Huggins Expects Another Banner Year
October 18, 2010 02:03 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The last time Bob Huggins took a team to the Final Four in 1992 the following season was nearly just as good, his ’93 Cincinnati team getting knocked out of the NCAA tournament by eventual national champion North Carolina in the Elite Eight.
And despite the losses of starters Da’Sean Butler, Devin Ebanks and Wellington Smith from last year’s 31-7 team that fell to eventual champion Duke in the national semifinals, Huggins doesn’t see any reason why this year’s team can’t be just as successful. For one thing, he sees a much more conventional looking club this season.
“A year ago we had size, but it was overall size,” said Huggins. “We didn’t have anybody with big size. I think this year with Danny (Jennings) and Deniz (Kilicli) we have two big, strong guys inside. We struggled sometimes a year ago with big, strong guys inside because our strength was just our overall size, so we could switch everything and virtually everybody could guard everybody.”
With Kilicli and Jennings, however, Huggins believes he has a pair of 260 pounders that he can throw the ball to close to the basket for easy points.
“Deniz and Danny are going to have to play really well,” Huggins said. “Deniz and Danny are going to have to be guys we give the ball to a lot to score and I don’t know if they are ready to do that. I hope they are.”
On the other hand, Huggins has no qualms giving the ball to junior forward Kevin Jones, whose 13.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore will certainly get the attention of opposing defenses this winter.
“I would guess (Jones) would probably get the ball in crucial situations probably more,” said Huggins. “I think what we have to be careful with – what Kevin has to be careful with – is that you have to do what you’re good at doing. A year ago, Kevin did what he was good at doing. He made open shots and he scored with his back to the basket.
“Kevin is very good at some things and he needs to continue to do those things that he’s very, very good at and in the meantime, keep working on the other things.”
Huggins also has the flexibility of using two point guards at the same time, something he says he will do on occasion.
“It’s the first time we’ve had two guys who could actually dribble,” he joked. “But we’ll probably play them both together a lot. I think we have to be careful because we can’t get both of them in foul trouble. I think it is going to be advantageous for us to play Joe and Truck together because it gives us two ball handlers and goes a long way into getting into other people’s pressure.”
Rebounding is the one area where Huggins believes his team must continue to excel.
“We led the Big East in rebounding a year ago, which I think is a heck of a feat considering that we were as small as we were,” explained Huggins. “We have to continue to rebound the ball.”
West Virginia’s defense also kept it in games when the offense wasn’t clicking, like last year’s 14-point first half performance at Villanova that wound up being a WVU victory.
“Our defense kept us in the game and we were able to come back and win,” Huggins said. “We can’t abandon (defense and rebounding). I’d like to play faster and be able to score a lot of points. But a lot of transition basketball comes off certainly the ability to rebound and create from your defense. We have to continue to work at those things.”
What makes the Big East Conference so unique is the variety of styles within the league, says Huggins. That shows up in January and February when teams begin playing each other.
“I think the hard thing about this league is that everybody plays so different,” he said. “It’s hard to score a lot of points against some people in this league because of the way they play you. You can look at a bunch of people who were scoring all kinds of points in the non-league deal and everyone is saying ‘God they’re scoring a lot of points’ and then it comes to league play and that came to an abrupt halt.
“We definitely want to play faster but it’s easier to win when you get easy baskets,” he explained. “The team that gets the most easy baskets generally wins.”
Huggins is looking for some of last year’s role players such as forward John Flowers and guard Dalton Pepper to assume more prominent roles this season.
“Guys that haven’t played a lot are going to have to mature pretty fast,” he said. “This schedule early is hard. We’re not playing people where we can make a lot of mistakes and still win.”
Pepper showed signs last year of being a quality wing player, scoring 15 in the loss to Syracuse, and Huggins thinks a year under his belt has helped him become a better player this fall.
“I think Pep has learned that there’s more to this game than grabbing it and shooting it,” Huggins said. “It’s a five-man game. I tell guys all the time it’s alright to want to be like that, just go play golf or tennis. When you have four other guys out there you have to learn how to play with them.
“We put a big onus on understanding how to play,” Huggins added. “Because we run motion I think it helps us and I think we saw that a year ago that as the game goes on and we start to figure out what they’re doing defensively we get better and better as the game goes on because we really work hard at trying to understand how they play the game.”
Briefly:
Huggins touched on a variety of topics during his 30-minute sit down session with the media before the start of preseason practice last Thursday afternoon.
