Published: October 07, 2008 11:45 am            

Mountaineers' size concerns Huggins

MORGANTOWN — Bob Huggins' second season at West Virginia unofficially begins Friday night with Mountaineer Madness at the Coliseum and there are more answers this season than there were questions last season.

Yet there remains that one familiar frustration.

"We're small," Huggins said. "For our league, we're small. I look around our league and see teams rated Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 7 in the country. I think we're pretty good, but we're just not very big."

That was the case last year, but the Mountaineers went 26-11 and won two games in both the Big East and NCAA tournaments. Some of the size that team had is gone, though, as 7-foot starting center Jamie Smalligan graduated and 6-8 forward Joe Alexander left WVU early for the NBA.

The tallest returning players are 6-7, which includes junior Wellington Smith, who is likely to get a starting spot. The other spot in the starting lineup probably goes to a freshman, either 6-8 Kevin Jones or 6-9 Devin Ebanks.

"I think the thing that stands out about Devin and Kevin is they're so long," Huggins said. "They're both about 7-feet long, so that means they've got the wingspan of a 7-footer. Their reach is really good. They'll get to balls and make some plays on defense and rebound the ball because of their length."

Some height help could come from 6-10, 240-pound junior college transfer Dee Proby, who initially signed with Oklahoma State but was freed from his letter of intent after an off-season coaching change. Proby is not a true center, although he should be useful in the WVU offense.

"He's more of a face-up guy and not a very good back-to-the-basket guy," Huggins said. "But he's a big body and we needed a big body. He can pass it and step out and shoot it. He's a guy, because of the way we play with the open post, who can be very valuable because you have to come out and guard him. You can't stay in the lane and clog things up."

The Mountaineers return five players who averaged between 12 and 32 minutes and scored between 165 and 512 points last season, but they also welcome a recruiting class that was ranked as highly as No. 3 by Scouts Inc. Proby, Jones and Ebanks add depth in the front court, and 6-1 guard Truck Bryant can play both of the backcourt positions.

If Huggins doesn't like the size on his roster, he does like the size of his roster.

"We're a lot deeper than what we were a year ago," he said. "I think we'll play nine or 10 guys on a consistent basis."



* * *



HUGGINS SAID the plans for the practice facility are going well and actually near their conclusion.

"I think we're real close to having all the money pledged," Huggins said. "We're just a little bit away, but we've got a lot of people who are going to do it and we just haven't gotten to them yet. My understanding is we're going to break ground here pretty soon."

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.