MORGANTOWN — West Virginia’s dual point guard situation has been about as 50-50 as you can get, in that both Kedrian Johnson and Malik Curry have both played exactly 129 minutes each through the Mountaineers’ first seven games.
Each have their own strengths. Johnson is the ball-hawking defender, while Curry has the ability to put pressure on a defense by driving to the basket.
It is the other role of a point guard, though, that has WVU coach Bob Huggins looking for improvement in both players: Passing the ball.
“With Taz (Sherman) and Sean (McNeil), we’ve got to do a better job of getting them open,” Huggins said Tuesday following WVU’s 74-55 victory against Bellarmine. “But, we’ve got to deliver the ball better. We’ve got to deliver it more timely than what we’ve been doing. That’s those two guys’ (Johnson and Curry) jobs.”
Which, if you go by the stats, has been quite the opposite for the Mountaineers (6-1).
While Sherman and McNeil are the top-two leading scorers, they are also WVU’s top-two guys in assists.
Third on that list isn’t a point guard, either. Rather it’s forward Gabe Osabuohien, who hasn’t started a game this season and has played fewer minutes than Curry and Johnson.
It isn’t until you get down to fourth and fifth on the list of the team’s assist leaders that you find the point guards.
Outside of the Pitt game, when Johnson had six assists, he hasn’t had more than one in any of the other six.
Curry, who averaged 3.8 assists per game during his two seasons at Old Dominion, has had just one game this season with more than two assists — and that, too, came against Pitt.
A lack of assists from WVU shows up in the Big 12 stats. The Mountaineers are last in the conference, averaging 12.71 per game.
Still adjusting
Isaiah Cottrell built himself into a 4-star high school recruit by being a standout at powerhouse schools Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) and Huntington Prep.
There is still an adjustment period for most freshmen, though, once they reach a high level of play on the Division I college level.
It is a period the 6-foot-10 Cottrell did not go through last season, when he played sparingly in 10 games before tearing his Achilles tendon and missing the rest of the season.
While Cottrell has been a starter for every game this season, Huggins said the forward is still going through the transition process of high school star to learning what it takes to play major college hoops.
“Quite frankly, he hasn’t rebounded the ball,” Huggins said. “He’s used to just being able to stand there and reach over top of people and rebound the ball without being very sound fundamentally.”
Cottrell is scoring 5.1 points per game and is shooting 45% from the field. His 2.9 rebounds per game is the same as teammate Sean McNeil, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard.
“He’s getting too close to the rim and he’s got a guy on his back to where he can’t just reach back to get the ball,” Huggins continued.
Improvement in N’diaye
As the season moves forward, Huggins said WVU forward Seny N’Diaye may work his way into the rotation for more playing time.
The 6-10 forward from Senegal played five minutes against Bellarmine, just his second appearance of the season.
He had three rebounds and three fouls in those five minutes.
“As a staff, we were all excited about Seny’s improvement,” Huggins said. “In practice, he’s really coming along.”
N’Diaye played at Huntington Prep as a high school senior, but got a late start to his basketball career.
He averaged five points, six rebounds and three blocks per game at Huntington Prep.
“As soon as you turn the lights on, a lot of guys change,” Huggins said. “You can’t blame him. That’s the first time he’s really been in a game for any length of time. We’ve got to get him better and that’s on us, because he’s willing.”
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