Small looking to make a large impact as a leader for the Mountaineers
West Virginia's Javon Small is no stranger to college basketball. Now at his third stop, Small will be trying to make a large impact for the Mountaineers.
East Carolina, Oklahoma State, West Virginia. Those three places have seen Small, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound, guard grow into the player he currently is.
"I’d definitely consider myself a vet. This is my fourth year going into college basketball so I definitely look at myself at one of those players that has to be a leader. Just kind of teach the other players who might not know as much as I do," Small said.
Making a transition to a new place is nothing that Small considers to be hard. He said he sticks to the same routine of basketball, video games, workout, repeat.
"It’s all the same, all three are college towns, very small towns, not much to do. Like I said, I just play video games, stay in my house, and go to the gym," Small said.
While his off-the-court activities are minimal, he and WVU hopes his on-the-court impact is the opposite of that. Last season at Oklahoma State, Small averaged 15.1 points and 4.1 assists per game, and he brings Big 12 experience along with a proven track record to the Mountaineers.
"Started out at East Carolina, was there my first two years, got hurt my second year. Thought I was good enough to play in the Big 12, didn’t have the season that I wanted to have, but individually I had a pretty good season. My coach left, coach got fired last year, so now, I’m here at my third school within my fourth year and now I want to have the same outcome. I want to have a really good individual year, but at the same time, having a really good team year is more important to me," Small said.
Small is making an adjustment to head coach Darian DeVries' system, but said he likes the way things are going so far with the installation of everything.
"I like that we move off the ball a lot. I like that we like to play through our bigs and basically have blast action or just pass and cut, pass screen away, pass move, it’s just a lot of movement, so that’s my biggest takeaway," Small said.
In addition to the pure basketball skills Small possesses, the Mountaineers are hoping to have found a leader in Small, something he says he's getting better at becoming.
"I try to be vocal for the most part. I’m trying to break out of my shell. My whole life I was really the quiet kid unless I knew you. Like I said, this is my last year, I’m trying to go out with a bang. If I need to be vocal and step out of my comfort zone then I’m going to do that," Small said.
In the meantime though, Small's confidence is anything but, as he and his teammates head toward the beginning of school and then the beginning of the season.
"I just believe in myself. I just believe if you put in the work and you trust in your work and you don’t go play scared then if you’re a competitor, I feel like you will do pretty well," Small said.
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