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
WVU men driven to begin season
Mountaineers host Loyola (Md.) in debut
- Bob Herzel
-
-
Streaking Louisville visits WVU
Everyone has focused on West Virginia University’s rivalry with Pittsburgh as a potential victim of the move to the Big 12 by the Mountaineers, but there is another rivalry that almost certainly will be coming to an end, and while the feelings are not as bitter, the games often are as hard-fought and tense.
-
Verbal agreement: $20 million to Big East
West Virginia University and the Big East have reached a verbal agreement that will allow the Mountaineers to join the Big 12 on July 1 and play all sports in that conference this year, according to a source and published reports.
A total of $20 million will go to the Big East to allow WVU to skip the 27-month waiting period stipulated in conference bylaws and to cover the damages caused by possibly playing with just seven members this season. -
HERTZEL COLUMN: Mountaineers of past won’t forget Brawl
It is difficult to write about a story that is just beginning but that will never end, that being, of course, West Virginia University’s move to the Big 12 from the Big East, a move that may well signal the end of the Backyard Brawl.
-
WVU, Big East reach agreement
West Virginia University and the Big East have reached a conditional agreement that will allow the Mountaineers to join the Big 12 on July 1 and play football there next season, the Charleston Daily Mail reported Thursday night, citing an unidentified source.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: This WVU team different from previous squads
Games may be won or lost under glaring lights of a college arena, filled with faithful fans and the prying eye of the ever-present, unblinking television camera, but teams are built in a far different way.
They come together in a gym that smells of sweat and yesterday’s hotdogs. -
Notre Dame stops WVU, 55-51
If Kevin Jones could have scored 20 points against Notre Dame on Wednesday night before a disappointing crowd of 9,258 in the Coliseum he would have joined Jerry West and Hot Rod Hundley in the West Virginia record books.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: It’s unfair to consider Truck villain
The zero next to Truck Bryant’s name stood out like an obscene gesture during a Super Bowl halftime show.
Some even said he was M.I.A. as West Virginia University lost a heartbreaker, if not a season-breaker, to Notre Dame, 55-51. -
Jones nears milestone as Notre Dame visits WVU
That it is a crucial game in a season that seems to have nothing but, today’s 9 p.m. visit to the Coliseum by a streaking Notre Dame team comes with a historical footnote in the history of West Virginia University basketball.
Kevin Jones enters the game having scored 20 or more points in nine consecutive games. -
WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion
Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.
A source within the Mountaineer athletic department said on Tuesday that the matter was nearing a conclusion and also told the Times West Virginian that West Virginia would be reinstating a golf team to compete in the Big 12. -
HERTZEL COLUMN: WVU, Irish strikingly similar
Consider, if you will, that it is Nov. 25 past, that the West Virginia University basketball team is running a routine drill four games into its season, getting ready for the Akron game when Kevin Jones goes down in a heap on the floor, his ACL torn, his season over.
- More Bob Herzel Headlines
-
Streaking Louisville visits WVU
