Changing of the Guard
July 24, 2006 11:19 PM | General
July 24, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Since John Beilein took over the West Virginia men’s basketball program five seasons ago, his Mountaineer teams have been forward-dominated. Starting with Drew Schifino his first year and continuing with Tyrone Sally and Mike Gansey -- and of course 6-foot-10-inch Kevin Pittsnogle who was really more of a forward than a center -- the majority of the points in Beilein’s offense have come from the 3 and the 4 men.
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| Junior guard Darris Nichols could become the focal point of West Virginia's offense in 2007.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
This year could see that trend end with the development of 6-2 junior guard Darris Nichols. During his first two seasons at West Virginia, Nichols admits he chose to hold back his game a little bit for the good of the team.
“Because all of those guys were so good when you come in you don’t want to do anything to disrupt the flow of the game,” Nichols said. “You just come in and try to be solid.”
Even though Nichols understandably took a back seat to players like Mike Gansey and Kevin Pittsnogle his first two years in the program, his game is really more suited for being the team's No. 1 scoring option. He might get that opportunity this year.
“Coach has told me he is expecting more offense from me and more shots,” Nichols said. “I always felt like I could score when I wanted to but it’s the fact that I was coming in games cold and just trying to make sure the offense doesn’t miss a beat.”
Nichols was a big scorer in high school playing in Radford, Va., where he averaged nearly 25 points per game and earned area player of the year honors. The situation Nichols is in now is similar to what he encountered in high school during his junior year when his older brother Shane (now playing at Wofford) graduated and turned over the reigns to his younger brother.
“My first two years of high school my brother was older and he ran the team,” Nichols recalled. “Before my junior year my coach sat me down and told me he was going to give me the ball and let me play. It’s kind of like déjà vu.”
Nichols doesn’t really fit Beilein’s past team’s standards as far as being a pure shooter, but he does have the ability to make shots. In reality Nichols is more of a mid-range scorer with the speed to get past defenders and take the ball to the hoop. If Nichols can become a little more consistent with his shooting stroke, improving upon his 38.4 percent field goal shooting percentage of a year ago, he could realistically be a 12 to 13-points-per-game scorer this year.
“I always had the mid-range game and that’s what I did in high school,” he said. “During the off-season I’ve been shooting NBA 3s and I’ve worked on that. I’m ready for whatever we do.”
Nichols and the small handful of players returning have put in a lot of time this summer working on their games. It’s not unusual to see Mountaineer players shooting baskets at the Coliseum well into the night.
“This whole off-season we’ve gotten a lot better,” Nichols said. “I’m like, ‘Frank (Young) let’s go work out.’ We just took on a leadership role and we have played well together this summer.”
Based on what he’s seen so far, Nichols predicts improved play from 7-foot senior center Rob Summers this winter.
“He’s gotten a lot stronger,” Nichols said. “I think it’s a confidence thing because he was playing behind Kevin and he knew that he wasn’t going to play that much so he had that frame of mind. Next year, it’s all up for grabs so he’s got to make the best of his opportunity.”
Nichols is also impressed with what he’s witnessed from WVU’s seven newcomers who spent three weeks here in July getting a jump start on their class work.
“All of them are good talent wise, it’s just a matter of how fast they catch on to the system and how the Big East is,” Nichols said. “You can come in with the most talent in the world but it’s the little things you’ve got to pick up.”
Nichols is speaking from experience.
“In high school you think you know everything and then when I came here I was like, ‘Um, I don’t know?’ There was just so much stuff.”
In order to get a better handle on things Nichols spent a lot of his free time in the dorm studying West Virginia’s offense.
“When I was a freshman I would ask Coach for DVDs so I could go home and watch them,” he said. “It helped me pick things up faster.”
So far, Nichols sees that same attention to detail from this year’s group of freshmen.
“In pickup games when I explain something all of them listen,” Nichols said. “That’s how I was when I was first here. When the older guys told me something I listened. That’s going to help them.”
Nichols says the freshmen may have gotten an eye opening experience when they first went up against the older players at the Coliseum.
“All of the freshmen live together so they’re going to pick each other up on the same team. So it’s like me, Frank, Jamie (Smalligan), Alex (Ruoff) and one of the younger guys (going against them),” Nichols said. “We kind of ran one of our simple plays and they couldn’t stop it.
“It was a basic screen and roll and they didn’t know whether to help … one guy was going to get a 3 and the other guy was going to get a lay up. That just goes to show you that they really don’t know how to defend yet.”
Nichols believes the freshmen that can play defense and have the best understanding of the system will get the most playing time.
“Some players kill during the off-season in pickup games and don’t pick it up during the season,” Nichols said. “You’ve got to come in here with a defensive frame of mind, especially when you’re young. The guy that has really impressed me defensively is (6-7 forward) De’Sean Butler because he can guard the 1 through the 5.”
Nichols estimates as many as three freshmen will probably see a good amount of playing time this year and he’s encouraged with what all of them can bring to the table. Of course expectations this year in Morgantown have been grounded by the heavy losses, but Nichols isn’t planning on the program experiencing a big drop off.
“You hear stuff but you don’t want to listen to it,” he said. “People say we’re not going to be as good as we’ve been and we don’t want that to happen. We want to keep building on where the seniors have left off.
“You know, North Carolina lost all seven of their top players and they were still a Top 25 team,” Nichols reasoned. “That shows me that all we have to do is play hard and we’ll be all right.”
At the very least, West Virginia is going to be a much more athletic team this year.
“(Beilein) has talked to me about emphasizing more transition buckets because we’re going to be a lot more athletic than we’ve been in the past,” Nichols said. “He was talking about playing the same system but be kind of more like Georgetown in that they pick and choose when they run.
“That’s more of my game so I’m excited about that.”
