Sweet Success
March 30, 2008 10:12 PM | General
March 31, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Huggins has done a remarkable job of transforming a precision, jump-shooting West Virginia team into the more physical, athletic, defensive, rough-and-tumble club more closely resembling the teams making up this year’s Final Four.
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| Guard Alex Ruoff is one of three double-digit scorers returning in 2009.
M.G. Ellis photo |
West Virginia (26-11) actually finished the year out-rebounding its opponents by nearly three boards per game after conceding nearly five rebounds per contest in 2007.
Huggins also developed a bona-fide star player in 6-foot-8-inch Joe Alexander, whose 16.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game got the attention of the country during post-season play.
However, old habits die hard. In West Virginia’s 79-75 overtime loss to Xavier Thursday night in the West Regional semifinals the Mountaineers were just 1 of 11 from 3-point range. The only other time WVU failed to make at least two 3s in a game was during a 23-point home loss to Cincinnati.
Three-point field goals can be very useful but eventually as you advance in tournament play the elite teams are going to take that away like Xavier did Thursday night. West Virginia also must learn how to answer the bell when it is down. Despite overcoming an 18-point first half deficit to the Musketeers, the Mountaineers were just 1-9 this year in games they trailed at halftime.
Getting WVU to the Sweet 16 was a significant achievement for Huggins during his first season, considering the team he inherited isn’t close to what he will be putting on the floor in a couple of years. West Virginia didn’t have a single player that could consistently get offense off the dribble nor did it have a physical rebounder to crash the glass and score when set plays were taken away. Those are the two most common traits of Huggins’ teams of the past.
Yet Alexander has the makings of a premiere player very similar to Kenyon Martin, who wound up being the No. 1 overall player taken in the 2000 draft playing for Huggins at Cincinnati. Alexander could test the draft waters this spring like Kevin Pittsnogle did a couple of years ago. However, most observers believe another year with Huggins could make Alexander a more polished all-around player and a potential lottery pick.
West Virginia returns all but the 12.9 points per game that came from seniors Darris Nichols and Jamie Smalligan. Six-six guard Alex Ruoff (13.8 ppg.) and 6-7 forward Da’Sean Butler (12.9 ppg.) both averaged double figures and are solid Big East players.
Joe Mazzulla proved against Duke and Xavier that he is the tough, tournament-tested guard that can run West Virginia’s offense next year.
Wellington Smith and John Flowers, both long, 6-7 wing players, have the athletic ability and versatility to be high-quality Division I players if they work hard in the off-season both on their games and in the weight room.
And Huggins has already signed three players last fall that will increase competition at the Coliseum next year.
Six-foot-eight-inch forward Kevin Jones of Mount Vernon, N.Y., averaged 22.4 points and 12.1 rebounds per game and will give the Mountaineers another quality player on the wing. Jones has been selected to play in the Jordan Classic regional game at Madison Square Garden on April 19.
Six-foot-10-inch Roscoe Davis played at the No. 1-ranked prep school team in the country at Hargrave Military Academy. He was recently selected to play in the Charm City Challenge All-Star Game in Baltimore and will also play on the Capital All-Star team that faces the U.S. All-Stars in the Capital Classic in Washington, D.C.
Six-one guard Darryl Bryant recently became the all-time leading scorer at St. Raymond (N.Y.) High School before his team bowed out in the quarterfinals of the city championships. Bryant passed Villanova’s Gary Massey on the school’s all-time scoring list that also includes Julius Hodge, Allan Ray and Gavin Grant.
And Huggins is not done recruiting, now having one scholarship free to use when center Jacob Green chose not to return for the second semester and transferred to Fordham. It will be interesting to see which way Huggins goes with that open scholarship.
Add it all up and another deep run in the NCAA Tournament is not out of the question in 2009. Only West Virginia, Villanova, UCLA, North Carolina and Memphis have reached the Sweet 16 at least three times since 2005.
