MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The nostalgia of the moment is not lost on Logan Routt, who said there are times when he and West Virginia men’s basketball teammates Chase Harler, Brandon Knapper and Jalen Bridges will all be standing near each other during a practice.
“I sort of look around and see us all together and I think to myself, ‘Go, West Virginia,’ ” said Routt, a 6-foot-11 center from Cameron. “To think we all played at West Virginia high schools and now we’re playing at WVU, yeah, I think that’s something to be very proud of.”
While Bridges, the 6-7 former Fairmont Senior standout, will redshirt in his first season at WVU, he does complete a rarity on the Mountaineers’ roster.
Four former West Virginia high school standouts are on a WVU basketball scholarship this season.
It’s the most in-state scholarship players on WVU’s men’s roster since the 1991-92 season (five players) that saw Tracy Shelton (Oak Hill), P.G. Greene (Oak Hill), Marsalis Basey (Martinsburg), Tim McNeely (Chapmanville) and Jeremy Bodkin (Upper Tract) all on scholarship.
“Coach (Bob) Huggins even brought it up one day in practice,” Harler said. “He told us this is the first time in a long time that there are four West Virginia guys on scholarship. Then he said, ‘That’s how it should be.’ I thought that was pretty cool for him to say.”
Goes back to 2012
The origin of this story goes back to when Routt was a barely-known and skinny 6-10 freshman at Cameron.
His grandmother, Julie Beresford, met Huggins during a speaking engagement in Moundsville and she told Huggins that he should be recruiting her grandson.
Once Huggins found out Routt was 6-10, he became interested. Routt was eventually invited in for a visit and he was instantly sold on the idea of playing for the Mountaineers.
“That was always pretty much my dream,” he said. “They said I could come in as a walk-on and that if I continued to work and develop that I could actually help the team down the road. I didn’t really need to hear anything else.”
Routt continued to develop at Cameron. As a senior, he averaged 20 points and 14 rebounds and was the runner-up in the voting for Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
He waked-on at WVU in 2015 and redshirted. He earned a scholarship by his sophomore season that he chose to give up as a junior in order for the Mountaineers to recruit more players.
This summer, he was put back on scholarship heading into his senior year. Over his first three seasons, Routt has played in 76 games, including a Big 12 tournament championship game and three NCAA tournament games.
“He deserves it,” Huggins said.
The moment is not lost on Huggs, either
Huggins came to WVU in 2007 with the reputation of signing nationally-ranked recruiting classes and churning out NBA draft picks.
The state of West Virginia was not a recruiting hot bed for him during his 16 seasons at Cincinnati.
That has not deterred Huggins from keeping in-state players off the WVU roster.
Over his first 12 seasons, he’s accepted Cam Payne, Paul Williamson, Craig Carey, Richard Romeo, Chase Connor, James Long and Taevon Horton as walk-ons.
Morgantown’s Nathan Adrian became Huggins’ first in-state scholarship player at WVU in 2013.
“Back when I first came here, I probably didn’t think I would have four on scholarship here at the same time,” Huggins said. “I would’ve wanted to, but I probably wouldn’t have expected it.”
There is a sort of wish, Huggins admitted, that he would love to one day see on his WVU roster.
Put simply, Huggins said he would relish the fact that the face of the roster was an in-state kid, much like the Mountaineers had under former coach John Beilein with Kevin Pittsnogle.
“I was hoping to get a Pittsnogle-kind of situation,” Huggins said. “We’ll see. It’s been since 1991 that we’ve had this many West Virginia players on the roster.
“I couldn’t be happier for Chase and Logan, in particular. Chase has been a great teammate. He hung in there through all of that adversity from a year ago. Logan has just got better and better. He’s a good player now. If he was a high school senior right now, he’d be getting recruited by everybody. He’s improved that much.”
More than just a stat
The four players come from all walks of life around the state.
Harler (Wheeling Central) and Routt are the seniors who came came from small Class A schools.
Knappper (South Charleston) is a redshirt sophomore, who came from a large Class AAA school located just minutes from the state’s capitol.
Bridges helped build the Polar Bears into a Class AA power. With him on the roster, Fairmont Senior played in four consecutive Class AA state title games, winning two of them.
“I think it means something very special to all of us,” said Knapper, who averaged 28.5 points per game as a senior at South Charleston. “West Virginia is not a state that is really known for producing a lot of Division I basketball players, but now we have four on the same team. Just thinking about it right now makes me have a good feeling about our state.”
“It’s cool. I think it says a lot about each one of us,” added Harler. “I grew up a huge fan of WVU. I think it’s safe to say we all did. It’s been a very surreal experience these last four years for me to be a part of this program.”
Having all four players on this team nearly didn’t happen.
Bridges signed in August, just as the fall semester was beginning at WVU. His original plan was to attend a prep school in Pennsylvania this season and start college in 2020.
“I announced I was coming here on a Sunday, I think, and then I was in classes here that Tuesday,” Bridges said. “I was supposed to leave for prep school on that Tuesday. All of my bags were already packed to go there.”
There are hopes that Bridges, a four-star and nationally-ranked recruit, will one day develop into a budding star after redshirting this season.
“He picks up on things so fast already. It’s just crazy,” Routt said. “He has this whole year to improve. It’s scary, because after this year, you don’t know what he’s going to be able to do. He has a good frame and he’s long. He’ll have the whole year to be in the weight room and be on the floor for us.”
The four players hope they have played a part in elevating the state’s recruiting perception, but they’ll leave that up to the coaches.
“I don’t think any of us have told (Huggins) he needs to recruit our state more,” Knapper said with a smile. “I think we’ve made a good case, but it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to give him our advice on that subject.”
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