MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Cavel Witter played for and coached with Darian DeVries at Creighton and Drake, respectively, making him a natural fit to join DeVries’ first coaching staff at WVU. He was named an assistant with the Mountaineers in June.
Witter was a three-year letterwinner for Creighton while DeVries was an assistant with the Blue Jays. Witter later joined DeVries’ staff at Drake.
“We’ve still got the same relationship. He’ll throw a lot of digs at me and he’ll still do a lot of digging. As an assistant coach, I worked a lot with him after practice on skill development. Right then and there, I knew he was going to be one hell of a coach just from the knowledge he knew. You could really tell he enjoyed investing time in his players,” Witter said.
“He was one of those guys that kept the locker room together really well. He was a big-time truth teller. He told you when you were doing good and when you were doing bad. He cared the same way. Now it is just a different position as a head coach.”
After graduating from Creighton, Witter played professionally in Portugal and Germany before competing in the NBA G-League. With his playing days complete, Witter quickly transitioned into coaching at the college level. He says the ability to jump into drills is a significant benefit to teaching the game.
“A lot of guys have to go a longer route even to get to Division II coaching. I decided to take that route. After my first year, I really enjoyed it because I was doing something I loved from a basketball standpoint. I am really passionate about the sport still. I was impacting lives and helping young men mature and grow a little bit.
“I can still show it a little bit from a teaching standpoint instead of just telling a guy and yelling at them how to do it. I can go out there and physically show them how it is done. I love the game from playing to coaching to teaching. Everything about the game, I really enjoy it. For me to even get a chance to play 3-on-3 or 2-on-2 or even 1-on-1 against the guys, I’ll do it in a heartbeat.”
Witter picked up the game at a young age with competitiveness as his greatest attribute.
“I loved the gym. That was my passion. I was a pretty skilled guy. I could shoot, dribble and pass. Probably the best thing about me is that I was extremely competitive. I thought I was Michael Jordan of the six-foot guys.
“I remember in fourth grade I was still double dribbling and traveling. A sixth-grader, my neighbor, he basically showed me how you are supposed to dribble the basketball, shoot the ball and how you pivot. We did that for a week straight and I started liking it. I started going to him like he was my trainer, bothering him every day.”