MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A stretch of three regular season contests at Hope Coliseum will conclude Thursday night when the WVU men’s basketball team hosts Mercer (2-2). The Mountaineers have scored 91 points in each of their one-sided wins over Niagara and Stetson.
The degree of difficulty will increase starting next week when the Mountaineers play three games in Las Vegas at the Players Era 8 Tournament. For now, head coach Ross Hodge has one more opportunity to build and develop in a comfortable environment before leveling up in competition next week.
“More than anything, you just keep learning how much better we can get,” Hodge said. “You learn what you do well but then you see the opportunities for growth. You see ability to improve both individually and collectively. We just keep going to keep getting better.”
Mercer rebounded from consecutive losses to Virginia Tech and Davidson with a 97-91 overtime victory at Georgia Southern on Tuesday. The Bears have been picked seventh in the 11-team Southern Conference preseason coaches poll.
“They’ve got really good guards,[Quinton] Perkins II and [KJ] LaMonte that can space you. Coach [Ryan] Ridder does a good job of creating some gaps, flattening your defense out and letting those guys play. When you have good guards and experienced guards that can control the game and they have the ability to get a shot when they want it, they do have the ability to make tough shots. You can get so fixated watching them dribble and attack that you can forget to rebound the basketball.”
Through two games, four Mountaineers are averaging double-digits in points per game. Freshman Miles Sadler leads the way at 20.5 points. Coming off the bench, Joson Sanon is averaging 13.5 points and he leads the team with nine 3-pointers on just 14 attempts.
“He is getting quality shots. I think he has benefitted some from how people have chosen to play us,” Hodge said.
“I wouldn’t say I am surprised because you see it in practice. He has done a good job of simplifying his game and not overcomplicating it.”
Finley Bizjack is scoring at a 12-point per game clip. He has connected on 11-of-13 attempts from the free throw line.
“He has been aggressive when he needed to be. In the Niagara game, I thought he really got us going getting fouled and getting downhill and making simple plays when it has come. I think his commitment to not just being a one-dimensional player, obviously we need him to score the ball. He identifies himself as a scorer, like a lot of those guys. But he has done a great job of buying into the fact of, hey man, I need to become a better defender.”
Mo Sylla (10.5 points per game) is WVU’s fourth-leading scorer and he has pulled down a team-best 13 rebounds.
“This past two-to-three weeks, [Hodge] has been challenging me a lot in practice,” Sylla said. “He’s just telling me I need to go hard. I have been going hard but the way you go hard is not enough. You need to go hard enough. I feel like every time he challenges me, I have been answering right.”
Following Thursday’s game, WVU will enter a challenging four-game stretch in their schedule. The Mountaineers open the Players Era 8 with Auburn late Tuesday evening. Games on Wednesday and Thursday follow in quick succession. Matchups against Big 12 foes Kansas and Houston could follow. Fast turnarounds and game preps, similar to what the Mountaineers may see in the Big 12 Tournament, could pay benefits later in the season. WVU will also face North Carolina in Charlotte on November 27.
“There’s a lot that goes into that, starting with Sean McClurg and some of the graduate assistants kind of working ahead on some of those types of things. They get things split up on both sides of the ball. They kind of get it broken down for you working ahead,” said WVU assistant coach Jase Herl.
“There’s just a lot of communication and figuring out where we may play Kansas. We obviously have some familiarity with that. That’s unique as well, throwing a league opponent into a non-league tournament. Having that familiarity will help as well.”
“It just kind of creates a new level of learning because it will be a three-day tournament. You will have quick turnarounds. You will have to process information, wash information and process new information super-quickly,” Hodge said.
“That slow, incremental reservoir of information that you are learning new actions you are having to defend, maybe a new game plan you are introducing, maybe there is something new you want to try, it is all downloading into everyone’s main frame of information that we get to go through together.”