Clarity Forming For 2020-21 Men’s Hoop Season
September 20, 2020 05:05 PM | Men's Basketball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – We are beginning to get a better idea of how the 2020-21 college basketball season is going to look.
Late last week, the NCAA Division I Council announced the regular season will officially begin on Wednesday, Nov. 25 with practice starting on Wednesday, Oct. 14.
The regular season has been reduced by four games to 27, which means West Virginia's first four contests against Fairleigh Dickinson, Pitt, Stony Brook and Bowling Green will either be canceled or moved to another date.
Also, it is unknown what will become of the early-season Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas. There were reports of it moving to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but tournament organizers on Friday denied that was happening.
That field was supposed to include Duke, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Wichita State, Creighton, Utah, Memphis and West Virginia and could have been a great launching pad for the winning team.
It also remains to be seen what will become of the Mountaineers' other marquee non-conference matchups against Purdue in the Hall of Fame Invitational at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, as well as its two challenges against the Big East on Dec. 5 and the SEC on Jan. 30.
What we do know is veteran coach Bob Huggins has the makings of an outstanding basketball team in 2021 – perhaps the deepest and most talented squad he's had since returning to his alma mater in 2008.
And that includes the Da'Sean Butler-led 2010 team that upset No. 2-ranked Kentucky in the NCAA East Regional Finals to reach the Final Four.
The current version of the Mountaineers might not have that team's toughness, nor its togetherness, but from roster spot 1 through 14 it is every bit as deep, if not deeper.
For one thing, this team has the size the 2010 version lacked with twin-towers Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe returning for their second season together.
Six-seven senior Gabe Osabuohien gives West Virginia another 235-pound-plus player to compliment Culver and Tshiebwe, while highly touted 6-10, 240-pound freshman forward Isaiah Cottrell adds even more skill in the paint.
In fact, West Virginia is two-deep at each spot on the floor this season including the 3, where Emmitt Matthews Jr. was really the only true player the Mountaineers had at that position last season.
Fairmont's Jalen Bridges is also now available to play that position and according to onlookers, he has been extremely impressive in open-gym games.
Senior Taz Sherman, junior Sean McNeil and junior college All-American guard Kedrian Johnson will handle the two-guard position while sophomore Deuce McBride and junior Jordan McCabe will man the point.
That's 11 quality players right there.
Wildwood Catholic freshman forward Taj Thweatt was the South Jersey Player of the Year in 2020, high-scoring prep Spencer Macke was the crowd favorite whenever he got into the games last year, and 6-10, 225-pound freshman forward Seny Ndiaye from Dakar, Senegal, just oozes with potential, according to Huggins.
More on Ndiaye in a moment.
"What we are is deep," Huggins said earlier this week. "At the point guard position you've got Deuce and Jordan. The two-guard spot you've got Sean and Taz, or you could throw somebody else in there probably, and then the small forward you've got Emmitt and J.B."
And, of course, at 4 and 5 are two of the premiere players in the country at those two positions in Tshiebwe and Culver. They combined to average 21.6 points and 17.9 rebounds per game, while blocking 56 shots and generating 47 steals.
Usually, when one guy was off the other guy was on and when both were on, West Virginia was good enough to play with anybody in the country.
Exhibit A was last year's season-ending victory against Baylor when the Mountaineers ran the fourth-ranked Bears right out of the gym.
By the way, some are picking Baylor to win it all this year.
Huggins felt his team was jelling at the right time before the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the season just as West Virginia was preparing to play Oklahoma in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals.
"We had our best practices of the year heading into what was going to be our first game of the tournament," he said. "We were really good and they were really engaged and then it was over with."
Huggins says that effort and enthusiasm has carried over into this fall, at least during the times he has been allowed to be with them.
"You come in and watch these guys and you'd think they were getting ready to play Kansas," he admitted. "They are not messing around."
Such as Miles McBride, who played terrifically in West Virginia's impressive win over Ohio State in Cleveland and made the play of the game against Baylor when his soaring dunk put an exclamation point on West Virginia's biggest win of the season.
McBride averaged 9.5 points and finished second on the team with 56 assists as a freshman, his play somewhat uneven during the middle part of the season, however. But Huggins said McBride has been playing extremely well this fall and believes he could be primed for a breakout sophomore campaign.
Some experienced onlookers have even compared McBride favorably to former Ohio State guard Kevin Ransey, an NBA first-round draft choice. That's an eye-opening comparison, for sure, because Ransey was a tremendous college player known for his ability to pull up and score off the bounce.
