MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Welcome to the first game of the season, where the 15th-ranked WVU men’s basketball teams finds itself at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. It is a rather strange place to open the season, but these are not exactly normal times.
Already, more than 40 men’s hoops teams across the country have halted operations or postponed games due to the COVID-19 pandemic and this Crossover Classic has been far from exempt to last-minute changes.
By now, you know this field once contained the likes of Duke, Ohio State, Creighton, Utah and Texas A&M, but now is West Virginia and Memphis against a feast of talented mid-majors. In short, this field, at one time, had the potential in being something truly special. In terms of the NCAA’s NET rankings, I believe the current field will still offer the winner some nice NCAA tournament resume points at the end of the season, because its very possible that teams such as Northern Iowa, St. Mary’s, Western Kentucky and even South Dakota State will be in the top 100-150 of those rankings. True, they don’t have the brand name as Duke or Ohio State, but this overall field is still better than decent in the big picture.
With all of that said, we now turn to the Mountaineers and junior forward Derek Culver, who is about to embark on what could be the most important season he’s ever had to this point in his young life. It’s no secret Culver has dreams of one day playing in the NBA, and if he’s able to show some improvement on the offensive end this season, it’s very real to think NBA scouts would certainly take notice.
How much improvement? Through his first two seasons, the 6-foot-10 forward is shooting 45.6% from the field. For a player who takes the majority of his shots near the rim, that’s not what scouts want to see.
Now there are a number of other factors in Culver’s favor. He’s already got an NBA body. He’s such a likable kid in terms of character and demeanor. He’s fast and athletic and can run the floor. Culver has already proven he can guard smaller and quicker players, which would make him a great candidate to defend pick-and-roll plays that you see a lot of in the NBA.
“He’s got great feet and Derek is one of the premiere athletes in all of college basketball,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “Derek had to work at his skill level and we challenged him and he responded. I think Derek’s challenge has been offensively. We’ve never had a problem with him on defense.”
To the point of Culver’s defense, Huggs didn’t hesitate to give a good example at my expense.
“Derek’s got great feet, Justin,” Huggins began. “I’m telling you, you wouldn’t want to play against him in a pickup game. Not only wouldn’t you score, but you wouldn’t get a shot off.”
Hard to argue that point. So, we are officially off and running on the 2020-21 season. As we dive into South Dakota State and the Crossover Classic, here’s what you need to know:
TV: ESPN2 (Comcast 36, 851 HD; DirecTV 209; DISH 143) for the 7 p.m. tip-off. Betting line: WVU is favored by 10 1/2 points.
WHAT DOES BOB HUGGINS HAVE TO SAY?
The WVU head coach confirmed that all of his players and staff have passed coronavirus testing protocols and everyone will be available in South Dakota. Has it been an easy adjustment under the pandemic? Well, no, but Huggins stressed his guys have gone about it the right way.
“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.”
Huggins also called South Dakota State “hard to guard,” because the Jackrabbits spread the floor and run good offense.
GET TO KNOW THE JACKRABBITS
South Dakota State tied for the Summit League championship last season and has averaged 24.7 wins over the last three seasons. The Jackrabbits built a strong program under former head coach T.J. Otzelberger, who is now the head coach at UNLV.
Eric Henderson took over last season and went 22-10 with four of those losses coming on the road against Arizona, Indiana, USC and Nebraska, so South Dakota State does not exactly shy away from playing the big boys in the Power Five.
“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.”
South Dakota State returns all five starters and seven of its top eight scorers from last season, including the Summit League Player of the Year in senior forward Douglas Wilson (his highlights are in the video to the right. Double-click on the video to make it larger, hit escape button to return to story).
Wilson is 6-7 and came to South Dakota State via the junior-college ranks. He will be undersized against West Virginia’s forwards and doesn’t shoot a lot of 3-pointers. The Jackrabbits also return sophomore Noah Freidel, who was the conference’s freshman of the year last season. Freidel is 6-4, so he isn’t undersized and he does shoot threes. Freidel went 66 of 167 (39.5%) from 3-point range last season.
“He had a special freshman year,” Henderson said. “Once we got into league play, he started to grow and mature and understand the speed of the game. He also has the ability to score from multiple spots on the floor and can really stretch the defense. He loves the big moment. He plays well in big games.”
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS
WEST VIRGINIA
F–Derek Culver, 6-10, jr., 10.4 ppg, 8.6 rpg
F–Oscar Tshiebwe, 6-9, soph., 11.2 ppg, 9.3 rpg
F–Emmitt Matthews Jr., 6-7, jr., 6.3 ppg, 3.6 rpg
G–Jordan McCabe, 6-0, jr., 3.1 ppg, 1.6 apg
G–Sean McNeil, 6-3, jr., 5.5 ppg, 33% from 3-point range
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
F–Douglas Wilson, 6-7, sr., 18.6 ppg, 6.4 rpg
F–Matt Dentlinger, 6-8, jr., 12.2 ppg, 6.0 rpg
G–Noah Freidel, 6-4, soph., 12.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg
G–Alex Arians, 6-4, jr., 9.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg
G–David Wingett, 6-7, soph., 8.4 ppg, 4.5 rpg
TIME FOR THE PICK
While Douglas will be undersized at forward, the rest of the Jackrabbitts match up sort of well size-wise, so it will be interesting to see how much the Mountaineers dominate on the boards. The bigger key may be West Virginia’s half-court defense against South Dakota State’s shooters. The guess here is the Jackrabbits will find it difficult to get a ton of open looks, but the Mountaineers, too, have to begin to prove they can make shots from the outside.
To me, it looks like a lower-scoring game. It’s one that West Virginia will win, and the Mountaineers’ overall size and athleticism will carry them past the 10 1/2 point spread.
I’ll go with WVU, 74-61.
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