KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Per his own description, Esa Ahmad is a straight-forward kind of guy.
“I don’t need to beat around the bush,” the West Virginia senior forward said Wednesday at Big 12 Media Day. “I just get straight to it.”
It is a trait, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said, comes from Ahmad’s mother, Sherray Hammond.
“His mom is straight business,” Huggins said. “You don’t have to wonder what she’s thinking.”
It is a tough exterior Ahmad puts out there, but that has changed recently and for good reason.
Ahmad recently became a father for the first time to a little baby girl, Dior Nina Ahmad.
“I look at her eyes and realize I have a soft spot now,” Ahmad said. “I know I can’t try to be tough all the time. Whatever she wants, I’ve got to get it for her. It’s different motivation for me. I know I have someone looking up to me.”
Dior lives with her mother in Charleston, but Esa said he suddenly has a new perspective on life.
“It really made me grow up,” Ahmad said. “I look at certain things in the past and now I’m like, ‘I can’t believe I did that.’ ”
West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins — the father of two daughters — can relate.
“I think everything becomes less about you,” Huggins said. “You suddenly understand that you have responsibilities.”
Ahmad’s responsibilities to the Mountaineers will also change this season.
A starter since he was a freshman, Ahmad was still surrounded by enough talent to shift some of the focus away from him.
Enough talent that Ahmad — the lone senior on West Virginia’s roster — needs 28 wins this season to become the winningest player in school history.
“That would be big for me,” he said. “When I first got here, there were already guys like Dev [Williams] and Jaysean [Paige]. Those guys taught me how to be a winner. They taught me the importance of never taking anything for granted.
“That’s something I would like to start passing on to the younger guys now. I would like to be someone who can show guys how to work and to win.”
He now becomes more of a focal point to a team that is working to find consistency in its guard play.
“It’s a big change,” Ahmad said. “I’m watching over guys now. I’m ready to take on a new challenge.”
The four years have flown by, Ahmad said. Huggins said he still takes a double take when he sees “senior” listed next to Ahmad’s name on the roster.
“He’s always been a quiet guy,” Huggins said. “He’s not an out-going kind of guy. He was kind of hard to recruit, because he never said anything.”
But, each year of college brought new experiences, “It’s been up and down for me, but a lot of it has been more positive than negative,” Ahmad said.
He was forced to miss the first 16 games of last season after an NCAA eligibility suspension, and then admits he had a difficult time finding his role with an already successful team once he returned.
He’s also dealt with injuries and NCAA tournament upsets.
Each season Ahmad has been at West Virginia, the Mountaineers have advanced to the Big 12 tournament championship game, only to finish as the runner-up each time.
All of that could make it seem like the world is crashing down on any college athlete.
Instead, Ahmad said it made him stronger.
“I feel like I’m more mature right now,” Ahmad said. “I look back to the way I was when I first got here. There’s no way that person could picture who I am today.”
And then the conversation shifts back to little Dior and Ahmad’s eyes simply light up.
“I look at myself now and I’m like, ‘Damn, I’m a dad now,” Ahmad said. “It’s real different. It’s hard to explain how much different of a person it makes me feel. She’s a real blessing to me.”
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