Another guy who is really coming along is Jalen Bridges, the hip-shooting forward from Fairmont coming from what is turning out to be a great run of Division I athletes at Fairmont Senior High.
Five Polar Bear products are currently playing an important role on Neal Brown's Mountaineer football team, which gives you an idea of the type of talent Fairmont Senior is producing right now.
Huggins believes having Bridges here for an entire season instead of sending him to a prep school has really accelerated his development, and he envisions something similar happening to Ndiaye, who has the makings of a big-time college shot blocker and rebounder.
West Virginia's history with Ndiaye is actually much more extensive than his mid-July signing.
A year prior, Huggins was at another AAU tournament watching prospects when assistant coach Erik Martin called him and told him to make an all-night drive to watch another player he wanted Huggins to see, which was not Ndiaye.
When the coach got there to watch him, he agreed he was good, but the guy who really caught his eye was Ndiaye playing on another court.
He was running all over the place, jumping up and blocking shots and grabbing every rebound in sight. Afterward, Huggins struck up a conversation with Ndiaye and was extremely impressed.
"He speaks four different languages," Huggins said. "He's really smart."
At the time, Ndiaye was playing in upstate New York and then last year he transferred to Huntington Prep where he played behind Duke signee Jaemyn Brakefield and current WVU enrollee Isaiah Cottrell.
Huggins considered getting Ndiaye another year of seasoning at prep school, but realized how rapidly Bridges had developed last year as a redshirt and decided to bring Ndiaye on campus this year when a roster spot opened up.
"I called him and told him to pack his stuff," Huggins said. "He was all excited."
And now, Ndiaye has Huggins all excited.
"He is the only one who can physically battle Derek right now," Huggins said.
Including Tshiebwe?
"Yes."
Huggins doesn't need Ndiaye right now, and offensively he's still got a ways to go, but down the road he's going to be a guy to keep an eye on.
As for this year's team, it is also going to be worth keeping an eye on.
League-wise the Big 12 is loaded, with potentially half of the conference Top-25 caliber including two or three teams Top-10 worthy.
The one big question Huggins has about his squad is its toughness. Will they be tough enough to deal with the things that happen during a long and grueling season, one that now involves the corona virus?
If they are, Huggins believes the sky is the limit.
Now, we just need a schedule.
Late last week, the NCAA Division I Council announced the regular season will officially begin on Wednesday, Nov. 25 with practice starting on Wednesday, Oct. 14.
The regular season has been reduced by four games to 27, which means West Virginia's first four contests against Fairleigh Dickinson, Pitt, Stony Brook and Bowling Green will either be canceled or moved to another date.
Also, it is unknown what will become of the early-season Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas. There were reports of it moving to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but tournament organizers on Friday denied that was happening.
That field was supposed to include Duke, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Wichita State, Creighton, Utah, Memphis and West Virginia and could have been a great launching pad for the winning team.
It also remains to be seen what will become of the Mountaineers' other marquee non-conference matchups against Purdue in the Hall of Fame Invitational at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, as well as its two challenges against the Big East on Dec. 5 and the SEC on Jan. 30. What we do know is veteran coach Bob Huggins has the makings of an outstanding basketball team in 2021 – perhaps the deepest and most talented squad he's had since returning to his alma mater in 2008.
And that includes the Da'Sean Butler-led 2010 team that upset No. 2-ranked Kentucky in the NCAA East Regional Finals to reach the Final Four.
The current version of the Mountaineers might not have that team's toughness, nor its togetherness, but from roster spot 1 through 14 it is every bit as deep, if not deeper.
For one thing, this team has the size the 2010 version lacked with twin-towers Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe returning for their second season together.
Six-seven senior Gabe Osabuohien gives West Virginia another 235-pound-plus player to compliment Culver and Tshiebwe, while highly touted 6-10, 240-pound freshman forward Isaiah Cottrell adds even more skill in the paint.
In fact, West Virginia is two-deep at each spot on the floor this season including the 3, where Emmitt Matthews Jr. was really the only true player the Mountaineers had at that position last season.
Fairmont's Jalen Bridges is also now available to play that position and according to onlookers, he has been extremely impressive in open-gym games.
Senior Taz Sherman, junior Sean McNeil and junior college All-American guard Kedrian Johnson will handle the two-guard position while sophomore Deuce McBride and junior Jordan McCabe will man the point.
That's 11 quality players right there.