On guard Truck Bryant commenting that he actually prefers the Mountaineers not being ranked to start the season in order to sneak up on others …
“He’s lying,” said Huggins. “Everybody wants to be in the top 10 and everybody wants their highlights on TV. I think what Truck was trying to say is that they want to go out and earn their own stripes, but the truth is, everybody wants to be on TV.
“I like to be good. I like to walk out there at half court and look at their guys and look at mine and say we ought to win – we got better guys. Now it doesn’t always work that way, particularly in this league, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
On the recruiting demands placed on coaching staffs before the start of the season …
“I’d be in favor of having a dead period about two or three days before practice starts, whenever that is, so you can actually sit down with your staff and go over what you want to do,” Huggins said. “It’s hard to accommodate 360 schools and make it fair and equitable but what about coaching your own team? I kind of like coaching my own team. I’m actually in this business because I like to go down on the floor and coach – it’s not the other stuff.”
On the strength of the Big East Conference …
“They said we were down last year in basketball and we had four teams in the top 10,” said Huggins. “We probably had more balance, but we still had four teams in the top 10. Pitt has everybody back and they’re going to be a top 10 team. Syracuse had a great recruiting class and they have people back; Villanova has people back.
“I think when you look around at the coaches in this league … when’s the last time Rick Pitino didn’t win 20? I mean people can sit around and say we’re down and they don’t have to play them. At the end of the day, I still think that we’re going to have seven or eight teams in the NCAA tournament and we will have three or four teams in the top 10.”
On the Big East tournament format …
“Three of the four top seeds got beat and we were very fortunate not to get beat," said Huggins of last year’s double-byes for the top four teams. “You very well could have had all of the top seeds go down in the first day. Does that hurt your league or help your league?
“There are those who say you might get more teams in because of that. But I suppose you’re not going to get teams as highly seeded either,” he said.
On one preseason list failing to include Kevin Jones among the nation’s top 50 players …
“I think that’s a surprise. I think that the year he had a year ago … and I don’t think people know who works hard and who doesn’t work hard and who puts the time in and all of that,” said Huggins. “But Kevin puts the time in. I can’t imagine him not being one of the top 50 players in the country.”
On using his entire 11-man roster this year …
“I don’t know of anybody that we have that we couldn’t put into the game,” he said. ‘It depends on the situation and who they have to guard or who would be guarding them.”
Season ticket renewals are 1,000 ahead of last year’s pace, according to WVU sports marketing director Matt Wells. As of Monday morning, more than 6,300 season ticket requests have been processed. Last year, West Virginia set a record with more than 7,700 season tickets sold. The priority deadline for season tickets was last Friday.
Big East media day is this Wednesday in New York City.
And despite the losses of starters Da’Sean Butler, Devin Ebanks and Wellington Smith from last year’s 31-7 team that fell to eventual champion Duke in the national semifinals, Huggins doesn’t see any reason why this year’s team can’t be just as successful. For one thing, he sees a much more conventional looking club this season.
“A year ago we had size, but it was overall size,” said Huggins. “We didn’t have anybody with big size. I think this year with Danny (Jennings) and Deniz (Kilicli) we have two big, strong guys inside. We struggled sometimes a year ago with big, strong guys inside because our strength was just our overall size, so we could switch everything and virtually everybody could guard everybody.”
With Kilicli and Jennings, however, Huggins believes he has a pair of 260 pounders that he can throw the ball to close to the basket for easy points.
“Deniz and Danny are going to have to play really well,” Huggins said. “Deniz and Danny are going to have to be guys we give the ball to a lot to score and I don’t know if they are ready to do that. I hope they are.”
On the other hand, Huggins has no qualms giving the ball to junior forward Kevin Jones, whose 13.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore will certainly get the attention of opposing defenses this winter.
“I would guess (Jones) would probably get the ball in crucial situations probably more,” said Huggins. “I think what we have to be careful with – what Kevin has to be careful with – is that you have to do what you’re good at doing. A year ago, Kevin did what he was good at doing. He made open shots and he scored with his back to the basket.
“Kevin is very good at some things and he needs to continue to do those things that he’s very, very good at and in the meantime, keep working on the other things.”
Huggins also has the flexibility of using two point guards at the same time, something he says he will do on occasion.
“It’s the first time we’ve had two guys who could actually dribble,” he joked. “But we’ll probably play them both together a lot. I think we have to be careful because we can’t get both of them in foul trouble. I think it is going to be advantageous for us to play Joe and Truck together because it gives us two ball handlers and goes a long way into getting into other people’s pressure.”
