MORGANTOWN — If you randomly saw both Isaiah Cottrell and Derek Culver standing next to each other, first impressions may be there’s really not that much difference between the two.
Both forwards are roughly the same height. Well, sort of.
“Isaiah is 6-foot-9, 6-10,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “He’s 7-2 with the hair.”
They both possess strong and athletic frames and neither one looks like they’ve skipped many days in the weight room.
That is where the comparisons end, because the game that Cottrell is about to bring to the Mountaineers is night and day from the one Culver played over the past three seasons.
Culver built an all-Big 12 first-team reputation as being the old-school rough and rugged power forward.
He ran through people — sometimes even his own teammates — to get a rebound. He powered through two defenders to get up a shot close to the rim.
Culver attempted just two 3-pointers during his college career, with one of them coming in a why-not moment late in a Big 12 tournament loss to Kansas that had already been determined.
Cottrell attempted two of them — making one — during Friday night’s Gold-Blue Debut. He finished with 16 points and two rebounds in the scrimmage.
“He’s shot the ball so well from the perimeter,” Huggins said. “He shot a couple (in practice) that didn’t move the net from 3. He has to rebound it better and do some other things, but offensively, he’s really shot the ball well.”
Culver’s style is gone from the Mountaineers’ roster. He confirmed as much in May when Culver announced he was leaving school early for the pros.
Cottrell was still rehabbing an Achilles tendon tear at that time, having missed most of last season due to the injury, which cost him the chance to show what he could bring to the team.
He was medically cleared this summer and is now taking full advantage of that opportunity.
“I don’t think a lot people got to see as much as I could have shown,” said Cottrell, who played in just 10 games last season before the injury. “I’m definitely excited for this year to show what I can do. All around, I’m trying to show I’m a mismatch. I can play really anywhere on the floor.”
Cottrell displayed that Friday, not only with his ability to shoot from the outside, but also by putting the ball on the floor and driving to the basket.
It’s these skills that are unique to recent WVU big men under Huggins.
Culver was never asked to play that way, neither was Oscar Tshiebwe before he transferred to Kentucky.
Deniz Kilicli and Devin Williams never shot from the outside. Sagaba Konate began to show an outside shooting game early in his junior season, but then his knee injury cut that season short.
Wellington Smith attempted 107 3-pointers during the 2010 Final Four season, but Smith was listed at 6-7 and wasn’t exactly a traditional big man, even though he was technically the Mountaineers center that year.
Cottrell may be able to bring what Smith did during the Final Four season, but do it in a body that is three or four inches taller.
“I was always good inside,” Cottrell said. “I think the way I naturally play is more outside, finding the open space and trying to make plays from there. I can pretty much do anything on the floor in any spot that I’m at. I’ve definitely been trying to get a lot better in the post and strength-wise and making plays down there.”
But he won’t be Culver, not even close. WVU coaches aren’t asking Cottrell to be Culver, either, which he appreciates.
“They let me play the way I play,” Cottrell said. “They’re not trying to have me be somebody else or be anything that I’m not. That definitely helps me a lot and gives me confidence to be myself out there.”
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