Media Day: Huggins Ready to Go
October 15, 2014 07:45 PM | General
“We’re whatever we are, a couple weeks into practice, and it starts to get mundane and even boring for coaches,” Huggins said earlier today at the Sprint Center in Kansas City where Big 12 coaches were assembled for media day. “We’ve got a scrimmage coming up, which we’re looking forward to.”
So far, Huggins likes his team, he likes their enthusiasm and he likes that they seem to like each other. That alone can make a huge difference.
“Obviously I hope we’re better,” he said. “A lot of it is having people who kind of fit together. I think this group really does. They seemingly like each other a lot. They’ve brought great enthusiasm to practice, which makes it a lot more fun. I think everybody enjoys it more. I certainly enjoy it more.”
Huggins continued.
“We’ve spent a lot of time trying to explain to them that it’s hard to coach effort and basketball at the same time. If you’re constantly coaching effort you don’t coach a lot of basketball. I think to this point their effort’s been pretty good and we’ve been able to actually go in and coach basketball, which is seemingly what they’re supposed to want and certainly what we want to do.”
It also helps that Huggins has one of the most explosive point guards in the country returning in senior Juwan Staten, announced last week as the Big 12’s preseason player of the year – a first for WVU.
Last year, Staten led the league in scoring (18.1) and minutes played (37.3) while producing 31 double-digit scoring games, fourth best in school history. He also handed out seven or more assists 12 times and finished the season with 197, two shy of the school record.
Huggins will obviously take that type of production from his point guard once again in 2015.
“I just like to get the same kind of production with not as many minutes,” he said. “I think he wore down a little bit at the end of the year playing all those minutes. I’d like to be able to rest him some more, have him fresher at the end of games.”
In order to do that, other guys are going to have to step up and become reliable with the ball in their hands. One of those guys could be senior Gary Browne.
“I think he’s become much more disciplined at the defensive end,” said Huggins. “I think he’s become much more disciplined at the offensive end. He kind of understands what he can and can’t do. I think he’s done a much, much better job of accentuating the positive.”
A big difference in this year’s team should be its ability to score and defend close to the basket where sophomore Devin Williams resides. Williams had some outstanding performances down the stretch last season, including a career-high 22 points and 13 rebounds in West Virginia’s big 92-86 win over Kansas.
A vastly improved Williams could go a long way toward getting West Virginia back to where it was a few years ago when it was making deep runs in the NCAA tournament.
“We’re certainly hoping Devin is a guy that we can throw the ball to that can score it close,” said Huggins. “I think with basketball being a game of runs, to try and stop runs, and we obviously couldn’t do that on the defensive end, so we just tried to keep pace offensively, and when we started missing shots that we really didn’t have, there was no second option.”
Huggins said the 6-foot-9-inch sophomore spent a lot of time working on his game this summer with former Mountaineer standout forward Kevin Jones.
“I don’t think anybody has ever maximized their potential better than what Kevin Jones did and really learned how to use his body and shield people off the ball with his body and being able to score it around the rim by just using those big shoulders,” Huggins explained. “I think Devin has made tremendous progress in that area. I think he scores the ball so much better around the basket. It’s nice when you can throw it close and kind of stop the bleeding.”
Williams is not the only option Huggins hopes to have in the paint this year. Six-nine sophomore Brandon Watkins is improving, plus, he has been working on a few specific things with his game to become more reliable around the rim.
“He’s worked really hard on being able to jump hook the ball with either hand,” said Huggins. “He’s not as strong as Devin yet so he loses post position a little easier. But when he catches it there he scores it at a very high rate because of his length and the ability to throw that jump hook.”
Huggins expects transfer Jonathan Holton to give the Mountaineers additional energy and athleticism in the paint – something the team has been sorely lacking since the Final Four season in 2010 when West Virginia had Devin Ebanks, Wellington Smith and John Flowers.
“I don’t know that I’ve had many people who have the enthusiasm that he has on a day-to-day basis,” said Huggins of Holton. “He just comes in every day excited to play; loves to play. And he’s a guy that you don’t have to run things for him to score.
“He’s a guy who is going to get it off the glass. He’s going to get it in transition. He’s going to make open shots and he’s a guy that you don’t have to say this is Jonathan’s play for him to score, which is refreshing.”
Another refreshing aspect of this year’s team is its ability – and willingness – to guard, says Huggins.
“I think we’re finally maybe going to try and guard somebody, which would be something new - actually, maybe try to run to the rim and shoot a layup,” he deadpanned. “We’ve been kind of like a dog, you know, with the electric fence. We run right to that 3 (point line) and kind of stop right there. So we’re actually going to try to run in past the 3-point line this year and see if that works.”
The general public will get their first opportunity to see the 2014-15 Mountaineers in person this Friday evening at 7 p.m. as part of the Gold-Blue Debut, presented by Coke Zero.
The 30-minute officiated scrimmage is free to the general public. Afterward, fans are encouraged to stick around and get autographs of their favorite Mountaineer players.
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