’s system will enable him to do more things with his basketball team. Because there is now a familiarity with his style, I believe he will be able to introduce new options in his offensive and defensive sets.
Also making it easier for him is improved depth with a four-player freshman class and the addition of 6-foot-11 transfer D’or Fischer, now eligible to play this year. Last season Beilein wasn’t able to use any pressure defense at all. And he really didn’t have a stopper in the middle like he hopes to have with Fischer.
Beilein took over a program last year that was 8-20 the year before and he had to go out and really work hard. At the beginning of the year he may have had one or two Big East players, but he really developed his team.
One intriguing alignment this year for the Mountaineers could be the combination of Fischer and 6-foot-10 Kevin Pittsnogle. Having those two on the floor at the same time could cause some major problems for opposing defenses.
I’m sure Beilein would love to play Pittsnogle and Fischer at the same time but a major question will be whether or not Kevin can step out and guard players on the perimeter? Will he able to guard the opposing team’s four-man? If both of them play at the same time, Kevin is going to have to be able to do that.
Isn’t it great to have the ability to find that out this year, though? Beilein certainly didn’t have that option last season.
Even though Beilein landed a very solid recruiting class, I don’t foresee any major changes at the outset. I still think when West Virginia opens up the season it will be Sally, Schifino, Herber, Pittsnogle and Collins to start the year.
Why? Because they’ve earned it.
Beilein will give them every opportunity to keep their jobs because that’s just the type of coach he is.
One final item to consider before preseason practices begin: when was the last time West Virginia had two returning players face top-flight international competition in the summer?
Kevin Pittsnogle played for Team USA at the 2003 FIBA Junior World Championships in Greece while Joe Herber represented Germany in the World University Games in Korea.
That’s terrific experience for those two players and I believe it will help them tremendously this season.
