No Push Over
October 19, 2009 04:00 PM | General
October 19, 2009
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Remember those trips out to the woodshed that West Virginia used to take when it played big, physical teams such as Pitt, Georgetown, Syracuse and Connecticut.
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| Forward Devin Ebanks now weighs 216 pounds playing along a much bigger and more physical West Virginia front line.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Well, Bob Huggins thinks those days are finally over.
“We’ve been outmatched physically the past couple of years and that’s getting ready to change,” Huggins said last week. “You look at Pitt a year ago. Tyrell Biggs had to be about 240-245 pounds and we’re going to be like that now.”
If the weights on this year’s roster are accurate, West Virginia will have at least six guys this year weighing at least 230 pounds. Last year, the Mountaineers had only one (Dee Proby who is no longer on the team).
“K.J. (Kevin Jones) has put on about 35 pounds. I think he was 215 and now he’s about 245 or 250, depending upon the day,” said Huggins. “I think the good thing is that it’s good weight. He’s running just as well as he’s run before – he’s probably more mobile than he was before.”
Huggins also had a pair of 260-pounders he can put on the floor in freshmen bigs Deniz Kilicli and Danny Jennings. He says both of them have been prepped well by the older guys during open gym this fall.
“I had the big guys a couple weeks ago and we were working on a flex cut and a duck-in and one of the freshman said, ‘That’s a flex cut, right?’ That’s because these guys have done a good job with them,” Huggins said. “They’ve done a good job coaching them. Not only are these guys a lot better prepared, but I think our incoming guys are a whole lot better prepared because of what our guys have done with them.”
One of those incoming guys is national junior college player of the year Casey Mitchell, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound scorer with pro aspirations.
Mitchell averaged better than 20 points per game at Chipola College, where he led it to the semifinals of the national junior college tournament. Huggins also recruited Mitchell when he played Savannah High School in Savannah, Ga., and he says Mitchell today is a much more versatile player.
“He plays off the dribble a lot better (than he did in high school),” Huggins said. “He was primarily a shooter. He’s a lot better putting it on the floor – getting to the basket and getting to the foul line.”
Mitchell could fit in nicely in the lineup at Alex Ruoff’s spot if he continues to progress.
“In all honesty, I think there are going to be days when people say, ‘He’s the best shooting guard here since Wil Robinson.’ And then there will be other days they walk out of here and say, ‘What the hell did they recruit him for.’ That’s what happens when you have new guys.”
Huggins said promising 6-foot-5 freshman Dalton Pepper could also fit at the shooting guard spot as well.
With Da’Sean Butler, Devin Ebanks, Wellington Smith, John Flowers and Kevin Jones returning, it’s hard to name a team in the country with a deeper group of wings. And with Butler and Ebanks, the Mountaineers probably have the best pair of wings in the country. Huggins admits this year’s team could be one of the deepest he’s ever had.
“I would like to have 13,” he said. “You’re not going to play 13 every game. The Villanova game a year ago Da’Sean had a sprained ankle and hobbled around like he wasn’t going to play (the game he scored a career-high 43). Things like that happen and you’re going to lose guys.
“We couldn’t afford someone not to play before,” Huggins explained. “At the Miami game Devin was hurt and was over there riding on the bike trying to stay loose, and then we took him out because we were getting ready to play in Las Vegas. We can probably give guys a little more rest than before.”
West Virginia could conceivably have two quality players at each position, including point guard where Joe Mazzula is returning from shoulder surgery last year and Truck Bryant is now a sophomore.
Huggins said there were times last year when teams took advantage of Bryant’s inexperience.
“We had one inexperienced point guard and (Marquette) ganged up on him,” he said. “He got in a little bit of foul trouble, and consequently Da’Sean got in a little bit of foul trouble because we were trying to play Da’Sean (at point). We played Devin at point guard a lot at Louisville and when you do that, it takes away from the other things those guys can do.
“Truck shoots it better than Joe, but Joe probably defends better than Truck does,” said Huggins. “They both bring different things and if you play them together we’re probably a lot harder to pressure.”
Most are predicting a Top 10 preseason ranking for West Virginia in a Big East some say is not quite as strong as last year. Huggins, for one, isn’t buying that.
“I just did a radio thing and they asked if the conference was down. We’ve got two teams ranked in everybody’s Top 10 (West Virginia and Villanova) in the preseason,” Huggins said. “Nobody else has more than that. I think when you look around there are some major conferences that don’t have anybody ranked in the Top 10. Most conferences, if you have two teams ranked in the Top 10 they’re pretty happy.”
Huggins says the Big East last year was ranked among the best conferences in NCAA history.
“We’re not what we were a year ago, but a year ago was the best conference in the history of college basketball and you can’t just do that every year,” he explained. “If it’s not the best league in the country (this year) then it’s tied for it.”
Huggins believes there are plenty of title contenders in the Big East this year.
“Villanova returns all those guys from a Final Four team, they’re really optimistic at Connecticut; Louisville has a bunch of guys back,” Huggins said. “It’s a great league and it will continue to be a great league. That’s where we’ve got to get to – being one of the two or three teams mentioned every year that could win our league.
“If you can win our league you can win the national championship.”
