MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Jordan McCabe's obsession with basketball started with a video: Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
 
For those 40 and over, that's the Holy Grail of basketball instructional videos. It begins with the silhouette of Pete Maravich walking out into a dark gym with the announcer proclaiming overtop of 1980s synthesizer music, "In the glow of the steel mills of Pennsylvania, he began sharpening his skills to a razor-sharp edge."
 


Pretty lame 35-some years later, but back then we didn't care. We were hooked. It's the reason all of those shingles on the bottom side of our mother's house are broken, along with some downstairs windows that have since been replaced, plus countless light bulbs.
 
But that's the difference between Jordan McCabe and the rest of us – he was good enough not to break anything. More importantly, he stuck with it when everyone else was discovering other things to do.
 
He did his nightly ballhandling drills on the cement floor in the basement. Tin-foil plates were taped to the wall to work on his passing accuracy. He even began dribbling upstairs until his mother drew the line when he once brought his basketball into the kitchen.
 
"I used to take my ball everywhere with me to the point of annoyance with my family," McCabe recalled before Thursday afternoon's practice. "You knew where I was at all times (because you could hear me dribbling a basketball)."
 
It didn't matter if Jordan was at the shopping mall, movie theater, school, in bed or wherever, that ball was always with him. It was his wubby.
 
"Whether that's weird or not I don't know, that's just what I did," he shrugged.
 
As his ballhandling and passing became more advanced, he began doing public exhibitions. Somehow, a producer for the Ellen Degeneres Show caught wind of Jordan's ballhandling wizardry and flew him out to Los Angeles for a demonstration during the taping of one of her shows. Watch the video and you will notice immediately how incredibly poised he was for a 12-year-old.
 


This led to even more demonstrations and an Instagram following that has now swelled to almost 300,000. His YouTube mixtape video is also approaching 200,000 views, making him one of Wisconsin's most well-known prodigies.
 
He's shot hoops with Steph Curry, performed at halftime of the NBA All-Star Game, dribbled basketballs on ESPN's First Take, shared Instagram messages with Steve Nash and even got to work out a little bit last summer with Trae Young and his personal trainer.
 
On the court, where what he does really counts, McCabe scored the final eight points of last year's Wisconsin Division 2 state championship game to help Kaukauna High to its second-ever state boys' basketball title. 
 
This one came in front of 14,000 people at the University of Wisconsin's Kohl Center and the 5-foot-11 McCabe was the toast of the crowd. After he hit the go-ahead basket and the other team's desperation shot attempt was unsuccessful, McCabe ran over to where the Kaukauna students were sitting to celebrate with them.
 
The more he pumped his fists into the air the louder they cheered.
 
The 32 points he scored in the state championship game capped a brilliant, four-year prep career that saw him become the state's sixth all-time leading scorer with 2,442 points. He earned first team all-state honors three straight years and was named Wisconsin's Mr. Basketball for 2018 by the Associated Press.
 
That is part of what McCabe is bringing with him to Morgantown, West Virginia. Those who haven't seen his YouTube highlights or follow him on social media are going to learn real quickly who he is once they watch him dribble the ball or make one of those Pistol Pete passes.
 
Our Pistol Pete was Hot Rod Hundley, who used to turn college basketball games into traveling carnivals with some of his silliness. West Virginians also remember Belle's flamboyant point guard Jason Williams - the one who got away. 
 
Well, Jordan McCabe is whole lot more Jason Williams than he is Hot Rod Hundley.
 
"The game's a lot different than the days when Hot Rod was standing out there rolling the ball down his arm," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins explained. "Now they actually guard you."
 
Speaking of Huggins, McCabe couldn't have picked a better basketball coach for whom to play.
 
There isn't anyone in the game today who gets more out of his guys than Huggins. He's never worked at schools where he could go into gyms and choose his basketball players like Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Bill Self or John Calipari have done, instead taking what he gets and molding them into winning basketball teams.
 
