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Paige and Phillip Equal Double Trouble
January 08, 2016 04:24 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Bob Huggins has talked a lot in the past about having that old Boston Celtics “pop” coming off the bench. He’s had it throughout his career, whether it was at Walsh, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State or now West Virginia.
And the guys he’s bringing off the bench right now for his 13-1 Mountaineer basketball team have to rank with some of the best benches he’s ever had.
Reigning Big 12 player of the week Jaysean Paige had a 25-point performance in West Virginia’s double-overtime win at Kansas State, and he followed that up with a team-high 20 points in the Mountaineers’ eight-point victory at TCU on Monday night.
Guard Tarik Phillip has been equally effective. In fact, Huggins specifically cited Phillip’s outstanding all-around play as the key factor in West Virginia’s impressive road wins over Kansas State and TCU to begin conference play.
Philip hit some critical second-half shots and finished with 14 points against the Wildcats last Saturday afternoon before scoring a season-high 18 points in Fort Worth Monday night.
What those two guys are giving West Virginia off the bench right now is a combined 20.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, 64 assists and 42 steals. Throw in Elijah Macon’s 6.5 points and 3.9 rebounds and Nate Adrian’s 225 minutes in 14 games and you are talking about a bunch of 1As, not backups.
“Our plan a year ago was to have more guys than what everybody else had to be at a distinct advantage when we got into other people’s bench,” Huggins said. “For the most part, it’s worked really well.”
“We say all the time we may not have the best five, but we’ve got the best 10,” Paige added. “As long as we have the best 10 on the court we can continue to win games.”
Especially if one of those 10 continues to be Paige.
The Jamestown, New York, resident is only wearing a West Virginia uniform because Eron Harris and Terry Henderson turned theirs back in.
Junior guard Tarik Phillip is coming off a season-high 18 point performance on Monday night at TCU (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo).
Paige signed with Southern Mississippi coming out of junior college but got out of that when coach Donnie Tyndall left to take the Tennessee job. After Tyndall left for Knoxville, Paige had lunch with current Southern Miss coach Doc Sadler one summer afternoon before deciding to see what else was out there.
Then the roster spots opened at West Virginia.
“When West Virginia came I just ran with it,” he said.
Paige had a pretty decent first season in 2015, averaging 5.6 points and 1.9 rebounds in 34 games, but so far this year he’s been one of the most effective bench players in the country.
He’s now second on the team in scoring, averaging 12.9 points per game, and he might be turning into West Virginia’s No. 1 offensive option when he’s on the floor. He’s clearly the Mountaineers’ most effective player going to the rim, his thick upper body and his powerful torso enabling him to score through contact.
Paige is also the team’s top three-point shooter, hitting 42.4 percent of his triples heading into Saturday’s game against Oklahoma State.
Speaking of threes, Phillip has really come on from behind the arc of late after missing his first 12 long-range shots of the season. Since then, he’s made eight of 12, and don’t forget, it was Phillip’s big three during last year’s Buffalo game in the second round of the NCAA tournament that helped West Virginia advance.
Philip was already on board when Harris and Henderson parted ways, so he was always a big part of West Virginia’s plans. He signed with South Carolina coming out of Queen City Prep, but was forced to spend two years at Independence Community College before coming to WVU.
Phillip is probably West Virginia’s most versatile guard because of his size and athleticism and he gives Huggins a lot of options on the defensive end of the floor. Paige and Phillip usually sit next to each other on the bench and when they go into the game, it’s usually together.
“It’s like a one-two punch when we come into the game,” Paige admitted. “We talk to each other, point out some things when we go out on the floor – who can we go at? What is the weakness in the defense or the offense? We just go out there and play.”
“The beauty of this team is there is really no drop off,” Phillip added. “If it was the other way around it would be the same thing with JC (Jevon Carter) and Dax (Daxter Miles Jr.).”
Guard Jaysean Paige is the team's second leading scorer averaging 12.9 points per game heading into Saturday's contest against Oklahoma State (Michael Clements/TCU photo).
Huggins isn’t counting points, but he said he wouldn’t be surprised if Paige and Phillip are outscoring starters Carter and Miles for the season.
But even more important than that is having a group of guys with clearly defined roles and them buying into it.
Huggins has that right now with this group.
“I’ve always had guys that were in it for the team and those two guys without question are in it for the team,” Huggins said. “They understand that they can make a bigger impact coming off the bench and they’ve kind of started to relish that role.
“They know they are going to play; those two guys have probably played more minutes than anybody else. It’s not a matter of running out on the carpet, but who finishes the game.”
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