The Times West Virginian

Mickey Furfari

January 3, 2010

FURFARI COLUMN - WVU men have world of potential

By Mickey Furfari

MORGANTOWN — It is downright difficult to compare athletic teams of different eras.

What’s more, it even could be unfair to either or both of those teams you consider comparable.

Nevertheless, I recently told a friend that I think West Virginia University’s nationally ranked men’s basketball team has the potential to be the best since 1957-58.

That’s right. The incredible Jerry West was a sophomore and he had a strong supporting cast. It included 6-foot-8 All-America center Lloyd Sharrar, Bobby Joe Smith and starting guards Joedy Gardner and Don Vincent.

Key reserves included Bucky Bolyard and Ronnie Retton, two of the most effective dogging and dazzling defenders WVU ever had.

Unfortunately, Vincent had broken his leg in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals at Richmond, Va. The Mountaineers managed to win the tourney title without Vincent, but could not go any farther.

That 1957-58 team was the only one to finish No. 1 in the national Top 20. But there was no postseason poll at that time.

The Mountaineers won their first 14 games that season before losing to Duke, 72-68, at Durham, N.C. Then they won their next 12 games before being upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by unheralded Manhattan, 89-84 in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Their 26-2 record remains the best in WVU history.

Fred Schaus, who is presently in failing health, was the head coach of that great team. His six-year record remains the best in school history.

Granted, the 1958-1959 team still is the only WVU team to finish as the NCAA national runner-up. But it lacked Sharrar, Vincent and Gardner and was not rated as strong as the previous year’s team.

Now let’s talk about the 2009-10 team put together and coached by Bob Huggins.

It has more size, height and strength than the team of some 50 years ago. It probably also has more depth.

While it lacks a Jerry West, it has a Jonnie West — his youngest son — and he doesn’t have his father’s abilities. He came to WVU knowing he never could reach such status.

But he enjoys being around his teammates, and he appreciates the limited playing time he receives. Huggins says Jonnie is bigger and stronger this year.

Da’Sean Butler, 6-7 senior swingman, is the team’s leader. Other leading scorers and rebounders include Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones.

Joe Mazzulla is a veteran playmaker, but he’s limited by bad shoulders. So manning the guard position at times has been a problem.

The Mountaineers were 11-0 and ranked sixth in the nation before Friday’s 77-62 loss at Purdue, now 13-0. Those two teams were among only six remaining undefeated NCAA Division I clubs, all of which ranked in the top six.

This year’s team doesn’t run the fast break like the 1957-58 team did. But it has the benefit of a 3-point shot and, when hitting, probably is a sharper shooting team.

Deniz Kilicli, a 6-9, 260-pound recruit from Turkey, will be eligible to play after sitting out the first 20 games. Huggins expects him to be a very strong addition to WVU for the stretch drive.

It’s going to be interesting to see how WVU fares the remainder of the season, especially if it learns to put teams away when it has them down.

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Mickey Furfari
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