Work in Progress
October 23, 2007 05:14 PM | General
October 23, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Having watched his team practice for a week and a half now, Bob Huggins will tell you that his first basketball team at West Virginia University is still very much a work in progress. With all the installation that comes with starting a new program, the Morgantown native has his players’ heads spinning faster than the dirty laundry in Bubba Schmidt’s equipment room dryer.
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| Coach Bob Huggins has been happy with his team's willingness to work and learn.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“I’ve got them really confused right now I think. We’ve got probably five or six guys right now that I think have a pretty good grasp of what we are trying to do,” Huggins said. “Of course the younger kids are struggling but that is to be expected.”
According to Huggins the key is for him and his staff to get three or four of the young guys ready to contribute when the Mountaineers suit up for the season opener on Nov. 16 against Arkansas-Monticello.
“We just have to get three or four or five of those guys to the point where we can put them in a game,” Huggins said. “Right now they’re not ready to get in a game but hopefully here in the next three weeks we can get them caught up.”
Huggins says the one thing that has never wavered since the team came together is the willingness of each player to do what the coaches say in trying to improve their overall game.
“We’ve made a lot of strides. It’s harder for me to see than I think it is other people because I see them every day,” Huggins said. “They have bought in and I think that is the main thing. They are trying and as long as they continue to try we’ll get better.”
One area where Huggins recognizes the need for drastic improvement is in the frontcourt where senior Jamie Smalligan and redshirt freshman Jacob Green will look to play with the toughness that their coach demands.
“That’s an area we have got to get better at. The good thing is Jamie is really trying. I don’t have a problem with Jamie’s effort and I don’t have a problem with Jake’s effort,” Huggins said. “We’re asking Jamie to do a whole lot more than what he’s done before. That’s been a challenge for him and Jake just doesn’t know what he’s doing yet. They are trying, though, and as long as they keep working the way they are working we will get there.”
Huggins mentioned that the first year in a program is always difficult because no matter how many veterans a coach has returning, they might as well be true freshman trying to learn a new system.
“The hardest thing about starting in your first year - and I think all coaches would say this - is that you have to teach everybody,” Huggins said. “A year from now we’re not going to have to teach everybody and we’ll have guys helping the new guys and the younger guys because they know what they are doing.”
Despite the challenge, the first-year coach has actually been pleased with rate at which his players are learning.
“We’ve thrown a lot of things at them and they pick things up pretty quickly,” Huggins said. “We know what we’re doing - we just don’t do it very well yet but at least we know what we’re doing.”
Huggins says this transition has been much smoother than the one he dealt with a year when he took over at Kansas State. Bear in mind that Wildcat team went on to win 23 games last season.
“I think it was easier coming in here. We’ve got some veteran guys that know how to play and they pick up things faster than what our guys did a year ago. Now the young guys do struggle,” Huggins said. “The intensity level is much greater and they have so many more things to learn. They can’t get by on just being bigger or more athletic than other people. The older guys have been through it and they understand it.”
While Darris Nichols looks to be the unquestioned leader of this Mountaineer team, Huggins mentioned Joe Mazzulla as another point guard that will be counted on from the opening tip this season.
“Joe is going to play until he’s tired. Joe has been really good,” Huggins said. “We’ve got five or six guys that are going to play until they can’t play anymore and Joe is certainly one of those guys.”
When asked if playing two point guards would blur the traditional line between point guard and shooting guard, Huggins explained that in his system anyone can bring the ball up the court on offense.
“We don’t have positions per se. Defensively they will have somebody to guard. I don’t have a problem with Da’Sean starting the offense,” Huggins said. “I don’t have a problem with Wellington starting the offense. We just play and we try to teach them how to play.”
That’s not to say that there is no structure of course. Huggins doesn’t just simply roll the balls out and tell his players to go play. He does, however, give his players the freedom to use all of their talents rather than restricting them in a system where their overall game might not fully shine.
“I think the reason guys like playing for me is because I let them play and I think that is a major reason why they get better - because I do let them play,” Huggins said.
“We have rules. You have to have some rules or you have total chaos but I think you don’t fully take advantage of your guy’s abilities if for instance we didn’t let Alex (Ruoff) post or we didn’t let Da’Sean post or if we didn’t let Jamie or Wellington step out on the floor,” Huggins said. “I want them to learn how to play basketball. I’m not interested in running from point A to point B.”
What he is interested in doing is scoring points and scoring them quickly. This West Virginia team will try to attack in transition while still taking advantage of its shooting ability that was honed under former coach John Beilein.
“It’s all about numbers. When you have numbers you attack. If we have numbers we’re going to attack and if we don’t have numbers we are going to run some kind of secondary transition into whatever it is that we are running,” Huggins said. “The idea is to score and the way we shoot the ball, we’d be foolish not to spread people.”
Huggins says there is still much to be learned before the season begins in three weeks.
“It is going to take a while because there are so many reads involved. You have to know how to read screens and you have to learn how to set screens and we have to do a good job of spacing,” Huggins said. “We can go out there with five or six guys and look pretty good but if you put those other guys in there we don’t look very good. That’s to be expected and we will keep working at it.”
While much progress has already been made, Huggins says his first team is still very much a work in progress.
