Photo by: Katie MacCrory
Huggins’ Young Mountaineers Developing Team Chemistry
November 28, 2019 11:48 AM | Men's Basketball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - As I watched and enjoyed Bob Huggins' young basketball team erase a 15-point second half deficit to defeat Northern Iowa on Tuesday night, and then out-tough Gregg Marshall's tough-guy Wichita State Shockers one evening later, a conversation I had with Gale Catlett a few weeks ago reentered my cranium.
When I hunted down the Cat on a golf course somewhere in Florida, what I was fishing for were some old Backyard Brawl stories, and he certainly delivered, which you can read more about here.
But you can't just talk about the Pitt Panthers for a half-hour straight, so our conversation took some detours.
One of our detours involved this year's team. The Cat was keenly interested to learn more about the young squad Bob Huggins is putting on the floor this season.
"What do they have this year?"
"Do they play well together?"
Not being a coach and not really understanding the game the way a coach does, I answered with mostly generalizations.
The one specific thing I did tell him was that it appears Huggins has a roster full of good kids who play for each other and understand that the name on the front of the jersey is far more important than the name on the back – which is about as rare as pay phones these days.
Catlett immediately seized on this.
"You know, John," he began, "you can go down to the library or online to Amazon and can find any book you want about basketball strategy – motion offense, zone defense, pressure defense, the passing game, so on and so forth … but you can't find a book about team chemistry.
"Team chemistry is so important," he said.
Watching Huggins' young players struggle so mightily in the first half against Northern Iowa, and yet fighting through it to win a game it would have easily lost last year was like sprinkling some gold dust on everything - much like that Villanova game was to the 2010 season nearly 10 years ago.
Do you recall the first half against Villanova at the Wachovia Center when the Mountaineers couldn't throw it into the Schuylkill River? And then when they came out in the second half more determined than ever to completely smother a pretty good Wildcat team?
Well, we saw a little bit of that on Tuesday night.
Then a night later, we watched a young basketball team hit another growth spurt … or ... stack some more pennies, as old Vic Koenning over in the Milan Puskar Center likes to say.
Freshman Oscar Tshiebwe was once again fantastic and continues to demonstrate that he is capable of being a game-changing force for the Mountaineers.
Derek Culver was just as dominant when he wasn't sitting on the bench in foul trouble. When Culver was out, senior Logan Routt was on the floor being nearly as impactful in different ways.
Incidentally, is there a better No. 3 center in college basketball than Logan Routt?
WVU's fourth big, Gabe Osabuohien, had that big tip-in basket at the end of the first half and nearly used up all of his fouls guarding Wichita State's bigs and wings away from the basket.
Emmitt Matthews Jr. was raining down 3s and soaring to the rim like he normally does, sweet-shooting guard Sean McNeil gave West Virginia some of that old Boston Celtics pop off the bench that Huggins loves and Jermaine Haley was his steady self.
Two nights ago, it was freshman Deuce McBride coming off the bench to drag the Mountaineers out of the soup and last night it was sophomore Jordan McCabe returning to the floor when things were getting a little hairy to steady the team by converting all of those clutch free throws.
And, what about the job senior Chase Harler did defending Wichita State's perimeter shooters and hitting that huge 3 when the Shockers had reduced West Virginia's lead to six?
Sophomore Brandon Knapper gave West Virginia some solid minutes, as did Taz Sherman, who is perhaps the team's most gifted scorer. When Taz eventually gets his feet firmly on the ground watch out!
Each guy on the team this year has an important role.
ALL of them performed their roles on Wednesday night.
And when they weren't fulfilling their roles, they were supporting those who were.
It was a true ensemble. That's team chemistry, and it looks like West Virginia really has it this year!
"These guys love the Mountaineers and they deserved to have some good things happen to them," Huggins said during his postgame radio show.
"What makes me feel so good is they love West Virginia," he continued. "They love being a part of it. They love the people. They love the fans the way they support us. They're the first ones to run over there and sing Country Roads with the fans in the stands.
"It's been a while since we've had that."
When I hunted down the Cat on a golf course somewhere in Florida, what I was fishing for were some old Backyard Brawl stories, and he certainly delivered, which you can read more about here.
But you can't just talk about the Pitt Panthers for a half-hour straight, so our conversation took some detours.
One of our detours involved this year's team. The Cat was keenly interested to learn more about the young squad Bob Huggins is putting on the floor this season.
"What do they have this year?"
"Do they play well together?"
Not being a coach and not really understanding the game the way a coach does, I answered with mostly generalizations.
The one specific thing I did tell him was that it appears Huggins has a roster full of good kids who play for each other and understand that the name on the front of the jersey is far more important than the name on the back – which is about as rare as pay phones these days.
Catlett immediately seized on this.
"You know, John," he began, "you can go down to the library or online to Amazon and can find any book you want about basketball strategy – motion offense, zone defense, pressure defense, the passing game, so on and so forth … but you can't find a book about team chemistry.
"Team chemistry is so important," he said.
Watching Huggins' young players struggle so mightily in the first half against Northern Iowa, and yet fighting through it to win a game it would have easily lost last year was like sprinkling some gold dust on everything - much like that Villanova game was to the 2010 season nearly 10 years ago.
Do you recall the first half against Villanova at the Wachovia Center when the Mountaineers couldn't throw it into the Schuylkill River? And then when they came out in the second half more determined than ever to completely smother a pretty good Wildcat team?
Well, we saw a little bit of that on Tuesday night.
Then a night later, we watched a young basketball team hit another growth spurt … or ... stack some more pennies, as old Vic Koenning over in the Milan Puskar Center likes to say.
Freshman Oscar Tshiebwe was once again fantastic and continues to demonstrate that he is capable of being a game-changing force for the Mountaineers.
Derek Culver was just as dominant when he wasn't sitting on the bench in foul trouble. When Culver was out, senior Logan Routt was on the floor being nearly as impactful in different ways.
Incidentally, is there a better No. 3 center in college basketball than Logan Routt?
WVU's fourth big, Gabe Osabuohien, had that big tip-in basket at the end of the first half and nearly used up all of his fouls guarding Wichita State's bigs and wings away from the basket.
Emmitt Matthews Jr. was raining down 3s and soaring to the rim like he normally does, sweet-shooting guard Sean McNeil gave West Virginia some of that old Boston Celtics pop off the bench that Huggins loves and Jermaine Haley was his steady self.
Two nights ago, it was freshman Deuce McBride coming off the bench to drag the Mountaineers out of the soup and last night it was sophomore Jordan McCabe returning to the floor when things were getting a little hairy to steady the team by converting all of those clutch free throws.
And, what about the job senior Chase Harler did defending Wichita State's perimeter shooters and hitting that huge 3 when the Shockers had reduced West Virginia's lead to six?
Sophomore Brandon Knapper gave West Virginia some solid minutes, as did Taz Sherman, who is perhaps the team's most gifted scorer. When Taz eventually gets his feet firmly on the ground watch out!
Each guy on the team this year has an important role.
ALL of them performed their roles on Wednesday night.
And when they weren't fulfilling their roles, they were supporting those who were.
It was a true ensemble. That's team chemistry, and it looks like West Virginia really has it this year!
"These guys love the Mountaineers and they deserved to have some good things happen to them," Huggins said during his postgame radio show.
"What makes me feel so good is they love West Virginia," he continued. "They love being a part of it. They love the people. They love the fans the way they support us. They're the first ones to run over there and sing Country Roads with the fans in the stands.
"It's been a while since we've had that."
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