International Appeal
October 14, 2004 02:40 PM | General
October 15, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Johannes “Joe” Herber knew next to nothing about West Virginia University when John Beilein told him he was taking the WVU job just a day before he was scheduled to make a visit to the University of Richmond three years ago.
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| Joe Herber was the youngest member of the German National team that qualified for next year's European Championships.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Beilein found out about the German native through Pat King, an American who was involved with European basketball. Herber was looking for an American school to attend to continue his education and improve his game and sought out King, who put him in touch with Beilein.
“Somehow we got Joe’s tape, probably from Pat, and we watched it and he was good on film – worth following up on,” recalled Beilein’s assistant Jeff Neubauer. “So Coach went over there and watched Joe play.”
Herber also heard from Boston University, New Hampshire and Cal Poly of the Big West Conference and had visits lined up to Richmond, Cal Poly and the College of Charleston when Beilein asked him to change plans.
“I looked up West Virginia on the Internet because I didn’t know anything about the basketball program or which conference it was in,” Herber remembered. “I was surprised when I saw that they were in the Big East.”
That was when Herber became very interested in West Virginia University.
Beilein’s plan was to redshirt Herber at Richmond because they had recruited well and had a pretty deep team coming back for the 2002 season. But when he left for West Virginia all bets were off. The Mountaineers finished the 2001 season with a miserable 8-20 record and a complete remodeling job was in order.
Herber made a promise to Cal Poly that he would make a visit there because the school contacted him first. Joe’s trip also included a two-day visit to West Virginia sandwiched in between a trip to Charleston, S.C.
But Charleston pulled out of the Herber sweepstakes when another player committed to the school, leaving his choice solely between Cal Poly and West Virginia.
“The main reason I chose here was because the Big East was a bigger challenge than the Big West was,” Herber said. “I knew I was going to have a good coach in Coach Beilein and I liked the coaching staff. I didn’t get to know a lot of people on the team; I met some of the others but most of them are gone now.”
Because Beilein had completely turned over West Virginia’s roster, that left young players like Joe Herber getting more minutes than they normally would have had otherwise.
Herber proved to be an effective player as a freshman, averaging 7.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game while handing out 111 assists – the third most by a plebe in WVU history. Herber started all 29 games for a team that produced a surprising 14-15 record.
Both Herber and West Virginia made gradual improvement again last year. While the Mountaineers were going over the .500 mark and returning to the NIT for the first time in two years, Herber was logging the most minutes on the team with 1,021. He averaged 8.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, accumulated 101 assists and produced 43 steals for a very nice all-around season.
But in many ways Herber is the one player West Virginia could least afford to lose, at one time or another having played four out of the five positions (excluding center) on the floor.
“He might be our best player just because he’s so versatile and does so many things for us,” Neubauer admitted.
Because he isn’t a flashy dunker or a prolific scorer, Herber’s talents are sometimes underappreciated. Even Neubauer admits it probably takes a person with a high basketball IQ to fully appreciate what Herber does on the floor.
“I think a lot of people can see that he’s a decent player because he doesn’t make many mistakes and he can make some shots. But to really understand how much he helps our team you’ve got to really understand the game,” said the assistant.
It is nearly impossible to come up with a Mountaineer player over the last 20 years as versatile as Herber, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound sometimes guard sometimes forward. If point guard J.D. Collins gets into foul trouble then Beilein is totally comfortable with Herber bringing the ball up the floor and running the offense. If a power forward like Georgetown’s Mike Sweetney is having his way in the paint, Beilein isn’t afraid to put Herber on him despite giving up as much as 50 pounds. Herber is also often the one Beilein calls on to take a clutch shot down the stretch despite shooting less than 40 percent for his career.
Herber might be the team’s best passer and he is capable of pulling down double-digit rebounds like he did against nationally ranked Pitt last year when he had 14. Joe is also easily the team’s smartest player, carrying a 4.0 grade point average in political science and earning third-team Academic All-America honors.
Therefore the only real chink in Herber’s armor is that he hasn’t become a more consistent outside shooter, though the coaching staff is quick to point out that he was the one to hit the three that beat No. 8 Florida in Charleston during his freshman season. He also hit a halfcourt shot last year to beat IUPUI at the buzzer.
