Preseason Thoughts
October 06, 2005 11:10 AM | General
Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005
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I was working my way over to the get a bottled water in the press box before last Saturday’s Virginia Tech football game when I ran into Charleston Daily Mail Sports Editor Jack Bogaczyk.
“Hey Jay, what do you think of this year’s basketball schedule?” he asked.
I told him the same thing I’m going to tell you -- it’s going to be a bear for West Virginia but at the same time it presents a great opportunity for the school. When I look at the big-time TV games I see the same teams playing in them. I see Connecticut, I see North Carolina, I see Duke, I see Kansas and I see Syracuse … the same eight or 10 teams. So when you get the opportunity like West Virginia has been presented this year to play national TV games you have to seize the opportunity.
I don’t compare us to Providence and how they scheduled a few years ago after coming off such a good season. I don’t think they did a real good job of piecing their schedule together but I think we have done a good job and I think this is what fans have wanted for a long time is to see this type of schedule.
Looking at the teams coming in with LSU this year and next year with UCLA plus what we have in the league, if you haven’t bought your ticket you better get it quickly because things are really happening right now.
I believe the basketball program has got to take this opportunity to play on the big-time level and that’s what West Virginia is doing.
Right now John Beilein has spent most of his time recruiting because this is such a big recruiting year with the basketball program having five seniors and him losing Jeff Neubauer to Eastern Kentucky. Now that it looks like he’s got things pretty well in hand, Beilein can get back and start preparing his team for an early season start in the Guardians Classic.
The advantage for West Virginia is that it has a large number of returning players with a great deal of experience. Looking at this very closely, I believe this is one of the most experienced teams to ever come back in school history. I’m basing it on this: when the season was over in March where was Kevin Pittsnogle? He was in Florida working out. Where was he in May? He was up in Chicago working out for the draft. Where was Mike Gansey? He plays in the World University Games for Team USA and winds up getting a gold medal. Where was Joe Herber? He was playing for the German National Team at the World University Games. Where were Patrick Beilein and Darius Nichols? They were playing in Italy and Spain with a college all-star team. Where was J.D. Collins? He spent a couple of weeks working out in Florida. Frank Young spent some time at a sports performance academy working on his agility and quickness.
When you put all of that together you’re looking at one of the most experienced and seasoned teams in school history.
You can go back to 1991 and 1992 when Gale Catlett had that large group of players that included Marsalis Basey, Ricky Robinson, P.G. Greene and so forth, they didn’t have the same type of experience this team has when they hit the floor for the first day of practice.
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| Jay says Kevin Pittsnogle has to use the advice he received at Chicago's NBA pre-draft camp last spring to his advantage this season.
AP photo |
When consider what has happened to the basketball program from last March until now, you have to go all the way back to the days of Jerry West and Rod Thorn to find a similar buzz on a national level. A lot of that has to do with riding out the wave created by Kevin Pittsnogle from the NCAA tournament.
When you think of the most athletic players on the team it’s probably either Gansey or Nichols. The one player that has to be on the floor all of the time because of his versatility is Herber. The guy with the best shooting range is Patrick Beilein. I haven’t even mentioned Pittsnogle yet and he’s the one guy that makes defenses have to adjust to him because of he’s a guy that can play out on the wing.
Now if Kevin really takes to heart what they told him in Chicago to work on his inside game he could be one of the big keys to the season. Think about it, what Kevin was being told was completely different than what most of the big players that withdraw their names from the draft are being told: work on your outside shot. Kevin can already shoot at the NBA level. He leaves there knowing that he’s got to be able to play with his back to the basket and defend better.
If he does this he makes the team that much better.
The first area of concern for the coaching staff this fall will be finding a replacement for Tyrone Sally and all of his experience playing big-time basketball. Junior Frank Young is going to step in there and do that, but he doesn’t have nearly the amount of experience Sally had playing there last year.
The second area you have to look at is center. D’or Fischer did a great job blocking shots last year and scoring when asked to do that, but more than that he was an outstanding foul shooter. Can Robert Summers block shots, defend and shoot free throws like Fischer? That’s a real good question. If he can come in and give them five, six or maybe seven minutes holding his own, then I think Beilein will be happy with that early on. Six-eight freshman Joe Alexander is so athletic that he may be able to help West Virginia up front, too.
Remember one thing about Summers: he isn’t coming into this thing wet behind the ears. He’s got experience playing big-time basketball in the Big Ten at Penn State. The downside is that he hasn’t played a game in 18 months, but his experience should help him a great deal.
