Smooth Transition
October 23, 2006 01:35 PM | General
October 23, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Wellington Smith’s decision to spend a year in prep school at Blair (N.J.) Academy was an eye opening experience for the standout New Jersey high school forward. He learned a great deal about himself.
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| Forward Wellington Smith is one of eight freshmen vying for playing time this year on the Mountaineer basketball team.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“It helped me a lot,” Smith said recently. “Back in high school all we did was run two offenses: flex and motion. In prep school we ran about five or six options where anything that happens we had to read the defense. Reading the defense here is big so it really helped.”
More than that, playing a year at Blair Academy gave Smith an opportunity to gauge himself against some of the best players in the country like Syracuse freshman forward Paul Harris.
“Last year we had a great schedule,” Smith said. “We played against some great players and I’m glad I got a chance to play against those players instead of coming out of high school to this. If I did that then I would have been in for a rude awakening thinking I’m one of the best guys in the country and then come here and I’m nothing.”
Well, not exactly. Smith sifted through a number of college offers after an outstanding run at Summit High School in Summit, N.J. He averaged 24 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks per game as a senior and earned first-team all-state and all-country honors.
Smith said he considered Virginia, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and South Florida before settling on the Mountaineers.
“West Virginia was always there; they started recruiting me my sophomore year,” he said. “They weren’t that good back then but by my junior and senior year they made some big strides and I started putting them up on my list of schools.
“West Virginia just kept on talking to me and I loved the attention I was getting from them,” Smith said. “Some schools weren’t as serious as I thought they were in recruiting me. West Virginia was a great fit and I really feel comfortable here.”
Smith oozes with natural athletic ability that includes a sweet jump shot that extends beyond the 3-point line. At 6-7 and 200 pounds, Smith is versatile enough to play several positions.
“Shooting the ball is basically our offense here and everybody is able to shoot the ball,” Smith said. “We have certain drills where if we don’t shoot the ball well then we have to run which is not a fun thing to do. It’s a great thing that I can shoot the ball because I can play the two, three and four positions.”
Smith lists his shooting and rebounding as his two primary attributes right now.
“Some things I need to work on are slowing down my game a lot, shooting under pressure and working a lot more on my dribbling,” he said.
Like all players in Coach John Beilein’s system, Smith brings a gym-rat mentality to the court each day in practice.
“My basketball IQ comes from just a lot of sitting down and talking to my prep school coach, my high school coaches and my AAU coach,” he said. “In order to pick this system up you have to have a good IQ about just everything because (Beilein) is not going to take the time and sit back and teach you the system because he has a lot of other players that can pick it up quickly.”
Among the nuances of Beilein’s system is learning how to read and react to both opposing defenses and your teammates.
“I have to know what I’m doing and other guys have to know what I’m doing and then I have to read what the defensive players are doing to them,” Smith said. “There is just a lot of stuff that you have to be smart about.”
Smith says he must also be prepared for some of the unorthodox play calls Beilein makes during practice. A couple of them have really caught him off guard.
“I don’t know if I can throw them out but he threw out Lion and I’m like, ‘What is that?’ It’s some crazy stuff that I had never heard before in my life,” Smith laughed.
Overall, Smith says all eight of the freshmen are fitting in nicely so far.
“There really hasn’t been a difficult adjustment but I guess just being away from home because you’re not accustomed to being away from your parents that much,” he said. “But I think all of the freshmen have been doing really well with it.”
Briefly:
Coach John Beilein says his young team has been getting a heavy dose of clips to watch after each practice.
“You almost have to let drills go on and show them their mistakes later or else you’ll be stopping practice every minute,” Beilein said. “But there were some glimmers of hope as far as the light bulbs going on: ‘OK, now I understand what they’re talking about.’”
“That’s what really motivates me is that look in their eye of I understand,” he said. “More than wins and losses that’s what I coach for most. It’s not my way of playing but how basketball should be played.”
“One of the reasons we look good in practice is because freshmen are guarding us,” Beilein said. “There is a mental approach to it. Many of them had classes at 8:30 in the morning and go through a complete day. Now they practice and that wears them down. They’re not worn down yet but it will wear them down and we’ve got to keep them focused.”
“We’re longer and I think we have a better pressing type of defense than we’ve had in the past if their IQ can keep up with their athleticism,” Beilein said.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean 40 minutes of full-court pressing.
“We’re not that athletic,” Beilein grinned.
