West Virginia closes regular season against TCU with an eye toward the future of the program

MORGANTOWN — On a day generally reserved for celebrating seniors’ accomplishments, the theme around West Virginia’s men’s basketball program was more about the future.

It began with the school releasing the nonconference schedule for the 2022-23 season Friday, and then head coach Bob Huggins took it up another notch during his press conference leading into Saturday’s 2 p.m. regular-season finale against TCU (19-10, 8-9 Big 12) at the Coliseum.

WVU STATS

According to Huggins, it was not exactly the typical preparation WVU players generally go through for an opponent in terms of film study.

It may have started out that way, but …

“We were watching film (on Thursday) and I just said, ‘Turn it off,’” Huggins began. “There’s no sense in watching this. I’ve done it before, but I didn’t have near as much cause to do it then as I did yesterday.”

In essence, Huggins said he told his older players to stay in the room and figure it out, and he took his group of younger players out to the gym for a workout.

It is that group of young bucks like Seth Wilson, Isaiah Cottrell, Kobe Johnson, James Okonkwo and Jamel King who Huggins is banking on becoming the foundation to future success.

Add up the number of college games that group has played and it’s barely more than one full NBA season.

Yet, when the book is finally closed on this season, it will be that group, along with forward Jalen Bridges and the incoming recruiting class that will be left to pick up the pieces.

That was the conversation Huggins had with his younger players during that workout.

It was a conversation that was more than just passing the torch, so to speak. It was more than discussing turning around what is now a 14-16 season.

When it came down to the nuts and bolts, Huggins wanted to know if that group would continue to stick it out at WVU and continue to work and mature and develop as athletes?

“I had meetings with all of them (Thursday),” Huggins said. “I heard nothing but that.”

From there, how Huggins builds around that group will be key, but not exactly a secret.

Rebuilding the program will continue to be a mixture of finding the best-available player possible, whether that’s through recruiting high school kids, junior-college players or by going through the transfer portal.

None of it will be easy, Huggins said, due in part to how much recruiting has changed through enormous NIL deals athletes are receiving now at bigger schools.

“Everybody says, ‘Go to the portal,’ but it’s not like you just reach down in there and snatch someone out of there,” Huggins said. “They want to know what they get. So, somebody says you get this, this and this. What’s to stop somebody else from saying, ‘Hey listen, we got a great deal for you?’ Now, the first guy calls again and he’s told, ‘Coach, I’ve decided to go in another direction.’”

Huggins admits it’s going to take a ton of evaluating what’s out there and finding the right players to fill the available scholarship openings.

“I’ve never been at a place where I could select,” Huggins said. “I’ve always been at places where I had to recruit the best available. That’s how I’ve coached my whole career.

“We’ll fix it, but it’s not as simple as pulling your hand in a sock and pulling someone out. That’s what everybody wants to make it look like, but it’s not that at all. When you have as few scholarships as we have, you’ve got to get the right guys.”

TWEET @bigjax3211