MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The beauty of the universe in which we exist is that we never really stand still. As the world spins on a daily basis and the moon goes around it while both spin around the sun we are all moving, and it is in a forward direction
That means we are only in the moment … eh, for the moment. The past is just that and the mistakes we make along the way — and don’t we all make them — are soon yesterday’s news.
Tomorrow is a new day, and even anything as horrible as the way West Virginia’s men’s basketball team staggered through the second half of its season, the regular season got a boost Saturday afternoon by beating TCU, 70-64, to end a 7-game losing streak.
It did finish with a 15-16 record and tied their worst record in league play since joining the Big 12 at 4-14 with a meeting against Kansas State at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the conference tournament ahead of them.
But, as noted previously, that is yesterday’s news and Bob Huggins knows it. He suffered the pains of defeat all year but he also began preparing for the future, which is next season in his world.
He believes he is surrounded by a core of young talent upon which he can whisk away the memory of this year. While you can never be sure who will return due to the NCAA’s transfer portal system, he believes that the exodus of seven seniors (unless those with eligibility left opt to return) opens the door to the future rather than closing it on the past.
If those who can return do, it means that Jalen Bridges will inherit the leadership role on the team and that the likes of Seth Wilson, Isaiah Cottrell, Kobe Johnson, James Okonkwo and Jamel King give him a strong foundation.
Household names they are not, although Cottrell has come on in the final few games, Wilson went through the freshman indoctrination that players need to do, being eased in until the coaches felt as comfortable with his play as he himself was.
Bridges has flashed star ability but has been inconsistent and timid at times while Huggins believes that he has potential stars in Cottrell and Okonkwo, who this year was coming back from injury and is capable of changing the rebounding figures for WVU.
Will they all be back? No one knows for sure, not even Huggins, but he did meet with his players the other day and talk about that with them.
After the TCU game, Sean McNeil admitted he doesn’t know if he wil return for his super senior season, which is available to him.
“We’ll see how the summer goes,” he said.
“I met with them and I heard nothing from them,” Huggins said of his meeting with the freshmen. “The reality is it’s kind of like when I recruited Truck Bryant and Kevin Jones (out of New York). I said to Kevin, put my arm around him when he was going back home and said, ‘This West Virginia/Morgantown thing is a whole lot better than you thought it was.
“He said, ‘Coach, I could have never imagined.’ A lot of it is getting them here. You line us up with a lot of other people and they say I don’t want to go to West Virginia because they don’t know anything about it.
“So. we have to work like crazy to get them here. Let them see what we have, the opportunities we have, the fan base here.”
But that mission, as hard as it has been over the years for whomever coaches WVU in whatever sport, has been complicated by the transfer portal and the NIL legislation that allows players to benefit from their name, image and likeness.
But it isn’t as easy as it looks.
“They’re paying a million dollars for a quarterback. How can we compete? You aren’t going to tell me that those guys in the portal aren’t seeing that,” Huggins said. “So, what’s going to happen? It ends up being a bidding war.
“Maybe that it happened before, but I never got involved in that stuff Now. it’s legal.”
The truth is at one time boosters would just shake a player’s hand he’d come away with a hundred-dollar bill in it, under the table.
Now that same booster, who owns a restaurant or a car dealership or runs autograph shows asks them to promote their businesses and they’ll get paid … all on the up and up.
It, combined with the portal, has changed everything about college sports.
“Everybody says ‘Go to the portal,’ but it’s not like you just reach down in there and snatch someone out of there,” Huggins said. “They want to know what they get. So, somebody says you get this, this and that. What’s to stop somebody else from saying, ‘Hey, listen, we got a great deal for you.’ Now the first guy calls again and he’s told, ‘Coach, I’ve decided to go in another direction.'”
Through it all, Huggins believes it can be done, can be done in Morgantown because he believes in Morgantown and WVU and the state of West Virginia. He’s seen them back him in his fight to build a cancer hospital here and he believes there is support there to allow the Mountaineers to compete recruiting.
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March 06, 2022 at 10:00AM
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In Changing Times, Huggins Still Believes In WVU Future | WVU | West Virginia Mountaineers sports coverage - Blue Gold News
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