Sometimes you just need to see the ball fall through the basket.

That certainly was the case for junior Taz Sherman who had struggled shooting to the tune of 32-percent over the first 17 games of the season.

It was an adjustment for Sherman, who came to Morgantown as a junior college all-American after averaging 25.9 points per contest last season.

The Texas native was recruited to score but couldn’t find a rhythm in his limited action on the floor.

That is until of late as Sherman has scored 16 points over the past two games while hitting 50-percent of his attempts from the floor. In the win over Missouri, Sherman scored 9 points in only 8 minutes of action and hit half of his eight shots from the floor many of which from mid-range.

“We kept running the same play and I knew I kept getting to my spot. That’s one of the spots I like to get to, and if I just rise up and shoot it, I knew it was going to go in,” Sherman said.

That total output, which has been recorded in 20-minutes of action, is a peek into scoring capabilities that he can bring to the lineup, but the turnaround didn’t happen by accident.

“He’s worked like crazy. He hasn’t pouted, he’s in there,” head coach Bob Huggins said. “…He’s gotten better and better and the ball is starting to go in for him. Seeing the ball go in makes a world of difference.”

That hard work has led to Sherman becoming a more trusted option for Huggins to use off the bench. It’s a formula that Jermaine Haley, another former junior college prospect that played against Sherman at that level, briefed him on when he arrived in Morgantown.

Consistency leads to more opportunity so in the meantime there’s an adjustment period of not being the vocal point of the team as you were at that level.

“I told him that’s not how it’s going to be. You’re not going to come in and fill it up right away, you have to earn coach’s respect and confidence and I think he’s doing that,” Haley said.

Sherman was recruited to shoot and that’s what West Virginia wants him to do but Haley has helped to keep him grounded at times when things are going well or on the opposite end of the spectrum. There wasn't very much of the latter against Missouri.

About the only thing that didn’t go right for Sherman against Missouri was an opportunity to introduce his athleticism to the West Virginia fan-base on a break away dunk when the ball slipped through his hands. He had planned to do a windmill dunk but started the motion before he truly had the ball.

Still, with confidence growing for Sherman and more opportunities to showcase his abilities, he could develop into a reliable option off the bench for the Mountaineers. It’s not quite the scoring threat that he was a year ago, but it’s a valuable piece to the puzzle that this West Virginia team needs.

“My scoring I felt good in practice overall and my shots were going good. I was putting up a lot of shots and making a lot of shots and knew I could perform today,” Sherman said.

Now consistency will be the trick.

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