MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Former West Virginia point guard Joe Mazzulla became a head coach Wednesday, at age 28.
Before his introductory news conference at Fairmont State, Mazzulla called Bob Huggins, whose primary advice for attacking the new job was “Be yourself.”
That shouldn’t be difficult for Mazzulla, still revered in this state for his near triple-double against Duke in the 2008 NCAA tournament and his low-post grunt work against Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins in 2010. He’s also plenty familiar with Fairmont State, having served three years there as an assistant under Jerrod Calhoun.
Yet Mazzulla told MetroNews “Sportsline” on Wednesday night that head coaching “is not something you can prepare for” despite all the innovations he witnessed from John Beilein or the relationship-building he experienced under Huggins.
“Until you’re in the first seat and not the second seat, you just have to learn on the job,” he said.
Fairmont State loses five seniors from the 34-3 team that lost in the Division II national championship game,
“We’re not rebuilding by any means,” he said. “With the depth that they had, I’d be very comfortable if the season started today.
“But we know that in order to get back to a national championship game, to keep that standard, we’re going to need one more guy and possibly two that can play both sides of the ball and be an impact.”
For more on what Mazzulla absorbed from Huggins and Beilein, watch the complete “Sportsline” segment above.