In his final game inside the WVU Coliseum, Jesse Edwards put his name among company reserved for the elitist of the elite in school history.
Names like Jerry West, Rod Thorn, “Hot” Rod Hundley and Mark Workman — that’s who Edwards joined after scoring 36 points and adding 13 rebounds in the Mountaineers’ 93-81 loss against TCU on Wednesday.
“That’s definitely an honor to be on that list,” Edwards said. “I’m not that big of a stat guy. It’s an honor to know that I did something that might be a memory a little bit. It’s fun.”
The difference, obviously, is those all-time greats played in eras much different than what’s seen now. They made a career playing at WVU, while Edwards just transferred in from Syracuse for his final season of eligibility.
Compared to those others, Edwards’ time in a WVU uniform was but a blip on the radar.
“It was a good way, I guess, to get the last game out here personally,” he said. “It was obviously a rough game for us together.”
TCU made 11 3-pointers and shot 55.6% (30 of 54) from the field to win going away. The Horned Frogs (20-10, 9-8 Big 12) led by as much as 40-23 in the first half and then kept finding enough offense in the second half to keep Edwards and the Mountaineers (9-21, 4-13) at bay.
“It’s hard when you start a game like that to put yourself in a position to win,” WVU head coach Josh Eilert said.
With that said, Edwards’ night — when looked at on the stat sheet — is impressive. Over and over, that stat sheet reads like this:
Edwards lob dunk.
Edwards lay-up.
Edwards power move in paint.
Edwards, Edwards Edwards, you get the picture.
He beat double-teams. He made quick moves to the rim. He pumped-faked, spun around, pump-faked again and then layed it in.
“Defensively we had no answer for Edwards,” TCU head coach Jamie Dixon said. “Thirty-six is a lot. I’ve never had a big guy score like that. It’s unbelievable.”
And it came in another losing effort for Edwards and WVU, which tied the program record for most defeats in a season with one more road game left at Cincinnati remaining in the regular season.
Just that fact alone would make one believe Edwards wasted his time by electing to come to WVU for his final season.
Edwards quickly disagrees.
“To be honest, it was still one of the best years of my life,” he said. “Regardless of everything that happened, it was one of the craziest seasons of my life, but I’ve learned so much.
“I’ve got great memories of Morgantown. Whatever has gone down, I’ll have great memories.”
Edwards was part of those crazy things that happened, having fractured his wrist and missing a month of the season, just as teammates Kerr Kriisa, RaeQuan Battle and Noah Farrakhan were becoming eligible to play.
“These things that happened, they happen, like, once every 10 years,” Edwards said. “For us, it was like 10 times in one season. That, obviously, wasn’t great.”
But he went out on the highest of notes, if not on the scoreboard, then in the record books.
The only blemish on Edwards’ night was at the free-throw line, where he finished just 6 of 18.
“Jesse was special. I’ve been challenging him each and every day,” Eilert said. “His physicality and his balance has to continue to improve, especially to get to the next level and compete at the next level. He had that will and that desire tonight, he had that physicality to him.”
