Had someone told Sean McNeil at the outset of his junior season at West Virginia that the Mountaineers would play Kentucky’s lone representative in the NCAA Tournament, Morehead State likely wouldn’t have been his first choice of opponent.
Not in the basketball-crazed Bluegrass State, where two of college basketball’s blue blood programs reside in Kentucky and Louisville, not to mention Western Kentucky, which nearly won Conference USA.
Yet for McNeil, a native of Union, Kentucky, Friday’s 9:50 p.m. first-round matchup with the Eagles gives the West Virginia sharpshooter a chance to play against a home state school two hours from his hometown.
“I know Sean. I played against him in the state tournament in high school in the first round,” Eagles’ senior starter James Baker said. “Sean is one of my friends and one of my guys. He actually was looking at Morehead State and we didn’t get him. He ended up going to JUCO and to West Virginia, but that’s one of my guys.”
Before he had anything to do with WVU though, McNeil was set to join Division II power Bellarmine. McNeil’s stay at Bellarmine was brief and he ultimately ended up at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.
All McNeil did at Sinclair was lead the nation in scoring with 29.7 points per game, while making more than four three-pointers on average.
“I know most basketball people in Ohio and I kept getting calls, ‘Huggs you have to go see this guy,’” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins recalled. “I went to Dayton, watched a practice and fell in love with him as a person first and foremost. He’s a great human being, but it’s even better he can make shots.”
McNeil’s shooting prowess has carried over to the Division I level, particularly in his junior season. The All-Big 12 Conference honorable mention pick leads WVU with 61 triples on nearly 38 percent shooting from deep. His 11.8 scoring average ranks fourth on the Mountaineers and McNeil enters Friday’s game having scored double figures in seven of his last nine contests.
“He’s been like a microwave and really helped us get out of holes this year,” said West Virginia point guard Miles “Deuce” McBride. “Once he gets going, he’s tough to stop.”
McNeil’s perimeter-oriented style fits in well at West Virginia, particularly this season on a Mountaineer team that shoots it far better from the outside than most WVU teams over the last decade. Playing with McBride and Taz Sherman, along with post presence who consistently demands attention in Derek Culver, McNeil is able to help West Virginia keep defenses spread.
“The more I watched him, the more I liked him,” Huggins said. “I thought he’d fit in great with us. He’s a lot like the guys we have — great, unassuming people that love basketball.”
McNeil’s challenge Friday comes against a defensive-minded Eagles team that limited the opposition to 40 percent shooting and 30 percent from three-point range, while leading the Ohio Valley Conference in 10 of 11 defensive categories.
“Defensively, it’s not pack line, but it certainly has a pack line likeness,” Huggins said. “When you catch the ball you have to understand you have ten eyes on you. They’re going to guard the guy with the ball, really gap everything and try not to give up penetration and make them shoot overtop you.”