By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — The way Bob Huggins looks at it, he asked to be a top rung basketball program and it doesn’t come without a price, a price he and his team are paying this week.
If it was just that the No. 8 Mountaineers are playing four games in a week, well, that would be no sweat. That’s simply good practice for what will lie ahead of them in March when they have the Big East Tournament and the NCAAs.
But they have an itinerary this week that you wouldn’t wish on your worst opponent.
On Monday, they bus to Charleston, where they hold a workout and spend the night before taking on The Citadel while probably shorthanded, without the presence of star forward Devin Ebanks whose mysterious absence continues and, perhaps, without guard Joe Mazzulla, who has yet to make an appearance.
After the game they bus to Cincinnati from Charleston, where they catch an 8 a.m. flight to Los Angeles International Airport, busing an hour to Anaheim, practicing on Wednesday evening, then tipping off in the first game of the 76er Classic at 11 a.m. against Long Beach State, the first of three games in four days.
Tough?
“Life’s tough,” said senior Da’Sean Butler. “You just have go out there and play.”
Bob Huggins understands the situation.
“I don’t like it very much, but if we are going to play on TV, we have to play when TV wants us,” he said.
And TV means exposure and exposure means help in recruiting and recruiting better players means better teams which means television wants you even more.
It is a vicious cycle.
The first question is why they would play in Charleston, which means a two and a half hour bus ride there and then some kind of bus ride either to Cincinnati or Pittsburgh to fly out west.
“We can catch the people in southern West Virginia better [by playing in Charleston],” Huggins said. “It’s an easier trip for them.”
It may be easier for them but it certainly isn’t easier for his team.
“We have our fans in the southern part of the state that don’t have an opportunity to get to Morgantown frequently,” Huggins said. “They can buy tickets that aren’t in the season ticket package. It’s a good thing.”
While no one mentioned money, there will be 11,000 or so in the Charleston Civic Center for The Citadal whereas with the students out of town in Morgantown there might be an embarrassing crowd of 7,000 or so there.
The biggest problem, perhaps, is the wear and tear on what could be a shorthanded team, facing good competition in a field that includes not only West Virginia and Long Beach but Texas A&M; and Clemson, UCLA, Portland, Minnesota and Butler.
That could lead to an early loss or two on the schedule, which can be of no help whatsoever.
“It’s kind of what you make it,” Huggins said. “It’s not an ideal situation, but when you’re a good team you can handle those things. When you are not a good team, you don’t handle them very well.”
Huggins believes he has a good team on his hands, one that will get better as the season goes on and as it faces adversity along the way.
Certainly the unexplained absence of Ebanks, which Huggins has given no clue toward, which probably means it isn’t disciplinary on his part for he would almost certainly announce a suspension, and Mazzulla’s still slow recovery and freshman Deniz Kilicli’s 20-game NCAA suspension for playing on a team that included a professional is a form of adversity.
What’s more, leaning on freshmen Danny Jennings and Dalton Pepper and junior college transfer Casey Mitchell means the Mountaineers will not be as sharp early in the season as they will once those players get accustomed to the rigors of college ball and learn Huggins’s system.
“We have to make due if we’re going to play on TV and play in these kind of tournaments,” Huggins said. “And I think it’s important we play in Charleston, so you gotta do what you gotta do.”
And that’s just what West Virginia is doing.”
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
