MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Brandon Knapper played 441 minutes last season. Not for a second did he limp or wince in pain or show any discomfort.
But he wasn’t himself. A year removed from knee surgery and just months from being medically cleared after dealing with a blood clot made sure of that.
“I don’t even like to think about last season,” the sophomore from South Charleston said after No.12 West Virginia whipped TCU on Tuesday, 81-49. “That’s all in the past. I moved on.”
“Knap is just getting better and better,” added WVU head coach Bob Huggins. “I don’t forget, but I guess I just don’t think about that he’s coming back from a pretty serious knee surgery and then he had some other things where (doctors) thought he may never play again. You just don’t come back from that in a couple of months.”
Moving on for Knapper took more than just time. It began with an offseason discussion with Huggins.
“We had a heart-to-heart,” is how Huggins described it. “I couldn’t play Knap before, because he turned it over more than he passed it to our team.
“You’ve got to do the right thing or I can’t play you.”
That has shown in his numbers. As a freshman, Knapper averaged nearly two turnovers per game, while averaging 13.8 minutes per game.
A season later, Knapper is down to less than one turnover per game.
“He has really worked hard at it and he’s really concentrated on it,” Huggins said.
According to WVU statistics, Knapper’s efficiency rating is a +54 on the season. Over the past three games, Knapper has been at +38. He’s averaged 7.7 points per game with just two turnovers in that span.
He was at -20 for the 2018-19 season.
A plus-minus statistic is used to measure a player’s impact on the game. It represents the difference between their team’s total scoring against their opponent’s when the player is in the game.
In an age where college athletes have turned the NCAA’s transfer portal into a never-ending rotating door, Knapper said he never considered it, even while his turnover numbers continued to mount and his playing time decreased last season.
“It was kind of hard to be here last year, but I never thought about leaving,” Knapper said. “I wanted to be here. They offered me during my sophomore year in high school and I knew then that WVU is where I wanted to be.
“I could have just upped and quit, but I’m not that type of person. I’m loyal to these coaches and they are loyal to me. I trust whatever they say and that’s how it’s going to be.”
Fellow state native Chase Harler has been there, too. After a tough sophomore year, Harler once admitted that season had shaken his confidence.
It was a similar postseason heart-to-heart with Huggins that actually kept Harler from transferring.
“The guys who have stuck around could have easily left,” Harler said. “We kind of understood that after the season we had last year that we wanted a revenge tour in a way.
“To play here, you have to be mentally strong. Everyone kind of has their low moments, but it’s a credit to Brandon for continuing to work hard. It’s starting to pay off for him.”
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