Huggins is old-school, for sure, but he's never been stuck in his ways. Switching his system to 'Press Virginia' four years ago is ample proof of that.
 
McCabe's playing style is probably a little bit more flamboyant than some of the players Huggins has had at West Virginia since returning to his alma mater in 2008, but what McCabe does fits right in with the way Huggins always wants his teams to play.
 
First and foremost, McCabe can pass the basketball – a basic skill Huggins said has become a lost art in today's game. A torturous morning watching an AAU basketball game a few years ago convinced Huggins of this.
 
"This guy has got the ball and he's dribbling it between his legs, behind his back with a guy guarding him," Huggins recalled. "(Former WVU player) Brandon Watkins has no one guarding him underneath the basket, and he's waving his arms at the guy. But the guy dribbling the ball tries to go past the guy guarding him and he can't so he backs out. 
 
"Then, he calls Brandon to come up and set a ball screen, and Brandon is standing down near the basket with no one on him! To me, that's AAU basketball. Guys can't pass it because they never pass it."
 
The advice Huggins has been giving the guy who can pass it is very simple - make the game easy. That's what he told McCabe the first time they got together on the floor, and he will keep reminding him that when the games begin and everyone reacts differently to the things he does out there.
 
Most will love it, but some won't. We saw that last year with Oklahoma's Trae Young, now in the NBA. There are times, too, when he will be tempted to try things he got away with in high school that he can't do in college. But he will learn.
 
"Think about the great players," Huggins explained. "Magic (Johnson) did a lot of (flashy) stuff, but he really made the game look easy. Larry Bird really made the game look easy. Make the game simple. 
 
"You don't have to make a spectacular pass when all you have to do is throw the ball to somebody," Huggins continued. "But there is nothing wrong with making spectacular passes if that's what's called for."
 
Huggins was never afforded the freedom to perform the way McCabe does when he played in high school for his father, Charlie, and he didn't play that way at West Virginia University either.
 
But he played when Maravich played, and he always admired Pistol Pete's pizazz and amazing work ethic, which McCabe is now emulating.
 
Maravich's basketball obsession is the reason he became such a great player, just as Huggins' basketball obsession has made him such a great coach. Great performers can take on many different qualities, but it always starts with a basic passion for the game.
 
"He wants to play and he wants to win," Huggins said. "He's as dedicated a player as I've ever had here. He knows everything. He goes in and studies film. He tries to do what you're asking him to do."
 
What Huggins just said is really a mouthful when you consider that Jevon Carter's post-WVU career is not yet six months old. Carter became famous for the time he spent working out in the basketball practice facility on his own, and if you ever wanted to find JC, that's the first place you looked.
 
McCabe is already the same way.
 
"Coming in, my goal was to be one of the hardest workers in the country, and that goes beyond the court," he said. "I heard that before I got to college, and they said film study was going to be an important thing for me to do so I jumped on that as soon as I could."
 
McCabe has kept a line of communication open with Steve Nash through Instagram, occasionally sending him direct messages to try and pick his brain on things.
 
Nash has graciously replied each time Jordan has sent him a message.
 
"The first thing you are going to realize is your passing windows get smaller," Nash replied to McCabe, "so learn how to make decisions a millisecond faster."
 
"He said that will happen naturally for me," McCabe added.
 
And when it does happen, his teammates are really going to benefit because McCabe will get them the basketball where they can do something with it.
 
And he won't be motioning for them to ball screen when they're wide open.
 
"People always say, 'Oh, he's a pass-first point guard' or 'he's a shoot-first point guard,' but I'm just a point guard who tries to make the right play every time," McCabe explained. "That doesn't always mean the same thing.
 
"Of the guys we've got on this team, passing is generally the best option because one or two dribbles – or no dribbles – and they can put it in the hole," he said. "With a guy like Esa (Ahmad) running the floor you throw it up and he gets fun to watch."
 
Just like the guy throwing him the ball. I have a feeling he's going to be fun to watch, too.