MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It has been an impressive rebuild for third year head coach Joe Schmidle and his veteran coaching staff at University. When Schmidle took the job, he brought along former head coaches Barry Sanders and John Ellis to help with the effort and the Hawks have improved each year.
This past week, University found itself atop the MetroNews Power Index after going a perfect 11-0 in the first half of the season. Schmidle, though, has taken a cautious approach to the new found attention.
“We’re not as good as everyone thinks we are,” Schmidle said. “We might be No. 1 in (the Power Index), but we have to get a lot better. The kids know that, the coaching staff knows that and (rankings) don’t mean anything to us. If we’re still in this position on March 18th, we’ll talk about that. But we know that we have to get a lot better and we have our work cut out for us.”
The Hawks, now 12-0, are No. 1 on the strength of a schedule that saw them beat Parkersburg South on the road and knock off cross-town rival Morgantown for the first time since 2013.
University senior forward Geoff Hamperian says it was that win over Morgantown that set the teams confidence soaring.
“It really brought our confidence up, because that was the best team that we have played this year,” Hamperian said. “I still think that we could have played better. Seeing what we can do against them makes us better. But we know that we have to work harder, because we’re going to see them multiple more times.”
Hamperian is the second leading scorer on the team at just over 15 points per game. Junior Ethan Ridgeway leads the team with an average of 18 points per game following a 32-point effort in a win over Wheeling Park earlier this week.
Seniors Holton Summers and Ryan McCord are part of the nucleus.
Juniors Storm Leftridge, Austin Forbes, Buddy Leach and Clay Bailey provide depth. Bailey leads the team in assists.
“They’ve completely bought in and they’ve played well together. They trust each other and love each other,” Schmidle said. “They’ve come to understand that if we play team ball and we share the ball, then we’re pretty good.”
Freshman point guard Kaden Metheny has stepped in to supplement the veteran components on the team. Metheny got his varsity career off to a rousing start by hitting a 3-point shot with 12.6 seconds to go to win the Morgantown game. Metheny fired up the 3 with his team down by a point. He would later add two free throws to give UHS the 54-50 win.
“I really don’t think Kaden (Metheny) was thinking about (the magnitude of the moment), he just plays,” Schmidle said. “That’s just the type of player that he is, he plays to win and took advantage of an opportunity. It seems like the bigger the moment, the better he is.”
The Hawks have developed substantial scoring depth, but the team is winning with defense. Opponents are averaging just 43 points per game against UHS. No team has scored more than 54 points in a game. Hamperian says the players are committed to putting forth the effort on the defense end of the floor.
“Just the pressure and the way we practice is so competitive,” Hamperian said. “We don’t like when our teammates score on us in practice, so we’re not going to let the other teams score on us – we’re really competitive in that matter.”
Hamperian admits it’s nice seeing his team in the No. 1 spot considering all the work he and his teammates have put in. But as a guy who’s been around and suffered the ups and downs, he knows it doesn’t mean much right now.
“It’s hard some times seeing all the rankings,” Hamperian said. “We just have to focus on the next game because most of the teams on our schedule can beat us. We have to prepare for every opponent just like they are No. 1 in the state.”
University is looking to earn the school’s first boys basketball state tournament appearance since 1994.
“They’re finally starting to reap some of the rewards for their hard work,” Schmidle added. “It’s fun to watch and I’m really happy for them and for the community to experience a winning program and see some people get excited.”
| UNIVERSITY 2016-2017 Boys Basketball Schedule |
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| 1 | 12/09/16 | 7:30PM | H – | PRESTON HIGH SCHOOL | 103 | – | 33 | W |
| 2 | 12/14/16 | 7:30PM | H – | WHEELING PARK | 78 | – | 43 | W |
| 3 | 12/16/16 | 7:30PM | A – | JOHN MARSHALL | 86 | – | 42 | W |
| 4 | 12/22/16 | 07:30PM | A – | FORT HILL, MD H.S. | 61 | – | 41 | W |
| 5 | 12/27/16 | 07:30PM | A – | BRIDGEPORT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL | 69 | – | 41 | W |
| 6 | 12/30/16 | 6:45PM | H – | ALLEGANY, MD H.S. | 78 | – | 48 | W |
| 7 | 01/03/17 | 07:30PM | A – | PARKERSBURG SOUTH | 60 | – | 54 | W |
| 8 | 01/07/17 | 2:30PM | A – | WESTINGHOUSE, PA H.S. | 63 | – | 47 | W |
| 9 | 01/11/17 | 07:30PM | A – | MORGANTOWN | 54 | – | 50 | W |
| 10 | 01/13/17 | 7:30PM | H – | BUCKHANNON-UPSHUR | 75 | – | 50 | W |
| 11 | 01/17/17 | 07:30PM | A – | WHEELING PARK | 76 | – | 28 | W |
| 12 | 01/21/17 | 2:30PM | H – | WESTINGHOUSE, PA H.S. | 83 | – | 50 | W |
| 13 | 01/25/17 | 07:30PM | H – | PARKERSBURG SOUTH | – | |||
| 14 | 01/27/17 | 07:30PM | H – | MORGANTOWN | – | |||
| 15 | 02/01/17 | 07:30PM | H – | FORT HILL, MD H.S. | – | |||
| 16 | 02/03/17 | 7:30PM | A – | BIG ATLANTIC TOURNAMENT | – | |||
| 17 | 02/04/17 | 7:30PM | A – | BIG ATLANTIC TOURNAMENT | – | |||
| 18 | 02/07/17 | 6:45PM | A – | HUNTINGTON | – | |||
| 19 | 02/11/17 | 7:30PM | H – | BRIDGEPORT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL | – | |||
| 20 | 02/14/17 | 7:30PM | H – | OVAC TOUR | – | |||
| 21 | 02/17/17 | 7:30PM | A – | OVAV TOUR | – | |||
| 22 | 02/21/17 | 7:30PM | A – | BROOKE HIGH SCHOOL | – | |||
| wins: 12 lost: 0 ties: 0 | ||||||||