Rebounding is the one area where Huggins believes his team must continue to excel.
“We led the Big East in rebounding a year ago, which I think is a heck of a feat considering that we were as small as we were,” explained Huggins. “We have to continue to rebound the ball.”
West Virginia’s defense also kept it in games when the offense wasn’t clicking, like last year’s 14-point first half performance at Villanova that wound up being a WVU victory.
“Our defense kept us in the game and we were able to come back and win,” Huggins said. “We can’t abandon (defense and rebounding). I’d like to play faster and be able to score a lot of points. But a lot of transition basketball comes off certainly the ability to rebound and create from your defense. We have to continue to work at those things.”
What makes the Big East Conference so unique is the variety of styles within the league, says Huggins. That shows up in January and February when teams begin playing each other.
“I think the hard thing about this league is that everybody plays so different,” he said. “It’s hard to score a lot of points against some people in this league because of the way they play you. You can look at a bunch of people who were scoring all kinds of points in the non-league deal and everyone is saying ‘God they’re scoring a lot of points’ and then it comes to league play and that came to an abrupt halt.
“We definitely want to play faster but it’s easier to win when you get easy baskets,” he explained. “The team that gets the most easy baskets generally wins.”
Huggins is looking for some of last year’s role players such as forward John Flowers and guard Dalton Pepper to assume more prominent roles this season.
“Guys that haven’t played a lot are going to have to mature pretty fast,” he said. “This schedule early is hard. We’re not playing people where we can make a lot of mistakes and still win.”
Pepper showed signs last year of being a quality wing player, scoring 15 in the loss to Syracuse, and Huggins thinks a year under his belt has helped him become a better player this fall.
“I think Pep has learned that there’s more to this game than grabbing it and shooting it,” Huggins said. “It’s a five-man game. I tell guys all the time it’s alright to want to be like that, just go play golf or tennis. When you have four other guys out there you have to learn how to play with them.
“We put a big onus on understanding how to play,” Huggins added. “Because we run motion I think it helps us and I think we saw that a year ago that as the game goes on and we start to figure out what they’re doing defensively we get better and better as the game goes on because we really work hard at trying to understand how they play the game.”
Briefly:
On guard Truck Bryant commenting that he actually prefers the Mountaineers not being ranked to start the season in order to sneak up on others …
“He’s lying,” said Huggins. “Everybody wants to be in the top 10 and everybody wants their highlights on TV. I think what Truck was trying to say is that they want to go out and earn their own stripes, but the truth is, everybody wants to be on TV.
“I like to be good. I like to walk out there at half court and look at their guys and look at mine and say we ought to win – we got better guys. Now it doesn’t always work that way, particularly in this league, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
On the recruiting demands placed on coaching staffs before the start of the season …
“I’d be in favor of having a dead period about two or three days before practice starts, whenever that is, so you can actually sit down with your staff and go over what you want to do,” Huggins said. “It’s hard to accommodate 360 schools and make it fair and equitable but what about coaching your own team? I kind of like coaching my own team. I’m actually in this business because I like to go down on the floor and coach – it’s not the other stuff.”
On the strength of the Big East Conference …
“They said we were down last year in basketball and we had four teams in the top 10,” said Huggins. “We probably had more balance, but we still had four teams in the top 10. Pitt has everybody back and they’re going to be a top 10 team. Syracuse had a great recruiting class and they have people back; Villanova has people back.
“I think when you look around at the coaches in this league … when’s the last time Rick Pitino didn’t win 20? I mean people can sit around and say we’re down and they don’t have to play them. At the end of the day, I still think that we’re going to have seven or eight teams in the NCAA tournament and we will have three or four teams in the top 10.”
On the Big East tournament format …
“Three of the four top seeds got beat and we were very fortunate not to get beat," said Huggins of last year’s double-byes for the top four teams. “You very well could have had all of the top seeds go down in the first day. Does that hurt your league or help your league?
“There are those who say you might get more teams in because of that. But I suppose you’re not going to get teams as highly seeded either,” he said.
On one preseason list failing to include Kevin Jones among the nation’s top 50 players …
“I think that’s a surprise. I think that the year he had a year ago … and I don’t think people know who works hard and who doesn’t work hard and who puts the time in and all of that,” said Huggins. “But Kevin puts the time in. I can’t imagine him not being one of the top 50 players in the country.”
On using his entire 11-man roster this year …
“I don’t know of anybody that we have that we couldn’t put into the game,” he said. ‘It depends on the situation and who they have to guard or who would be guarding them.”
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