Tarik Phillip on point as Mountaineers seek to replace Staten

As one of West Virginia’s backup point guards last season, Tarik Phillip created and committed lots of turnovers.

 

COMMENTARY

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Sometime months down the road, well after the West Virginia basketball team shakes out the sand from three exhibitions in the Bahamas, even after a slate of nonthreatening nonconference games assures a smooth glide into Thanksgiving, perhaps then Tarik Phillip may be free from these inevitable questions about a teammate who’s now an ex-teammate.

Juwan Staten stood only 5-foot-11 in his Mountaineers jersey, yet he sure casts a long shadow.

And Phillip, tasked with replacing one of the fleetest, most productive point guards in WVU history, understands what he must do to come into his own light.

Steadier passing, fewer fouls, a deeper comprehension of where and how to facilitate teammates. Plus, there’s that intangible facet for which Phillip remembers Staten most: “The heart part of it.”

Yes, West Virginia had 10 players who averaged more than 12 minutes per game last season, but from that deep rotation one guy stood out in box scores and scouting reports. Yes, WVU has eight returnees, yet bodies alone won’t compensate for Staten’s departure.

That’s primarily on Phillip.

Jevon Carter was pressed into point guard action last year but looked more comfortable playing off the ball. James “Beetle” Bolden is a freshman unprepared to run the team. Junior college scoring machine Teyvon Myers has yet to enroll.

Tarik Phillip averaged 4.1 points in 12.9 minutes per game as a West Virginia sophomore.

So it is Phillip’s job for the taking, something we first presumed last March when he subbed for the hobbled Staten and delivered 28 gutsy minutes at Allen Fieldhouse. That turned out to be an overtime loss. Two weeks later Phillip saved WVU from a potential overtime in the NCAA tournament by sinking a last-minute 3 against Buffalo.

“A big boost of confidence,“ Phillip called it.

On Tuesday, before the third preseason practice unfolded at the Mountaineers practice facility, Bob Huggins sounded confident about the evolution of a point guard committee from Phillip and Co., saying “We won’t be as reliant on one guy.” Then the coach acknowledged how that “one guy” sure made coaching easier on clutch possessions.

“In end-of-game situations, (Staten) wasn’t going to turn the ball over,” Huggins said. “He was either going to get himself a shot, someone else a shot, or go to the free-throw line.”

While Staten exceeded a 2-to-1 assist/turnover ratio in all three seasons at West Virginia, Phillip finished in negative territory last year (28 assists to 33 turnovers). He also served a coach-imposed one-game suspension against TCU and barely appeared in three games preceding the breakout night at Kansas. Accumulating Huggins’ trust, he learned, happens when the TV cameras aren’t around.

“Practices were harder than the games,” Phillip said.

Nor does Phillip possess Staten’s exceptional burst, though at 6-foot-3, he is taller, longer and perhaps more dogged than his Big 12 all-defensive predecessor. Staten registered 32 steals in 938 minutes last season; Phillip made 38 steals in 439 minutes.

“That’s what I came here to do, really—defend people,” Phillip said, encapsulating what led Huggins to recruit him in the first place. The next leap involves raising his offensive game: Correcting the upside-down turnover margin, pick-and-roll and making defenses respect him from the perimeter. (He shot 46 percent overall but only 21 percent from 3-point range.)

We’ll chart Phillip’s early progress during the upcoming trip to the Bahamas, at least through the prism of sketchy competition. A three-game swing against IBA Elite, the Atlantis All-Stars and the vaunted Patron Regulators won’t quite compare to Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa State.

But then, The Phog doesn’t have a six-story water slide.

“We’ve got a couple new dudes on the team,” Phillip said of the excursion, which is equal parts basketball and bonding. “So it’s about learning everybody’s game.”

And learning a bit about how his own game has evolved.