West Virginia hoops roster brings opportunities

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West Virginia has effectively a new roster from a season ago returning only five players that combined to average just 9.4 points and 4.1 rebounds per game or just 12-percent of the total production.

Those four players are Seth Wilson, Kobe Johnson, Josiah Harris and Patrick Suemnick while the other in Jose Perez sat out all of last season due to transfer rules.

That means there’s a whole bunch of new faces on the roster but that also presents the challenge of trying to mesh those new players together when it comes to chemistry. Especially when you consider that the Mountaineers added a number of players late in the process after departures from the roster.

One of the most important pieces to retain was center Jesse Edwards, a transfer from Syracuse. That was critical not because of his production after averaging 14.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game last season but due to the fact that there simply wasn’t much depth behind him.

“He was probably the critical piece that we wanted to make sure we maintained throughout the summer and we could build off,” Eilert said.

Now, there will be challenges on the defensive end as Edwards has played 2-3 defense during his career and now will be asked to play man-to-man so he needs to protect himself and not be in foul trouble given the hole on the roster behind him.

But while the defensive end will be an adjustment, on offense Edwards is as long and impressive of a rim runner that the Mountaineers have had in pick and roll situations.

“Those guys that can handle the ball and throw it up to him, it’s going to be easy to rack up some assists with him putting that pressure on the rim,” he said.

And because teams will likely sag back in to defend Edwards it should open up shots on the perimeter if the Mountaineers are able to maintain their spacing.

Also in the front court, West Virginia will be able to play Georgetown transfer Akok Akok some at the five although he will spend more time sharing the four position with…

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Source link : https://westvirginia.rivals.com/news/west-virginia-hoops-roster-brings-opportunities?yptr=yahoo

Author : WV Sports

Publish date : 2023-09-29 13:21:43

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