WVU’s Sherman Emerging as One of College Basketball’s Premier Scorers

Sunday, December 12

Morgantown, W.Va.

4:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

Kent State

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Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications

WVU’s Sherman Emerging as One of College Basketball’s Premier Scorers

December 10, 2021 04:18 PM | Men's Basketball

WVU-Kent State Game Notes

By: John Antonik

Tale of the Tape
Points Per Game	72.4	70.6
Points Against	59.0	61.9
Field Goal Percentage	45.2	44.8
Field Goal Percentage Against	38.0	44.3
3-PT Field Goal Percentage	35.4	30.9
3-PT Field Goal Percentage Against	27.3	32.0
Free Throw Percentage	83.5	61.2
Rebounding Margin	+3.2	-1.9
Turnovers Per Game	11.6	11.4
Turnovers Per Game Against	14.6	19.3
Steals Per Game	7.9	9.2
Blocks Per Game	4.0	5.2

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Huggins' message to Taz Sherman last summer was fairly to the point – return for your senior year and you can be the man.

"I honestly didn't really say all that much," Huggins said earlier today. "I just told him, 'You have a chance to have a heck of a year and come back and be the guy. The reality is you're not going to get drafted, you are not on any draft boards so why wouldn't you come back and have a heck of a year and see if you can do it next year?'"

The guard agreed.

Sherman was a prodigious junior college scorer at Collin College in McKinney, Texas, where he ranked fourth in the junior college ranks, averaging 25.9 points per game. He once scored 47 points in a game against Grayson College, but his two seasons at West Virginia in 2019-20 and 2020-21 were basically played in the shadows of Deuce McBride and Derek Culver.

Deuce ran the backcourt while Culver dominated the paint touches.

"When we needed a basket it was one of those two," Huggins said.

So, this spring, when McBride and Culver decided to keep their names in the NBA Draft, the team dynamic immediately switched from McBride and Culver to Sherman and Sean McNeil, another capable backcourt scorer who flirted with the NBA Draft.

Both chose to return to WVU for their senior seasons and for Sherman, particularly, it could end up paying off handsomely.

The 6-foot-4 guard currently ranks 10^th in the country in scoring at 21.2 points per game. He's scored 20 or more points in five of his last seven games, including a game-high 23 in West Virginia's 56-53 win over 15^th-ranked Connecticut on Wednesday night.

He played all 40 minutes against the Huskies and made 8 of 17 from the floor, mostly while being double- and triple-teamed. His 3-point shooting percentage is also finally coming around after hovering in the high 20s for the first five games of the season. He's hit 11 of his last 24 from behind the arc to boost his 3-point shooting percentage to 32.1%, and it seems the more Sherman plays the better he gets.

Earlier today, Huggins brought up a name from his past when describing Sherman's value to the team so far this season

"He reminds me a lot of Steve Logan," he said. "He's bigger and he's more athletic than Lo was, but he just has a great knack of getting himself free to get a jump shot."

For Mountaineer fans unfamiliar with Logan's great career at Cincinnati, a little background information is in order.

The Cleveland St. Edward product emerged during his junior season at Cincinnati in 2001, and became one of the country's top scorers during his senior year in 2002. His 770 points were the third-most in college basketball that season and he finished 13^th overall averaging 22 points per game.

He was the fifth player in UC basketball history to be named a first team AP All-American, was second in school history in scoring with 1,985 career points and is generally considered to be one of the 10-best players in Bearcats history.

So any comparisons to Steve Logan must not be taken lightly.

And while Logan was listed at 6-feet at Cincinnati, he was probably closer to 5-foot-10 and did a lot of his work away from the basket.

Sherman is a good 4 or 5 inches taller than Logan and is comfortable scoring anywhere on the floor. If you look at Sherman's shot chart, a lot of his field goals are close to the basket, either by posting up smaller guards or by going up against much bigger players.

"He's got great feet, and he's worked really hard at it," Huggins explained. "The thing you learn from the older guys is you don't have to dribble between your legs 65 times, and if you really want to be a good scorer, you have to be versatile."

Huggins credits the time Sherman spent here during the summer working out with some of the professional players who returned to campus from overseas, guys such as Kevin Jones, Alex Ruoff, Teyvon Myers and Tarik Phillip.

Sherman was smart enough to absorb some of the things they have learned while playing the game in different parts of the world.

"I think that really helped him," Huggins said. "Taz is a great student."

Something else Taz has learned is to take an old-school approach to getting ready for games. Instead of standing out beyond the 3-point arc and just jacking 3s like you frequently see guys do today, Sherman's preparation begins close to the goal before gradually working his way out beyond the 3-point arc.

"That's been around for a long time," Huggins admitted.

On Sunday, Sherman will have another big test against 5-3 Kent State. The Golden Flashes are coming off a 69-52 victory over Detroit Mercy on Thursday night when they held Antoine Davis, the nation's fourth-leading scorer, three points below his season scoring average.

Sherman will undoubtedly have to deal with more contact and more double teaming against the Golden Flashes – something he's going to face for the rest of the season.

He's already done enough to warrant that type of attention.

"He's got to be one of the better players in our league, if not in the top two or three," Huggins said.

Sunday's game will tip off at 4 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Chuckie Kempf and King McClure). Tickets remain on sale and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.

Kent State's last appearance in the Coliseum on Nov. 15, 2011, was current coach Rob Senderoff's first career victory for the Golden Flashes. He's now 201-132 in his 11^th season at Kent State and his starting five is primarily made up of transfers, including leading scorer Sincere Carry, who began his collegiate career at Duquesne.

Second-leading scorer Malique Jacobs is an Indian Hills Community College transfer, while fourth-leading scorer Justyn Hamilton transferred from Temple.

This will be just the third game between the two schools. The only other meeting took place in the 2004 NIT when WVU pulled out a 64-54 win in Kent, Ohio.

Sunday's game concludes West Virginia's five-game homestand.

WVU wraps up its December schedule with games at Alabama-Birmingham on Dec. 18 and at the Coliseum against Youngstown State on Dec. 22.