WVU’s Huggins Learning Some New Faces This Summer

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There have been four new faces added to West Virginia's roster since the end of the season, with the possibility of another edition depending upon what sophomore guard Deuce McBride decides to do on or before July 7.

That's the last day players who have entered the NBA Draft can pull their names out and return to school. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said earlier today that he's talked recently with McBride about his NBA Draft Combine performance and recent workouts with NBA teams.

"Deuce has been really good," Huggins said. "Actually, he called me last night or the night before and we talked for a while, but it was more him updating me on his three workouts. He said he's keeping an open mind, and certainly he wants to do what's in his best interests and we're all on board with it."

Which means Huggins will have to keep a roster spot free until McBride makes his final decision. Huggins also said nothing is official yet on senior guard Sean McNeil, whose name is also entered into the NBA Draft.

Guard Taz Sherman, who took some time after the season to consider his professional options, announced late last month that he was returning to WVU for his senior season, giving the Mountaineers a 13.6 points-per-game scorer.

If McNeil returns that's another 11.8 points per game and keeping McBride would give West Virginia one of the strongest backcourts in the country.

But some NBA Draft projections have McBride going in the first round. According to a New York Post story posted two days ago, the New York Knicks worked out McBride and need a point guard with choices available at No. 19, 21 and 32. McBride also reportedly had a workout with the Boston Celtics, which doesn't pick have a first round pick and won't come up on the draft board until No. 45.

Forward Derek Culver also entered his name into the draft and has signed with an agent. He has a workout scheduled with the Golden State Warriors later this week.

In addition to Culver, WVU's other spring departures include forward Emmitt Matthews Jr., who transferred to Washington, and UNLV transfer Jordan McCabe.

Senior forward Gabe Osabuohien had the opportunity to move on, but he chose to return for his third season at West Virginia in 2022.

The Mountaineers' other returning scholarship players include sophomore forward Jalen Bridges, senior guard Kedrian Johnson, sophomore forwards Taj Thweatt and Seny N'diaye, and touted freshman forward Isaiah Cottrell, who suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon injury against North Texas and redshirted.

Huggins is anticipating Cottrell will be full-go this season.

"They haven't turned Cottrell lose yet, but he's doing all of the shooting drills," the coach said.

The new faces this year include Ohio prep guards Kobe Johnson and Seth Wilson, Florida International shot blocker Dimon Carrigan, DePaul big Pauly Paulicap and former New Mexico commit Jamel King, a 6-foot-7-inch prep forward from Uniontown, Alabama, who signed with West Virginia yesterday.

King changed his mind on New Mexico after the Lobos fired coach Paul Weir.

The Mountaineers also added high-scoring Old Dominion guard Malik Curry, a Conference USA second team choice in 2021, but he has yet to arrive on campus while he finishes up his coursework at ODU.

"(Curry is) really good at attacking the rim and should Deuce not return, we need somebody who can put pressure on the rim," Huggins said. "Taz and Sean can both score, but they're not really great at attacking the rim. I think Malik is a guy who can get other guys shots because of his ability to penetrate. I really like what I've seen on film of him."

Huggins indicated Carrigan, Paulicap and King were added to bolster West Virginia's front line.

"We took basically three bigs, but we felt like we needed three bigs with everybody that we lost and the uncertainty with Isaiah," Huggins explained. "If we knew Isaiah was going to be 100% from the start than I don't know if would have done that. Our other (younger) guys are getting better, but they're not there yet."

Osabuohien gives West Virginia a high-caliber defender if he can stay out of foul trouble, and Bridges offers the potential of the Mountaineers having a double-digit scorer on the wing. A healthy Cottrell provides West Virginia the combination of an excellent passer and a 6-foot-10 forward who can stretch teams from the perimeter.

The two transfer bigs could potentially allow West Virginia to play more pressure defense this season.

"We've gone back and looked at the old 'Press Virginia' stuff and it was really good for two reasons," Huggins noted. "One, we had two of the best on-ball defenders in (Jevon Carter) and (Daxter Miles Jr.) and we had the best shot blocker in America in (Sagaba Konate).

"You look at the highlights of Kansas trying to come in and score on Sags and he just continued to block shots and shake his finger at them," Huggins said. "We don't have a Sags – and we probably won't have another Sags – but we've got to do a better job of guarding the ball and we hope these new guys in the back and be influencers. They don't have to block shots; if they can just change shots that will be terrific."

Huggins said this year's team has to pass the ball better offensively and stick closer to their man defensively. He noted poor passing cost his team an opportunity to advance to last year's Sweet 16.

"We just didn't pass the ball very well and I think it really hurt us at times - it certainly hurt us in the Syracuse game," he said. "It wasn't that we didn't have guys open, and it wasn't that we didn't have people in position to make shots, we just did a really poor job of delivering the ball. We're going to spend a whole lot of time on that and hopefully we've recruited some guys who do a little better job of that."

Based on what he has returning and what's coming in, Huggins is not sure what this year's team is going to do best. But he does know it is going to have to come up with something different defensively.

"When you look back when we were really good, we were really good because we kept people off balance," he explained. "Go back to the Kentucky game (2010 NCAA East regional finals) and if we tried to guard them man-to-man we had no chance. Thank goodness we played that 1-3-1 zone some. Really, that saved us, and it saved us both Villanova games. We trapped them out of the 1-3-1 - Louisville, too.

"We tried to do it last year and we were really bad at it, so we didn't do it. Hopefully, we'll be able to so some things like that – maybe play 11-3 or maybe press a little bit just to change the tempo, which we didn't do a very good job of a year ago," he concluded.

Schedule

Players Mentioned

Jalen Bridges

Isaiah Cottrell

Derek Culver

Kedrian Johnson

Emmitt Matthews Jr.

Jordan McCabe

Sean McNeil

Seny N'diaye

Gabe Osabuohien

Taz Sherman

Taj Thweatt

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