Center Edwards finds fit at West Virginia

It certainly wasn’t the way Jesse Edwards wanted to start his career at West Virginia.

The prized Syracuse transfer elected to pack his bags after four seasons under the legendary Jim Boeheim and test the waters in the transfer portal.

That led to a visit to West Virginia where he would commit to another Hall of Fame coach in Bob Huggins shortly after that trip.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

Huggins would resign from his post in June after being arrested for driving under the influence and Edwards, who had the option to reenter the portal for 30-days due to that occurring, had a decision to make. He could uproot his life in Morgantown for another chance elsewhere or stay.

Edwards took the second path especially after assistant Josh Eilert was promoted to the lead post.

“The reason I came and the reason most guys signed up was still here because it was the best of the guys and a winning team and this place right here,” he said. “Everything that was built up was still there and it was us to carry it into a new era. It was not what we wanted but it worked out in some ways.”

While Edwards and his new teammates hadn’t been together long, he had developed a strong rapport. Not all of them chose to remain, but the majority did with the goal of winning together. And it didn’t hurt that his girlfriend of two years along with Edwards himself had taken to Morgantown.

“I really didn’t want to leave. I was quite happy here. I wasn’t looking for any reason to believe, then we got a couple good reasons to stay,” he said.

And now with the season around the corner, Edwards is thankful that he made the decision that he did.

The senior center averaged 14.5 points and 10.3 rebounds while also blocking 2.7 shots per game which topped the ACC a season ago. Edwards shot 59-percent from the floor and was a third-team all-ACC selection as a highly athletic and skilled big that has plenty of experience under his belt.

Edwards also improved his free throw percentage to 72.8-percent last season after shooting under 60-percent during his junior season showcasing his overall improvement.

Edwards credits his development to his time at Syracuse and has come a long way since he first picked up the game when he was around 15 or 16 years old in Amsterdam. He initially got interested because his brothers started playing and while he was always athletic had to really develop his skill.

That eventually led him to IMG Academy in Florida, who had seen some of Edwards’ highlight tape and offered him a postgraduate year. His recruitment took off from there and led him to the Orange.

There the talented big started all 56 games he played over the past two seasons. However, there are going to be some adjustments after sitting in the backend of the 2-3 zone for the past four years.

Still, he believes he is more than equipped to handle it.

“I played man before for most of my life, so it’s still in there so it’s getting a lot of new play sets and getting used to that. Some adjustments in there but the basics are still there a lot of help a lot of ball screen coverages,” he said.

Edwards believes that he has developed into a good pick and roll center while he can handle his own on the glass or when it comes to protecting the rim. He has continued to expand his overall game on offense and realizes that when it comes to the defensive end, he has to be careful.

Given the lack of true depth behind Edwards, he’ll need to avoid stacking fouls. That’s a hard battle to fight for a shot blocker, but one he realizes he must do to stay on the floor.

“Stay down and make it a hard shot,” he said.

Edwards looks forward to the challenge of playing in the Big 12 and while he wishes the circumstances could have been different has no regrets on what things have turned out.

“It’s been a lot of fun. Honestly, it’s been everything I hoped for so far. The team is great, the guys are great, obviously a new coaching staff but they’ve picked up things super-fast and got everybody excited for the challenge ahead.”

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