Beyond his Years
December 23, 2006 12:56 PM | General
December 23, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the 5,000 and change lucky enough to be at Wednesday night’s West Virginia game against The Citadel, they got to see the complete all-around game of the Mountaineers’ exciting freshman forward Da’Sean Butler.
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| West Virginia's Da'Sean Butler scored 14 points in last Wednesday's win over The Citadel at the WVU Coliseum.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Of course there was Butler’s breakaway dunk, the four-point play from the corner, the pretty pull-up jumper down on the baseline and the rim-scraping rebounds.
There were the steals out at the top of the 1-3-1, the accurate passes he made to set up wide open teammates in the corner and the loose basketballs he always seems to come up with. It’s obvious to even a first-time college basketball watcher that Butler knows what he’s doing out there. The basketball old timers call it moxie and Butler has it well beyond his years.
Just watch the way he goes for a loose basketball rolling out of bounds. He just doesn’t dive for it. He twists and contorts his lanky 6-foot-7-inch frame in such a way to shield the other player from getting it while also putting himself into a position to flick a pass to a wide open teammate for an easy lay up.
There are plenty of great players making a lot of money doing this for a living that either haven’t figured out how to do that or aren’t willing to do it. One, you can tell Butler has grown up playing with good players and two, it’s obvious he’s not asleep when West Virginia coach John Beilein has the VCR rolling.
“Coach has us watch tape on Mike Gansey and Patrick Beilein and the other guys from that team,” Butler explained. “I just watch that and do a little bit of the stuff I’ve been doing that works for me. Basically I just try and work as hard as I can to get to the ball.”
It’s not remarkable that John Beilein teaches these things to his players. He’s a man that refuses to leave any stone unturned. What is remarkable is that an 18-year-old freshman like Da’Sean Butler is absorbing it like a sponge.
Why would a kid who led his high school team (Bloomfield Tech) to the New Jersey state championship as a senior and was considered one of the five best players in the state want to learn how to properly dive for loose balls?
“Whatever Coach needs me to do,” he shrugged. “All I do is go out and play.”
Beilein is a man who chooses his words carefully and has learned to hedge his bets after 29 years of coaching. He won’t say anything ridiculous about Butler’s ability, or exaggerate his talents, but it doesn’t take a word parser to realize that Butler has the qualities that could one day make him one of the best players Beilein has ever coached.
“You can’t explain it,” said Beilein recently of Butler’s amazing basketball maturity. “If you look at a kid’s SAT scores – not that his were bad – or his coaching … you can look at 10 elements and bring them in and see where they are going to fit and how quickly the learning curve there is no predetermining for that. You just don’t know how kids are going to react to college basketball, to West Virginia basketball, or being away from home.”
That said Beilein loves the way Butler has adapted to everything. He is already one of the most popular players on the team, pulling pranks on the veteran players and keeping everyone loose. As he was leaving the interview room Wednesday night, Butler did his best to get Frank Young off his game as he was talking to a reporter.
“I’ll get you later,” Young smiled.
“What has been so good about Da’Sean so far is that he has been yelled at in practice and he’s responded positively, he’s been thrown into the middle of tight games and he’s responded to that; it’s rare that a freshman assimilates so quickly to your system and he’s been able to do that,” Beilein said.
Butler is also one of the hardest workers on a team full of hard workers. There isn’t a single clock-watcher among them.
“I work after practice doing extra shots,” he said. “I just want to be a spark. If Joe (Alexander) comes out of the game and he’s tired I want to bring the same energy to the game.”
Butler is playing about 22 minutes per game coming off the bench. He’s making close to 50 percent of his field goal attempts, ranks fifth on the team in scoring averaging 9 points per game, is fourth in rebounds averaging 3.4 per game, and is second in steals with 21.
“I’m the type of player that likes to get my teammates the ball,” Butler admitted. “The whole system fits well. The hustle that Coach Beilein emphasizes that’s what I like.”
Butler couldn’t have found a better place where he’s at out on the top of Beilein’s 1-3-1 zone. Just think how difficult he’s going to be for those small guards to handle when he’s had about 20-25 games under his belt. It’s already been hell for them after only nine games.
“I was having trouble with it in the beginning but now as the games go on and the more we go over it in practice it’s coming easier to me,” Butler said, admitting that he spent most of his time playing inside in high school.
“I did a little of everything,” he said.
Butler can also be seen directing traffic out on the floor. Several times during the Citadel game he was pointing out where his teammates were supposed to be on offense and getting everybody to the right spot on defense.
“Coach kind of stresses being a leader for the other freshmen,” Butler shrugged. “If I know what I’m talking about and I know what they’re supposed to be doing I can tell them what to do sometimes. It’s pretty difficult but if I know what they’re doing I can remind them.”
Butler says it’s enjoyable playing with veteran guys like Frank Young and Darris Nichols who were on Elite Eight and Sweet 16 teams and were involved in some of college basketball’s biggest games the last two years.
“They kind of make it easier for me when I get on the court,” he said. “It’s not that big of a burden for me like it is for them. They’ve got to lead us.”
WVU assistant equipment manager Kevin Johnston recalls a conversation he struck up with a knowledgeable New Jersey high school basketball fan during the team’s trip to Orlando, Fla., for the Old Spice Classic in November. He casually mentioned that West Virginia had Wellington Smith on the team.
“You’ve got Wellington Smith?” the fan asked.
“Yep,” Johnston answered adding that they also had Da’Sean Butler.
“You’ve got Da’Sean Butler, too? Wow. Those guys are really good. I’m going to be watching you guys.”
I have a feeling a lot of people might be watching them before their Mountaineer careers are over.
