MORGANTOWN — The last time they walked off a basketball court in a game that mattered they did so with a shake of the hand and a shake of the head, the West Virginia basketball team.
It ended in defeat, as did every NCAA Tournament team other than the eventual champion, Kansas, a loss to Dayton that has haunted them through the offseason, driven them to get bigger, get better.
They said goodbye to Alex Ruoff, sent him off to some far off land to ply his basketball trade, welcomed in Casey Mitchell, the National Junior College Player of the Year at Chipola J.C., to replace him, a man who likes to shoot a 3 every bit as much as Ruoff, and went to work.
It begins at 4 p.m. today in an old building with a new configuration, the Coliseum.
In an effort to improve the atmosphere, to say nothing of adding at least $150,000 in revenue, they tore out the front row student section seats, agreed to have them STANDING at courtside to intimidate opponents they never have before, moved the rest of the seats so they could sell the prime mid-court real estate to those with more to spend than students.
First in is Loyola of Maryland, a proud school but hardly one expected to give the nation’s No. 8 team in the preseason rankings much of a challenge, for Bob Huggins has put together a team that is deep and talented.
All it has to is prove itself.
Returning, of course, in the forefront as well as the forecourt is the team’s two stars — senior Da’Sean Butler, a preseason all-Big East selection, and sophomore Devin Ebanks, a second-team pick. Both could end up playing in “The League” next year.
Mitchell joins them at the shooting guard spot while Darrell “Truck” Bryant and Joe Mazzulla, recovering but not recovered from last season, run the show from the point.
Then the other spot belongs to senior Wellington Smith, while John Flowers adds front-court experience and a certain flair and Cam Thoroughman adds muscle. Toss in talented freshmen guard Dalton Pepper and forward Danny Jennings and, in February muscular Turkish star-in-waiting Deniz Kilicli and you can see how deep this team really is.
But perhaps the most important player of them all in this plethora of riches is Kevin Jones, a sophomore who will be first off the bench as he was last year, who has beefed up his muscle and his scoring.
In the scrimmage and exhibition win over Mountain State, Jones was everywhere doing everything.
He scored 20 points in both, pulled down double figure rebounds, got loose balls, made passes.
Jones is 18 pounds heavier than his freshman season, the result of … well, eating and lifting.
“I’m not normally a big eater,” Jones said, but who would mind being able to pound the steak and the pasta and those yummy strawberry protein shakes.
The thing is, Jones feels as good as he did at the lesser weight.
“At first I thought the weight might slow me down, but it hasn’t one bit,” Jones said.
Jones certainly could start, even on this deep team, but Huggins prefers to have him come off the bench.
“I’ve never put a whole lot of stock in who starts,” Huggins said. “It’s who plays the minutes and who finishes games. I had a kid at Cincinnati, Darnell Burton, who never started a game. He’s like the sixth all-time leading scorer [at Cincinnati], and he never started a game.”
There is a reason why Huggins would have such a talented player sitting at the opening tipoff.
“It’s good to be able to change a game by bringing someone in off the bench. I think someone like Kevin, he can come in and make an immediate impact on the game,” Huggins said.
He did it over and over last year when he averaged 6.3 points and 4.9 rebounds while playing just 19 minutes a game.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
Bob Herzel
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