MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — There may had been no better example of just how different this college basketball season will be than the setting around Bob Huggins on Thursday in his first meeting with the media.
There was no basketball court in sight, no shoes squeaking on the floor in the background and no podium or microphone for the West Virginia head coach to sit behind.
Rather, Huggins, who is about to enter his 14th season with the Mountaineers and is 21 wins shy of 900 for his career, sat in an adirondack chair in his back yard sporting a full goatee, sunglasses and a camouflage hat surrounded by all walks of life, as planes and helicopters flew overhead during a Zoom meeting.
“We’ve got it all here,” he joked. “We get helicopters and airplanes. We’ve got dogs. We’ve got it all. We’ve got a duck pond out back. I think we’ve chased all of the raccoons out.”
What hasn’t changed is Huggins’ expectations for this season.
Put quite simply, after expanding on the fiscal reasons on why there needs to be an NCAA tournament in 2021, “So, we’ll be able to play an NCAA tournament and we’ll be able to play in the NCAA tournament,” Huggins said.
With four starters and four key reserves returning from a 21-10 team a season ago, it would be difficult to forecast the Mountaineers out of the NCAA tournament or top 25 polls.
Yet, don’t mistake Huggins’ relaxed look in early October as a sign for some type of easy path to the top of the Big 12.
There are obstacles to overcome, whether it be poor shooting or turnovers that were costly at times last season, navigating practices and a season through the COVID-19 pandemic and things as seemingly as simple as scheduling games after the start of the season was delayed until Nov. 25.
“The problem is we already had a schedule,” Huggins said. “Josh (Eilert) had done a great job and had us a great nonconference schedule and we just about had to totally blow it up and start all over again. In starting all over again, you have conferences, like ours, that still don’t have a conference schedule. They want to play nonconference games, but they don’t know if they’ll be able to, because they don’t have their conference schedule. It’s been tough. We’ve contacted just about everybody.”
The rivalry game against Pitt has been delayed, Huggins said, until the 2021-22 season. The Mountaineers will also miss out on an opportunity to play Purdue in New York and will begin the season playing in an eight-team tournament in South Dakota, the first time ever WVU has played in that state.
As for the rest of Huggins’ preseason thoughts, after petting his dog on the head and pausing a moment to let a helicopter fly by, here they are:
On trying to keep players safe during the pandemic:
“It’s been rough for our guys,” Huggins said. “As much as you try, in today’s world, you can’t stay away from everyone. Our guys, I think, have handled it as well as possible.”
On his team’s weekly workouts over the summer and chemistry:
“The guys have been good,” Huggins said. “We don’t seem like we’ve got our entire cast for very many workouts for a variety of reasons. They’re attitudes are great. This group gets along better and pulls for each other better than any group we’ve had here in a long time, maybe even since 2010.
“I think we’re talented. We’ve got some guys who know how to play. A lot of those guys got a lot of experience a year ago. I’m excited. I think we’ve got a chance.”
On calling players like Deuce McBride and Oscar Tshiebwe “veterans”:
“We say veteran, and Deuce McBride is a sophomore and Oscar is a sophomore,” Huggins said. “It’s great to see them work with the younger guys. We’ve got some talented younger guys.
“Emmitt Matthews has been terrific. He’s trying to help (Jalen Bridges) and he’s really trying to help people. It’s not very often you say a junior is your most experienced guy, but he and Derek (Culver) are our most experienced guys in terms of playing time.”
His thoughts on freshman Isaiah Cottrell:
“He’s a very skilled guy,” Huggins said. “He passes it well and he shoots it well. He handles it probably better than most of our bigs. He’d be the first to tell you that it’s hard, particularly for a big, because guys are stronger and faster. They get to the ball so much faster. They’re harder to move and he’s finding that out.”
On WVU’s style of defense this season:
“I thought we played man-to-man very well a year ago and I think we can continue to do that,” Huggins said. “We’ll do some things like we did a year ago. We played a little bit of zone. We played a little bit of 1-3-1. We pressed a little bit. We’re going to try and figure out what’s in the best interest of our team and we’ll go from there.”
What will another year of Tshiebwe and Culver down low look like?
“Obviously, they have to score the ball,” Huggins said. “They’re working at it. There are some mechanical things that we’ve got to get straightened out. It’s hard after you’ve played one way your whole life. Derek and Oscar have missed a lot of easy shots. We’ve got to get them to finish inside. They just kind of threw it up there before and hoped it went in. That’s what we did a year ago and we can’t let that happen this year and they understand that.”
Finally, how will freshman Jalen Bridges look after redshirting last season?
“He’s benefited a great deal, particularly because he’s done a good job in the weight room and he’s gotten stronger,” Huggins said. “He’s playing so much more assertive. I thought at the end of last year he was one of our better offensive rebounders and we need him to continue to do that. He’s a 6-foot-7 guy who can make shots and stretch a defense.”
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