New-Look Team
April 17, 2006 04:01 PM | General
April 17, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A good portion of John Beilein’s summer will be spent breaking in a large group of newcomers. Beilein and his coaching staff will have the very challenging task of getting their basketball team prepared to face stiff Big East competition with seven freshmen this fall.
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| John Beilein will be working with the largest group of newcomers since he took over the West Virginia job in 2002.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Counting 7-foot Butler transfer Jamie Smalligan, the Mountaineers will have eight new players in the program for the 2006-07 campaign.
“From this class if you count Jamie Smalligan there are eight and 50 percent of them will have to contribute,” Beilein estimated. “We have five returning players so we’ll probably go a little deeper next year as we sort things out.”
Beilein chose to use his final scholarship to sign 6-foot-3-inch guard Jonnie West of Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis, Tenn., during the spring signing period instead of holding it for a late transfer. West is the son of basketball great Jerry West.
“It would be nice to have something left but we decided to take this route this year,” Beilein said. “I would like to have every one of these guys and still have one left for a transfer to space some classes out.”
West Virginia’s roster breakdown for next year is made up of two seniors (Frank Young and Rob Summers), two juniors (Darris Nichols and Jamie Smalligan), six sophomores (Joe Alexander, Sean Martini, Alex Ruoff, Josh Sowards, Ted Talkington and Nate Tallman) and seven freshmen. Four of the six sophomores are walk-ons.
A recent NCAA ruling permitting freshmen to get a head start on their college coursework by taking classes in the summertime will prove beneficial for West Virginia, as does a ruling that allows coaches to workout 12 players for two hours a week instead of conducting individual drills with only three players at a time.
“We’ve been doing all team workouts because we only have six returning players with a couple of walk-ons,” Beilein said. “We used to spend three hours down there with three kids at a time. I think the feeling was we could get more done and we were away from our desks where we could be doing academic work, scheduling or something else.”
The coach expects all seven freshmen to be in school in July for three weeks of summer school. Consequently, the coaching staff will be able to at least introduce their new players to the terminology they will need to know this year as well as get a quick evaluation of them before they begin practicing in the fall.
“When they come back in August they’ve really had a three-week orientation and at the same time they’ve got hopefully six credits under their belts. They can learn to use the library, the PRT and to learn what it’s like living in a dorm,” Beilein said.
The new players can also learn about themselves and build camaraderie, something Beilein expects from his basketball teams.
The seven-player group Beilein is bringing in next year has received high marks. Five of the seven prospects were ranked among the nation’s Top 250 high school basketball players by Bob Gibbons. The highest rating went to 6-foot-5-inch guard Devan Bawinkel of Winnebago, Ill. -- the nation’s 99th-best player.
Bawinkel capped off a stellar senior season by finishing fourth in the Illinois Mr. Basketball voting that encompasses all classifications. Duke recruit Jon Scheyer won the award.
Bawinkel averaged 25.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.4 steals per game in 2006, posting a career-high 52 points against Freeport Aquin High School in December and adding 51 points against Rockford Lutheran in the state playoffs. He finished his career with 2,165 points and helped his Winnebago High School team to back-to-back state runner-up finishes in 2004 and 2005.
Six-two guard Joe Mazzulla scored 39 points in the state championship game to lead Hendricken High School to its third straight Rhode Island state title. Mazzulla was named Rhode Island’s Gatorade player of the year.
Six-seven forward Da’Sean Butler earned first-team all-New Jersey honors at nationally ranked Bloomfield Tech High School, leading his team to the New Jersey Group 1 title. Butler averaged 15.1 points and 11 rebounds per game in helping Bloomfield to a 29-2 record. He scored 1,044 points for his career.
Six-seven swingmen Wellington Smith and Cam Thoroughman are both said to have perimeter-oriented games. After earning second-team all-state honors last year at Summit (N.J.) High School, Smith spent a year at prep school playing for The Blair Academy in New Jersey.
Thoroughman was slowed by a midseason knee injury but was still able to average 20 points per game playing at Clay High School in Portsmouth, Ohio. Thoroughman was an honorable mention all-state selection.
Washington, D.C., 6-foot-9-inch center Jacob Green averaged 10.2 points per game as a senior at Gonzaga High School. Green was named to the Washington Post honorable mention all-metro team and was selected to play for the Capital All-Stars in the Capital Classic played at George Washington University.
West Virginia’s final recruit, Jonnie West, averaged 18.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.5 steals per game to earn Division 2 all-state honors by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association.
“We’ve got some great redshirt candidates in here – one being Jonnie because of his late birthday and because he’s still growing and filling out,” Beilein said.
The coach says he prefers redshirting players if at all possible much like football has done for years.
“If we didn’t have such a big class coming in (next year) we would have redshirted some of the freshmen this year,” Beilein said.