Herber says he is working on his outside shot and plans on becoming more offensive minded this season if it fits with the personality of the team.
“If you look at my stats you see that I’m a decent rebounder and a good passer but scoring is the biggest part that I have to step up,” Herber said. “But you also have to look at what’s good for the team. If Tyrone (Sally) or Kevin (Pittsnogle) is open on the wing I’m going to give them the ball. But I think I can help this team if I’m a little more aggressive (looking for his shot) just to give us another option.”
Joe is the first to admit that it has taken him a while to become comfortable playing Big East basketball at a major university in a foreign country. The process is on going.
“For me it’s not normal to go into a gym and play in front of 15,000 people, it’s not normal to have wooden floors and it’s not normal to play with a good leather basketball everyday,” he said. “It’s not normal to have your own locker. We don’t have managers; we bring our own water to practice.”
The adjustments Joe has made to play American college basketball are really mind boggling when you consider all of them in their totality.
Despite speaking near flawless English, there are still times when Joe has a tough time deciphering a word or a phrase uttered by either his teammates or coaches. As a European, he is accustomed to a totally different lifestyle that revolves around a downtown setting with outdoor cafes and the ability to walk wherever you need to go. That is impossible in Morgantown.
It’s tough locating music that he likes and it’s even tougher finding good European food to eat. Perhaps the hardest part is being half-way around the world from your friends and family with no way of just hopping in a car to go home. Of course he knew all of this when he decided to come to the United States to play college basketball, but the point was certainly driven home after a few months away as an 18-year-old freshman.
“It took me some time to get adjusted and I still have closer relationships with people in Germany, of course,” said Herber. “But I’ve made progress here.”
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| Joe Herber and Nick Patella share an off-campus apartment in Morgantown.
WVU Sports Communications photo |
Roommate Nick Patella, a redshirt sophomore from Elkins, agrees: “When we first met we were kind of going through the same thing,” he said. “We both never experienced college basketball but of course he had a lot more home sickness than I did.
“But Joe is a pretty strong individual and he really doesn’t need a whole lot of help with a lot of things,” Patella is quick to add.
Patella and Herber often found themselves shooting away evenings at the student rec center and became fast friends. “Things worked out to where we both needed a place to stay our sophomore year and we just got together,” says Patella of their now two-year living arrangement.
According to Patella, Herber can focus on a task with laser-beam-like precision and it took him a while to become totally relaxed around his teammates.
“I’ve taught him how to chill out a little bit,” Patella said. “He was really uptight when he came here and now he kind of hangs out a little bit more.”
Herber, for his part, is constantly searching for stimulating people to be around and Patella fit that bill perfectly. Nick is known as one of the team’s wise guys but beneath that veneer hides a curiosity level every bit the equal of Herber’s.
Often times the two spend evenings in their apartment talking about issues ranging from World War II and how it impacted members of Joe’s family to today’s current state of affairs.
“I am intrigued with World War II and he is intrigued with American history and we talk about those things,” Patella said. “I’ve had my horizons broadened ten-fold because he understands world issues that I don’t and he understands a lot about the presidential campaign that I don’t. That’s good that we can talk about things and be level-headed about it.”
Patella further illustrates his point.
“When we moved into our new apartment I put an American flag above our couch and he said there was to be no ideology and I agreed with that,” Patella said. “He said there will be no German flags in the house either.
“Joe is one of the smartest persons I’ve ever met in my life and he’s also very street-smart, too,” Patella added.
Joe says his brain is probably the main reason he was picked for the German National team this summer (Joe was the team’s youngest player at age 21).
Herber got a telephone call from German team coach Dirk Bauerman last February to see if he was interested in coming over for the summer to play in the group championships. Bauerman has a good understanding of the American game and knew Herber was playing in one of the best college basketball conferences in the country. Germany has produced other American college players but only Penn State’s Jan Jagla and Villanova’s Andreas Bloch, along with Joe, have recently played in one of the major basketball conferences.
Herber finally got the invitation in May and was one of 16 candidates to make up the 12-man roster.
He had experience playing on the German Junior National team and also spent last September in Korea playing in the World University Games, but making the German National team put Joe on a completely different level in the eyes of his countrymen. Even though Germany is not known for producing top-line European players like others, it does claim 7-foot center Dirk Nowitzki.
