MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The thought of sitting in a hotel room in Kansas City eight months ago and being told the basketball season was over is not lost on Bob Huggins.
The COVID-19 pandemic that shut that season down is still causing havoc and creating disruptions, but it would seem the 15th-ranked Mountaineers have found the positives throughout a sea of setbacks.
“Our guys have been as good as they can possibly be,” Huggins said. “You couldn’t ask a group of guys to do a better job than what they’ve done in terms of following the guidelines. I think Gov. (Jim) Justice would be very proud of our guys and what they’ve done.”
Getting to today’s game against South Dakota State in the opening round of the Crossover Classic required passing a coronavirus test before leaving Morgantown on Monday and then again upon arrival in Sioux Falls, S.D.
WVU players and coaches will be tested again today, prior to playing against the Jackrabbits.
“Yeah, we’ve got everyone here and available,” Huggins said. “They’re excited about playing.”
For now, it’s about basketball again, and today’s 7 p.m. tip-off against South Dakota State is not the general run-of-the-mill opener against an undermanned team.
The Jackrabbits finished 22-10 last season and return seven of their eight top players, including the Summit League’s Player of the Year in senior forward Douglas Wilson (18.6 ppg) and the league’s freshman of the year in Noah Freidel, who averaged 12.2 points per game.
“Douglas is a unique player and is certainly as athletic a player as we’ve had in South Dakota State in a long time,” Jackrabbits head coach Eric Henderson said. “Coming from the junior-college ranks, I always knew he would have an impact on our team defensively, but where he really surprised most of us was how impactful he was on the offensive end. He’s very dynamic. He finishes with a really high percentage. He can spread people out by catching the ball on the perimeter and score with his back to the basket. He’s a fun player to watch.”
South Dakota State — the school’s campus is located an hour north of Sioux Falls — players are no strangers to facing top competition.
The Jackrabbits went on the road last season and faced USC, Nebraska, Indiana and Arizona, which accounted for four of the team’s 10 losses.
“We were trying to figure out who we were in the nonconference last year,” Henderson said. “We certainly got better as the year went on and found an identity. We’ve always been a program that has really challenged ourselves in the nonconference.
“We’ll certainly be challenged playing in this tournament, but what we have coming back is a little more identity. There may not be as much uneasiness in our stomachs, but we certainly understand the challenge.”
Henderson said the Jackrabbits would be undersized against WVU forwards Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe, but Huggins said South Dakota State does well in spacing the floor to create offense.
As a team, South Dakota State shot 35% from 3-point range last season.
“They’re very well-coached and they do a great job of running their offense,” Huggins said. “They’ve got multiple guys that can make shots. They’re really a difficult team to guard in that they really space the floor and if you leave them open, they’re going to make shots.”
On Thursday, the Mountaineers will play the winner-loser of Utah State and Virginia Commonwealth.
VCU was the final addition to the tournament, after Wichita State had several members of its traveling party test positive after arriving in Sioux Falls on Monday.
In all, seven teams opted out of the field over COVID-19 related issues, with WVU and Memphis the only two schools who remained from the original bracket.
“I think we can guard anybody now. We’ve gone through four teams that we’ve looked at on film and broken down with our guys and actually guarded it in practice,” Huggins said. “I think in some ways, it was good for our guys.”
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