MORGANTOWN —
Someone ought to give Deniz Kilicli a GPS for an early Christmas present.
It has nothing to do with West Virginia University’s Saturday’s journey to Miami to face the Hurricanes from the ACC, although it is a basketball matter for the WVU big man.
“He is lost,” said his coach, Bob Huggins, after he scored eight points in the Mountaineers’ 71-50 victory over American University on Wednesday at the Coliseum.
While eight points is not a dismal night, more is expected, just as more than four rebounds are expected, only one of which was gained on the defensive end. The friendly, gregarious Turkish national is just having a hard time getting adjusted to Huggins’ offensive and defensive philosophies.
That normally would sound like bad news, but with the developments on this year’s 5-1 WVU team, it may not be.
See, a year ago, another player was totally lost in the system.
His name is Casey Mitchell, and he is now one of the early-season sensations in basketball, scoring 22.3 points a game.
“What I’m trying to do is get used to (his role in the system). It can take a year, like Casey, or three games or 10 games, I don’t know,” he said.
And, he explains, his situation is not Casey Mitchell’s situation.
“We are different,” he said. “He’s Casey. I’m Deniz.”
There are certain things that Kilicli isn’t doing that he should be doing and other things that he is doing that he shouldn’t be doing.
In the American game, for example, with a comfortable lead, the 6-9 big man stepped outside and shot a 3, not exactly the wisest idea for someone who wants to stay on the court.
“He didn’t like that,” Kilicli said of Huggins. “He said, ‘We’re not going to win with you taking 3s.’”
That was what he told Kilicli on the sideline. What Huggins told the media was “I could kick as many in. I don’t mind him shooting a 3 … if he has a chance to make.”
Right now, Huggins would rather Kilicli work on the problems he’s having with his game. He averages 6.2 points and 4.8 rebounds a game.
“He doesn’t attack the basket,” Huggins said. “Everything is a hook. He has to find a way to get to the basket. Against Vanderbilt, their guy threw up a hook and missed, but he rebounded it and scored. I told Deniz, you never rebound a hook.”
Huggins conclusion on Kilicli?
“It’s going to take time,” he said. “He’s confused, overwhelmed. I’m amazed he understands what he does, having learned the language just a year or so ago.”
A year ago, of course, Kilicli couldn’t get right into it, having to sit out 20 games because of a professionalism problem back in Turkey that was not in his control but that the NCAA decided to enforce.
And so now, as he tries to figure out what Huggins wants, it isn’t smooth for Kilicli.
“I’m thinking too much and it slows down the offense. When I take a bad shot, he takes me out and talks to me,” Kilicli said.
Miami goes into Saturday’s 4 p.m. game with two losses and five victories, the losses coming to No. 19 Memphis and Rutgers, both on the road. They enter the game after an impressive victory over Mississippi that gave the Hurricanes a three-game winning streak.
Durand Scott leads three Miami players into double-digit scoring with 14.2 points a game, along with Reggie Johnson at 12.7 and Malcolm Graham at 12.4.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
WVU Sports
Kilicli’s game a work in progress
WVU men visit Miami today
- WVU Sports
-
-
FURFARI COLUMN- Huggins says transfers not isolated case
Coach Bob Huggins will tell you that losing four players to transfer mode from his West Virginia University men’s basketball squad was not an unusual or isolated case.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Independent study of WVU finances needed
It is time someone gets to the bottom of what is going on financially within West Virginia University and its athletic department.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: The gamble of leaving college early
One of the first lessons they try to get across to a student-athlete when he comes to school is the evils of gambling.
In truth, college sports still echo with the basketball point-fixing scandal from 60 years ago and a few others that have surfaced over the years, both on a professional and collegiate level. -
FURFARI COLUMN: Compton fifth of WVU’s 11 consensus All-Americans
Mike Compton, who was the fifth in West Virginia University’s line of 11 consensus All-America football players, starred on the teams of 1989-90-91-92.
A 6-foot-7, 280-to-295-pound center, he not only excelled on the offensive line, but he was a team captain as a senior. -
HERTZEL COLUMN: WVU has its academic ship on course
In the real world the initials APR stand for annual percentage rate, a term with which everyone who has a car loan or home mortgage is quite familiar, but in the world of college athletics it is a term that has a somewhat a different meaning.
-
Kendrick donates to tornado relief in name of WVU baseball
Arizona Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick has made a donation of $200,000 to the Mountaineer Athletic Club in the name of the West Virginia University baseball program to the Oklahoma City tornado relief effort.
-
FURFARI COLUMN: Mon County prosecutor says FOIA handling OK
It wasn’t until about a week ago that I found for certain who is responsible to make sure that the Freedom of Information of Act law is enforced in West Virginia.
You may remember that in February 2013, The Dominion Post of Morgantown filed a grand total of 33 FOIA requests against West Virginia University. -
FURFARI COLUMN- Guidi was all-time great wrestler, coach
Lewis Guidi, who unexpectedly died last week in Jefferson (Va.) Hospital at the age of 78, was one of the greatest wrestlers in West Virginia’s athletic history.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN- MLB can wait for Musgrave
It had been quite a couple of weeks for Harrison Musgrave, his head still spinning like the tornadoes that had roared through Oklahoma when his West Virginia University baseball team was there to compete in the Big 12 Tournament.
-
Five WVU baseball players chosen in draft
Four current members and one future member of the West Virginia University baseball team were chosen on the final day of the 2013 Major League Baseball first-year player draft.
- More WVU Sports Headlines
-
FURFARI COLUMN- Huggins says transfers not isolated case