Herber landed a roster spot because in preliminary games he didn’t turn the basketball over and managed to distribute the ball to the team’s top scorers – primarily Nowitzski.
“We had a lot of 2s and 3s on the team: a lot of players my height and a lot quicker. But none of them had guard skills and they turned the ball over a lot,” Herber said. “I may have brought a little more intelligence to the game and moved the ball around and didn’t turn it over. That’s why I made the team.”
Last month, the German team had an easy time qualifying for next year’s European Championships, going 6-0 in its group of games against Ukraine, Hungary and Belgium. Joe played in four of the six contests with his best performance coming in the final one against Belgium when he played 14 minutes and scored five points.
“We expected to qualify because we didn’t really have a hard qualification group with Ukraine, Belgium and Hungary … they are kind of B-level teams in European basketball,” Herber said.
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| Joe Herber is hoping to shoot better than 40 percent from three-point distance this season.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Despite Germany’s easy time of it, Herber was exposed to some very good players this summer. In addition to playing alongside Nowitzki, Herber also locked up against 6-foot-8 forward Sergei Monia, the 23rd pick of the draft by the Portland Trailblazers; 7-foot center Radoslav Nesterovic, who now plays with the San Antonio Spurs; 6-foot-3 point guard Beno Udrih of the Spurs and 6-foot-11 forward Mehmet Okur, who plays for the Utah Jazz.
“It was good because it gave me a lot of confidence and it showed me that I could hang with some of those guys,” said Herber of his experience. “I’ve played with them for two years and it’s good to see that I’ve improved. It also showed me what I still have to work on.”
One of the items on Herber’s checklist is of course shooting. But he says there are also subtle things that he has to get better at, namely becoming more proficient at executing the pick and roll.
The pick and roll is the most important play in the European game because of the quicker shot clock. Typically European teams will run one play and if it doesn’t work then they revert to the pick and roll. In a lot of ways the Europeans have turned the pick and roll into an art form.
“A lot of people think the pick and roll is easy … you just get a pick, go by them, and the center rolls,” Herber said. “But there is a lot more to that and I learned that from people who’s skills are maybe not as good but they know how to set up their man, they know how to change speeds and create good angles.”
Certainly Joe wasn’t referring to Dirk Nowitzki, who is an elite player by all standards. And while Herber says Nowitzki didn’t conduct sit-down clinics with his teammates, Joe was able to learn a lot by just watching him in practice every day.
“He doesn’t miss,” Herber marveled. “There are a lot of good things he can do but his shot really stands out. He’s a 7-footer who moves like a guard who is 6-3.”
Herber also has an interesting perspective of the United States team’s Olympic troubles, having watched an exhibition between his German team and the Dream Teamers last summer and also witnessing the loss to Italy. Joe doesn’t think the situation is as dire as some Americans have made it out to be.
“I still think the United States has the best players but certainly they didn’t have the best team. I saw the Italy game and they just played great team basketball and the United States didn’t play together.
“Obviously the U.S. was missing a good shooter,” Joe added. “I think if they would have put two or three good shooters on the team then the whole team looks different. European teams were really playing clever and smart basketball: they were packing it in and making them shoot. That eliminated the United States’ athleticism.”
In some ways Herber says America’s great athleticism is also its biggest detriment.
“Europeans have become really good at the little things that I sometimes think the Americans are missing because their athleticism is so superior that they don’t need to create an angle – they just go by people,” he said.
“Americans have more style, are better dunkers and play fancier but the Europeans are more straight-forward and just play basketball,” Herber noted. “I think the Europeans also have a very good understanding of the game which I think is sometimes underestimated.”
Intelligent team-play is something John Beilein’s teams have made a living off of. If anything, the United States team’s performance in the Olympics kind of validated Beilein’s methodology of recruiting good, well-rounded intelligent players and developing them for the long haul.
Herber is certainly one of them and he’s anxious to begin his junior season.
“I’m definitely excited and I think it is going to be a pretty good season for us not only because we have a lot of people back but also because we have the right mindset this year,” he said. “We’ve had two years with a lot of ups and downs, some bad losses and some good wins. I think we’ve learned from that and this year it’s kind of time to harvest.”
Harvesting begins Saturday with the first practice of the preseason.
