COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Ever since Devin Williams’ year-early exit created a man-sized void in the middle of West Virginia’s basketball program, Elijah Macon abruptly shifted his own offseason priority to “just trying to figure Elijah out.”
The same can be said for Macon’s coaches at West Virginia, who know he possesses far more potential than has been realized during his first 68 college games. Through two seasons the former top-60 recruit scored in double-digits four times and fouled out the same number.
Regarding such modest career averages (4.4 points and 2.8 rebounds), Macon doesn’t hunt for excuses like limited playing time or a lack of post touches.
“I need to get a better work ethic, that’s all,” he said.
Along with making more frequent offseason visits to WVU’s practice facility — “at least four or five days a week,” Macon said — he recognized a need to increase the intensity of his workouts. It’s a refrain baked into the 6-foot-9 forward by Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins and assistant Erik Martin, whose relationships predate Macon’s sophomore season in high school.
“That’s eight years,” Martin said. “I haven’t even been married to my wife for eight years. So because I know Elijah so well, even when he takes those two steps forward I’m always cautiously optimistic, but Elijah’s one of those guys you have to stay on. I knew that before Elijah got here.”
Whereas past West Virginia standouts such as Kevin Jones, Da’Sean Butler and Joe Alexander became after-hours fixtures in the gym, Macon only now is beginning to ramp up his commitment. Coaches hoped he would grasp this sooner; now they hope it sticks.
“It’s not a one-week thing or a one-month thing,” said Martin. “It’s an Oct. 1 to April 1 when-we-win-the-national-championship thing. It’s not off-and-on, and I don’t know if that’s the part Elijah has figured out yet.
“Elijah’s probably one of the top two or three most gifted players I’ve coached since I’ve been here, but I’m only talking about talent. At the end of the day, you’re as good as you want to be.”
The summer Macon set a goal of shooting 500 mid-range shots during each workout. He saw how the repetitions made Williams an All-Big 12 forward, but more influential was how it transformed the league’s player of the year.
Buddy Hield hadn’t struck Macon as a future NBA first-rounder when their teams met in high school, Four years and hundreds of thousands of jumpshots later, there was the Oklahoma guard going No. 6 overall to the Pelicans.
“I’m watching the draft and they were saying how you can’t keep him out of the gym,” Macon said. “To see Buddy go from here to there, the results were just like amazing. And the only secret was that he got in the gym.”
Hoping to make his own leap, Macon rotated through circuits of step-in shots, jumpers off screens, post moves, and “of course, my free throws.”
A 48-percent career foul shooter becomes a distinct liability during late-game situations, so Macon focused on softening his touch to reduce back-rim misses. He aspires to reach the 75- to 80-percent range this season.
“It’s about being confident when I get to the free-throw line, feeling like both of those are going in so I can get back on defense,” he said.
Confidence, composure, commitment — all became tenants of his offseason self-evaluation, which found Macon using Zen garden music to look inwardly. He still listens through headphones as he walks to class, meditates inside his apartment, and falls asleep to it.
Along with helping visualize basketball success, it fosters a connection with his late mother, who succumbed to cancer during the fall of 2014. “I talk to my mom and I pray,” Macon said. “It’s peaceful.”
While averaging barely 13 minutes per game during the past two seasons, Macon felt like he was “on hold after losing my mom.” Now the grieving period is finished, he said, “I can move on with my life” and prioritize basketball.
West Virginia returns eight lettermen but desperately needs a successor to Williams, who led the program to 51 wins and consecutive NCAA tournament berths the past two years while scrapping to become the Big 12’s top rebounder. Macon is the logical replacement with tons of upside.
“Elijah’s a better athlete, Devin’s a better rebounder. Elijah runs the floor better, Devin’s probably hits mid-range shots (better),” Martin said. “You want to assume Elijah is going to be the guy to step up, but there’s other guys out there who are going to have their chance.
“And we don’t have favorites — we’re going to play the guys who do what we want them to do. So far in practice, Elijah has been doing that.”