MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Jordan McCabe said his mind was basically made up to move on once the final buzzer sounded against Syracuse last week that ended West Virginia’s season in the NCAA tournament.
His heart, though, was telling him a different story, as he walked into Bob Huggins’ office a day later for, what he admits, was one of the most difficult conversations he’s ever taken part of.
“I don’t want to get into everything that was said,” McCabe told The Dominion Post on Saturday, five days after the WVU guard announced he was transferring. “What I will say is that it was very telling as to just how close you become with him.
“During the season, you don’t get the side of coach Huggins very often that is going to pat you on the back and those kinds of things. Once the season is over, and when we sat down to talk, I realized how thankful I was to have him as my coach and I realized just how much he cared about me as a person. He lets you know that caring about each other is definitely a two-way street.”
The reason for leaving
From a media standpoint, McCabe is a blessing.
He already possesses the savvy of a veteran coach, but speaks to you as if he’s your best friend.
Cliches are never used, and McCabe’s thoughts on basketball and life have always been open and honest.
“If I’m to be completely honest, I sort of thought about transferring after last year,” McCabe said of the end to his sophomore season.
Last year came to a crushing halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also saw the emergence of Deuce McBride as the Mountaineers’ point guard of the future.
It was only after sitting down and talking with his family that he decided to stay for another season.
“My granddad told me, ‘You gave a man your word, so you better stick it out,’ ” McCabe said.
A season later, McBride had developed as the Mountaineers’ starter, leading scorer and leader. Meanwhile, McCabe’s minutes fell to 10.9 per game, the lowest of his three-year career.
“My junior year was difficult in some ways,” McCabe said. “I always felt like a part of a family here. That part I did not make a mistake about. The atmosphere here and the coaches, I always felt like I belonged to this family.
“There is always going to be a competitive side to me, though. I’m a competitor. When the games were being played, it was tough to sit back and not compete. West Virginia was a great fit for me as far as being part of a family, but sometimes the right fit just doesn’t always work out.”
What I would tell West Virginia fans is that the program is in very capable hands with Bob Huggins and his coaches. Huggs has always found a way to win and he’ll continue to do just that.
Jordan McCabe
The words of McCabe’s grandfather, he said, constantly played in his head as this season wore on.
“I always told coach Huggins that I would play for him until I graduate,” McCabe said.
To that end, McCabe kept his word. He will earn his degree in sport management this May and will actually be considered a graduate transfer with two seasons of eligibility remaining when he chooses his next destination.
Life in the transfer portal
An emotional roller coaster has followed in the days since McCabe’s announcement, beginning with a sense of relief, he said, after speaking with Huggins and then dealing with the chaotic life as an athlete in the 2021 NCAA Transfer Portal.
“It starts with text messages,” McCabe said. “Once your name goes into the portal, the messages begin almost immediately.
“It’s usually stuff like, “What are you looking for?’ or “Here’s what we have to offer,’ stuff like that.”
The text messages then turn into phone calls, about 10 hours worth on a daily basis.
“My girlfriend wants to throw my cell phone into the Mon River,” McCabe joked. “That’s kind of how hectic it gets.”
Remember, though, there is still a national pandemic, and so recruiting does not include flights to other schools and visits to other campuses.
“A lot of it is I’ve had different schools send me film, so I can see their style of play and things like that,” McCabe said. “Then you get on Zoom and start talking to the coaches and they show you videos of the campus and facilities. It’s really a weird recruiting process.”
As far as schools that have shown interest in McCabe, who started 49 games during his WVU career, the list seems never ending.
Wisconsin is on there, as is Northeastern, Grand Canyon, UNLV, Bradley, Valparaiso, Milwaukee, Elon, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Santa Clara, Wyoming, as well as others.
“I’m just now starting to begin to narrow them down some,” McCabe said. “No one has been eliminated, yet. It’s a lengthy process.”
The portal itself, McCabe knows, is not well liked around college athletics, except by maybe the athletes themselves.
“It definitely holds a reputation as something that either hurts college athletics or that it’s what’s wrong about college athletics,” McCabe said. “That’s definitely understandable. I’m guessing you’re going to see about 1,400 names (in men’s hoops) in the portal this year, and yeah, that’s a lot.”
To the current generation of athletes, though, there is another view of the portal.
“I do think it serves a purpose for the athletes,” McCabe said. “Just to be honest about it, if you expect thousands of 17 and 18 year old kids to all make the right initial decisions each year on what school to play for, well, that’s just not very realistic.
“I do think maybe there should be some things put in place that could deter some of the transferring. What those things should be, I don’t know. That would be up to the people at the schools and the NCAA who make all the money. In the future, I don’t see the portal going away, but I do think you could find some sort of tough balance in terms of managing it. I just don’t have those answers as to how you do that.”
What’s left behind
The conversation with McCabe takes a rewind back to his freshman year, when he emerged late in that season as a starter after the Mountaineers had dismissed Wes Harris and Esa Ahmad and Beetle Bolden went down to injury and eventually left the team.
“I remember thinking to myself then, ‘How are we going to win any games?’ ” McCabe said. “Then, we go on to beat TCU (in triple overtime) and Oklahoma and Texas Tech (in the Big 12 tournament) and you sort of look over at the sidelines and you really start to believe that coach Huggins is some kind of wizard. I mean, I don’t know how he did that.”
Two days after McCabe announced he was transferring, he was followed by forward Emmitt Matthews Jr., a close friend since the pair came to WVU as part of its 2018 recruiting class.
Sean McNeil also announced he was putting his name into the 2021 NBA Draft, but was keeping his options open in returning to school.
It may appear to those on the outside that the crew members are fleeing the ship, but McCabe has other thoughts.
“What I would tell West Virginia fans is that the program is in very capable hands with Bob Huggins and his coaches,” McCabe said. “Huggs has always found a way to win and he’ll continue to do just that.
“I don’t want to speculate about the other guys and I don’t want to speak for someone like Deuce, but my opinion is if Deuce comes back, then you’ll see everyone else get on board. I don’t know what Deuce is going to do, but if he comes back, West Virginia will be another powerhouse for next season.”
And so McCabe is now looking forward to what the next chapter may bring.
Excited? Yes. Nervous? You bet, but he is also comfortable with his decision to move on and is proud to say he will have earned his degree from WVU.
“West Virginia will always hold a very special place in my heart,” he said. “Huggs has always told us what makes this state special is its people and that is very true. It’s not easy to move on. It was a very hard decision, but I feel it’s the right one.”
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