Wildwood Catholic freshman forward Taj Thweatt was the South Jersey Player of the Year in 2020, high-scoring prep Spencer Macke was the crowd favorite whenever he got into the games last year, and 6-10, 225-pound freshman forward Seny Ndiaye from Dakar, Senegal, just oozes with potential, according to Huggins.
More on Ndiaye in a moment.
"What we are is deep," Huggins said earlier this week. "At the point guard position you've got Deuce and Jordan. The two-guard spot you've got Sean and Taz, or you could throw somebody else in there probably, and then the small forward you've got Emmitt and J.B."
And, of course, at 4 and 5 are two of the premiere players in the country at those two positions in Tshiebwe and Culver. They combined to average 21.6 points and 17.9 rebounds per game, while blocking 56 shots and generating 47 steals.
Usually, when one guy was off the other guy was on and when both were on, West Virginia was good enough to play with anybody in the country.
Exhibit A was last year's season-ending victory against Baylor when the Mountaineers ran the fourth-ranked Bears right out of the gym.
By the way, some are picking Baylor to win it all this year.
Huggins felt his team was jelling at the right time before the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the season just as West Virginia was preparing to play Oklahoma in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals.
"We had our best practices of the year heading into what was going to be our first game of the tournament," he said. "We were really good and they were really engaged and then it was over with."
Huggins says that effort and enthusiasm has carried over into this fall, at least during the times he has been allowed to be with them.
"You come in and watch these guys and you'd think they were getting ready to play Kansas," he admitted. "They are not messing around."
Such as Miles McBride, who played terrifically in West Virginia's impressive win over Ohio State in Cleveland and made the play of the game against Baylor when his soaring dunk put an exclamation point on West Virginia's biggest win of the season.McBride averaged 9.5 points and finished second on the team with 56 assists as a freshman, his play somewhat uneven during the middle part of the season, however. But Huggins said McBride has been playing extremely well this fall and believes he could be primed for a breakout sophomore campaign.
Some experienced onlookers have even compared McBride favorably to former Ohio State guard Kevin Ransey, an NBA first-round draft choice. That's an eye-opening comparison, for sure, because Ransey was a tremendous college player known for his ability to pull up and score off the bounce.
Another guy who is really coming along is Jalen Bridges, the hip-shooting forward from Fairmont coming from what is turning out to be a great run of Division I athletes at Fairmont Senior High.
Five Polar Bear products are currently playing an important role on Neal Brown's Mountaineer football team, which gives you an idea of the type of talent Fairmont Senior is producing right now.
Huggins believes having Bridges here for an entire season instead of sending him to a prep school has really accelerated his development, and he envisions something similar happening to Ndiaye, who has the makings of a big-time college shot blocker and rebounder.
West Virginia's history with Ndiaye is actually much more extensive than his mid-July signing.
A year prior, Huggins was at another AAU tournament watching prospects when assistant coach Erik Martin called him and told him to make an all-night drive to watch another player he wanted Huggins to see, which was not Ndiaye.
When the coach got there to watch him, he agreed he was good, but the guy who really caught his eye was Ndiaye playing on another court.
He was running all over the place, jumping up and blocking shots and grabbing every rebound in sight. Afterward, Huggins struck up a conversation with Ndiaye and was extremely impressed.
"He speaks four different languages," Huggins said. "He's really smart."
At the time, Ndiaye was playing in upstate New York and then last year he transferred to Huntington Prep where he played behind Duke signee Jaemyn Brakefield and current WVU enrollee Isaiah Cottrell.
Huggins considered getting Ndiaye another year of seasoning at prep school, but realized how rapidly Bridges had developed last year as a redshirt and decided to bring Ndiaye on campus this year when a roster spot opened up.
"I called him and told him to pack his stuff," Huggins said. "He was all excited."
And now, Ndiaye has Huggins all excited.
"He is the only one who can physically battle Derek right now," Huggins said.
Including Tshiebwe?
"Yes."
Huggins doesn't need Ndiaye right now, and offensively he's still got a ways to go, but down the road he's going to be a guy to keep an eye on.
As for this year's team, it is also going to be worth keeping an eye on.
League-wise the Big 12 is loaded, with potentially half of the conference Top-25 caliber including two or three teams Top-10 worthy.
The one big question Huggins has about his squad is its toughness. Will they be tough enough to deal with the things that happen during a long and grueling season, one that now involves the corona virus?
If they are, Huggins believes the sky is the limit.
Now, we just need a schedule.
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