MORGANTOWN — Darian DeVries swears playing time and leadership roles are not promised to any player during the recruiting process.
Javon Small, the Oklahoma State transfer who is now WVU’s starting point guard, was no exception.
Yet that story comes with a sort of a wink of the eye. If Small wasn’t penciled in as a starter from the beginning, the senior didn’t waste much time.
“He earned it pretty fast,” is the way DeVries explained it Friday night, after WVU took down the University of Charleston 94-61 in an exhibition game inside the WVU Coliseum.
As to how that happened, well, Small’s play in the exhibition was anything but miniscule.
“I think Javon is terrific,” DeVries continued. “He’s a great floor leader. He can score. He can get into the paint. He’s one of those guys that kind of always plays within himself.”
And he’s got a flair for the exceptional about his game, too, as evident with his driving lay-up late in the second half.
Already deep into the paint, Small wanted to go left, but, “I tried to make a move one way, and he cut me off,” he began. “I just spun and made a move to get a lay-up.”
It wasn’t just a lay-up, no more than WVU’s listed attendance of 9,636 was anything close to the truth.
Small’s shot was something you’ll likely see on the big jumbo screen inside the Coliseum for years to come.
Once he got under the rim and into the air, Small had no chance to score with his left hand, so he switched the ball to his right and somehow spun the ball up on the backboard and into the basket.
“Yeah, that was pretty tough, huh?” he said with a smile. “It was just basketball instinct.”
If that’s the kind of instincts this WVU point guard has — “I can’t wait to watch that play again on film,” DeVries said of the moment — then there just may be some potential to this season after all.
The first shot of the DeVries’ era came with Small nailing a 3-pointer. He finished with 11 points, before beginning to cramp up in the second half and coming out of the game.
More importantly, Small also rebounded the ball — he had five boards — while making the simple and easy passes. He made the right plays, the right moves and never once did you ever have to wonder what he was thinking.
That wasn’t always the case with WVU guards last season, OK, that was rarely the situation.
With Small, that may be different. He’s been on the exceptional side before, once going for 15 points and 12 rebounds in a game against the Mountaineers last season, while he was at Oklahoma State.
He also had himself a couple of nights like 34 points in a game against BYU, 29 more against Notre Dame.
“He’s got just enough to get by you, but he never seems like he’s in a hurry,” DeVries said. “He’s a very unselfish player, as well.”
Small had plenty of help. Tucker DeVries led the way with 18 points and Amani Hansberry and freshman Jonathan Powell each added 11.
The Mountaineers only turned the ball over seven times, and one of those came late in the game on a shot-clock violation with WVU simply trying to run out the clock.
“I really liked our energy, our ball movement,” Darian DeVries said. “We were very connected in our cutting. We were very unselfish. All of those things I was pleased with.”
But then there was Small’s shot. In what will otherwise quickly be a forgotten game — the regular season is just around the corner on Nov. 4 — Small’s first impression made was quite large.
“Somehow it went in,” he said. “When I got up to celebrate, I gave a little crazy look to my teammates. I didn’t think it was going to go in. When I spun it around and looked at the rim, I saw the ball go in the rim. I was like, yo.”
