MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — In a perfect world of basketball, Bob Huggins could simply hand the ball to Esa Ahmad at the top of the key, set a screen for him and Ahmad could drive to the basket.
Except that is not Ahmad’s game.
The West Virginia forward is more old school, if you listen to those in the program; more of a read-the-defense kind of guy instead of flash and dash.
“Coach Huggins always tells me I’m great moving without the ball,” Ahmad said Saturday after scoring a career-high 30 points in leading the Mountaineers to an 88-76 victory against Valparaiso, at the WVU Coliseum.
It is a rare trait found these days in players who have grown up during the AAU era of running and gunning.
Ahmad is more about cutting and curling around screens set away from the ball that help to get him open looks at the basket.
“AAU, I think, conditions these guys [to think] they have to have the ball,” Huggins said. “I kind of get [Ahmad] playing without the ball, because handling the ball is not his thing.
“He’s not a real explosive kind of athlete, but he’s a really good basketball player, because he understands how to play.”
And Ahmad has a real understanding of his play.
“It’s really about reading your defender,” Ahmad said. “If he tries to jump the screen, then I’m going to step back. If he goes over the screen, them I’m going to curl around and make him chase me. I just have to read how he plays me and then I make my decision from there.”
Ahmad’s decisions were generally the right ones against the Crusaders.
His game was an efficient 12 of 15 shooting that saw him make his only 3-point attempt, but mostly saw him catch the ball with his momentum already taking him to the rim.
“Esa understands that if his guy turns his head, then he’s going to cut by him,” Huggins said. “He does a good job of curling it into the rim. If we ran that play for some of our other guys, they would end up veering out [to the 3-point line] instead of curling it at the rim like Esa does.
“He had those turnovers [at the beginning of the season], because he’s way way better without the ball than he is with it. We kind of came to that understanding. He’s played much better.”
And he’s been more consistent.
With the game very much in doubt in the first half, Ahmad scored 16 points. He scored 14 in the second half, including the team’s final eight points in the final 2:46 to help the Mountaineers seal the deal.
He was also 5 of 6 from the foul line and scored two baskets on offensive rebounds.
“We just like to get people playing to their strengths,” WVU forward Lamont West said. “Esa is really good cutting to the basket and playing around the basket. We like to put him in places where he can be successful.
“When Sags [Konate] got going, it really opened things up inside for Esa. Once we got them both going, there really wasn’t any stopping either one of them.”
And if it looked good against the Crusaders, Ahmad said it was because of plenty of practice.
“We have to run that play to perfection in practice before we can move on,” Ahmad said with a smile. “It’s good. It got me some shots today, so it’s pretty good.”
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