MORGANTOWN — Lost in all the hoopla that came with another rivalry victory against Pitt was the play of the one guy who hails from West Virginia.
Former Fairmont Senior standout Jalen Bridges had himself a second half in helping the Mountaineers build a 21-point lead last week against the Panthers.
He scored 11 of his 18 points in the second half, while finishing 6 of 9 from the floor with six rebounds and five blocked shots.
“It means the world to be able to represent this state at one of the highest levels of basketball,” Bridges said. “Playing against Pitt, that’s the Backyard Brawl. It goes back years and years. Being able to get it going after missing out on it last year because of COVID, it was a surreal feeling.”
To a point, this entire season may feel like some type of surreal feeling to Bridges.
A year ago, he was thrust into the starting lineup in the middle of the season, once Oscar Tshiebwe transferred to Kentucky, but the expectations for him then were nothing like they are now.
Bridges said he realized that in the off-season and his training program with his father, Cory, was designed to help him become more of an aggressive player offensively.
“It’s really a mind set,” Bridges said a few weeks ago. “I’ve never really played in a system to where I had to be that guy and take a lot of shots. I wasn’t really comfortable with it at first. Day by day, I’m getting more comfortable with having more of an assertive role.”
That showed against Pitt. He missed just one shot in the second half and three of his five blocks came in the final half.
It did not show in the season opener when Bridges struggled with his shot and rebounding the ball against Oakland.
What was the difference? In the eyes of WVU head coach Bob Huggins, it’s simply a matter of Bridges trusting his abilities and not overthinking the situation.
“JB wasn’t very good to start with,”Huggins said. “Much to his credit, he didn’t pout or sulk. He said, ‘I got you. What do I have to do?’ And he went out and did it.
“In retrospect, he was maybe thinking too much. He missed some shots and he starts thinking, ‘What am I doing wrong? How can I fix this?’ What happened today was he didn’t think too much about it. He just jumped up and shot it. I thought he just played with some freedom and with some confidence.”
A confident Bridges would add an extra shot-maker to a team that hasn’t got out of the gate quickly offensively, as well as provide someone who can drive the ball to the basket and finish at the rim.
“They want to do right and they want to please people and JB is one of those guys,” Huggins said. “My thing was, ‘Man, just relax. You’re going way too fast. You’re worried about too many things.’ I want JB to keep shooting it.”
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