MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Three days before West Virginia basketball team plays its preseason exhibition, Bob Huggins rattled off his current starting lineup.
It’s a work in progress, and may remain in flux throughout the season, and that’s OK with Huggins.
“I think it’s going to change,” he said Thursday. “We may play three guards a lot one game and play three bigs the next game. We may not have a set starting lineup much less a set rotation.
“We have different guys who do different things, and how the other team’s playing and what we’re trying to accomplish will go a long way into who plays more that particular day.”
Point guard Juwan Staten and forwards Devin Williams and Jonathan Holton figure to lead the team in minutes, while the rest of the roster affords mix-and-match components for Huggins to juggle on a nightly basis.
And even one of West Virginia’s core players, Staten, probably won’t start Sunday against Division II Shepherd. The Big 12 preseason player of the year missed a chunk of preseason practice with a sprained ankle, leaving fellow senior Gary Browne to run the team. He’ll start at point guard alongside freshman Daxter Miles in the exhibition, with Nate Adrian joining Williams and Holton at the forwards.
Few teams are so dependent upon one player as WVU is on Staten, the league leader in points and minutes last year.
“It’s a little different with him off the court,” said Adrian. “Without him there things don’t run quite as smoothly.”
Already in tune with the offensive sets and defensive rotations Huggins deploys, Staten is mostly concerned with regaining physical stamina in time for the opener that actually counts, against Monmouth on Nov. 14.
“It’s so much a game of neuromuscular integration, and when you don’t do it, your muscles don’t fire as quickly,” Huggins said. “He’s not in very good shape yet. He needs to play for conditioning and to get back in sync. … But when you have a body like that and you’re that athletic, they get in shape faster than we do.”
Sunday’s exhibition tips off 4 p.m. at the WVU Coliseum.
Miles of progress: With three junior-college newcomers in the fold, the naming of Miles to the admittedly-temporary starting five showed the freshman has made an impression.
“Dax is going to compete, no matter what it is,” Staten said. “He competes every day every play. He wants to get better and he wants you to tell him what he’s doing wrong. The fact he wants it so bad is great.”
Carter on the press: Miles’ roommate, fellow freshman Jevon Carter, said West Virginia wants to extend its defense full-court.
“We press a lot in practice,” he said. “I like it because in high school that’s all we did—full-court, run-and-jump. So they told me (in recruiting) that Huggs was ready to get back to the pressing ways.”
And with such a heavy emphasis on defense, players who aren’t in proper position invariably wind up on the treadmill of torture behind the baseline.
“The first week, I probably was going on the treadmill three times a practice,” Carter admitted. “Now I’m down to one or zero.
“On offense (Huggins) might let you get out of position sometimes, but on defense he ain’t having it. You ain’t getting no slip-ups on defense.”