Ready to Go
October 11, 2007 04:58 PM | General
October 11, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the last six months West Virginia men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins has been in one town after another fundraising, recruiting and taking care of business. Now he’s back in town getting his team prepared for the 2008 season.
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| Coach Bob Huggins is happy to be back at the Coliseum after spending a good part of the last six months on the road.
Kansas State photo |
“I’m so happy I’m off the road and I can get back and coach that I can’t hardly stand it,” Huggins said on his way back to Morgantown from a trip on the West Coast.
“We’re excited about going. We’ve been going two hours a week which is hard to get much done in two hours a week. The guys have been terrific and I think they’re really looking forward to getting started,” Huggins said.
The coach has had four players at a time for individual workouts so far this fall and he is starting to begin to formulate some opinions on the type of players he has inherited from former coach John Beilein.
“I think Joe Mazzulla is pretty tough and I think he’s pretty competitive,” Huggins said. “I think he’s probably stood out and I think we’ve had a couple of other guys.”
Forwards Joe Alexander and Wellington Smith have caught Huggins’ eye with their athleticism. Huggins singled out Alexander as the player that has made the biggest gains in the weight room.
“They’ve all gained strength and most of them have gained a little bit of weight,” Huggins said. “When you gain muscle mass you’re going to gain strength.”
Because West Virginia doesn’t have a large number of proven players in the front court, Huggins is entertaining the notion of using a smaller lineup similar to what Jay Wright has so successfully employed at Villanova. Huggins says that will depend on how quickly younger players like Jacob Green and John Flowers pick up the system.
“We’re just not very big but I’ve always felt like they have to guard us, too. If we can take some of the bigger people that we play and have them play away from the basket I think we can be effective that way,” Huggins said. “Honestly, I’m not as concerned about how small we are - I’m a little more concerned about not having a lot of depth, particularly on the front line.”
Huggins admitted that there could be times when 6-6 guard Alex Ruoff might go down and play the small forward position.
“Alex Ruoff is not a great athlete but he’s got pretty good strength and he’s got a pretty good understanding of what he needs to do,” said Huggins. “So playing Alex at the small forward position some – I wouldn’t want to play him there all of the time – but playing him there some I think we can probably get away with. I think he can keep his guy from rebounding the ball.”
Alexander could also play the five which is not a major deal because Huggins says most of his teams have not had true five-men anyway.
“If you look back historically at our teams we just haven’t had fives. We’ve had maybe a couple of power forwards,” Huggins said.
The veteran coach gave strong indications that this year’s team could be constructed around 6-1 guard Darris Nichols, who rates among the better athletes and playmakers in the Big East.
“We’re going to give Darris the ball. He’s going to be in charge of running things for us,” Huggins said. “I think the biggest change for him is going to be defensively. He’s going to be at the point rather than at the basket like he was in the 1-3-1. We’re going to start everything offensively and defensively through him.”
The biggest change for this year’s team, according to Huggins, is going to be making the adjustment to playing a much faster style. So far it has been a work in progress.
“We’re going to attempt to play a little faster and when we first started doing transition drills they didn’t do it very well,” Huggins said. “I think they’ve made tremendous strides. It’s a matter of repetition and the more you do it the better you’re going to get at it.
“You would have been shocked at how we threw the ball away and just did things that you would think would be uncharacteristic for some of those guys,” Huggins said. “It’s a change. It’s not what they were used to doing. The more we practice the better they’re going to get.”
Despite that, Huggins is convinced he’s got the personnel to play at a much faster tempo this year.
“You’ve got to be a fool to think that Darris Nichols can’t play fast. I think he can play fast and play fast very well,” Huggins said. “I think we’ve got a lot of guys that can do that. It’s just a matter of doing it over and over again until we get proficient at it.”
The most pleasing aspect so far for Huggins has been the players’ willingness to learn and work hard.
“I like the guys’ attitudes. By and large they’ve been pretty good,” said the coach. “I think some of them have got to compete a little harder but I think all of them have made some strides in that regard.”
West Virginia fans can get their first look at this year’s team Friday night at the Coliseum beginning at 8 pm. Both the men’s and women’s teams will scrimmage and take part in several events as part of Mountaineer Madness, presented by Full Throttle. An autograph session will take place on the floor between 8:15 and 9 pm.
