West Virginia junior college transfer Sean McNeil knew what it would take for teammate and fellow JUCO transfer Taz Sherman to get out of his shooting slump.

Prior to the team’s wins over Austin Peay and Nicholls last week, Sherman had made three-pointers in just two different games on the year and was just 4-for-14 overall from downtown.

“Taz has a tremendous ability to score the ball,” McNeil said. “Taz is super quick, super athletic. He’s not just a shooter. He’s got the ability to bounce a little bit, but I think just me and him kind of have the same issue--I think I’ve kinda just relaxed a little bit, but once Taz just settles down and just does what he does, he’ll skyrocket.”

McNeil himself has begun to hit his stride when it comes to his outside shooting, draining eight three-pointers over the past three games combined. But Sherman would do just what McNeil believed he needed to do to make shots and make an impact on the team.

After shooting 2-of-6 from the field and 0-for-2 from three-point range against Austin Peay, Sherman tied his career-high of eight points against Nicholls on 3-of-4 shooting. He also went 1-of-2 from behind the arc.

“Taz is starting to be the player that we thought we recruited,” head coach Bob Huggins said. “I think, with all of them, it takes a while to understand how hard you have to play at this level. College basketball--particularly college at the level that we play at here--you really have to work.”

Both Sherman and McNeil were important targets for the program during the offseason to fill a major need.

That need was for players who can make outside shots and Huggins and the Mountaineers were able to land both Sherman and McNeil, who each averaged more than 25 points per game in junior college.

Things didn’t really go according to plan when the season got underway with both players struggling and West Virginia finding ways to win by outmuscling oppositions on the glass and on the defensive end of the floor.

But both are acclimating to the Division I speed and style of play that’s different from the up and down the court style in JUCO that focuses on getting more possessions and shots up than the opposing team.

“The speed of the game is definitely a big adjustment, but I kinda adjusted pretty well a little bit,” Sherman said following the team’s win over Nicholls. “I’m still trying to get in the flow of things, but hopefully this game will take me over the hump that I’ve been in.”

For Sherman, the week of practice leading up to the home games against Austin Peay and Nicholls felt different for him as he dialed back, slowed down and just played his game.

The Missouri City, Texas shoots around after each practice and after every game and works on his mid-range shots, threes, deep threes and post ups. But he put a stronger emphasis on practicing the same kind of shots he shoots in games such as pump fakes, baseline shots and fadeaways.

“I was scoring the ball and it just felt like the old me again,” Sherman said. “I think of myself as a good scorer, a good shooter, good player, so when I miss as many shots as I did, it’s kind of unusual for me, so I was a little bit frustrated at first, but I just gotta have amnesia and just forget about all them missed shots I had and just move on to the next play.”

If West Virginia is able to gain more consistency from its outside shooters in Sherman, McNeil and Chase Harler, then that’ll open up more space and opportunities for big men Derek Culver, Oscar Tshiebwe and Logan Routt down low in the post.

Whether the Mountaineers can put it all together on a consistent basis remains to be seen, but Sherman’s performance against the Colonels on Saturday may be just the boost he needed to become an impact player game-by-game for West Virginia.

“They get double-teamed every game, so once we help them by making more shots, they can’t double down on them no more,” Sherman said regarding the team’s bigs. “I hope I just stay like that forever.”

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