Suemnick has earned bigger role with Edwards return nearing
While Jesse Edwards has been out of the lineup West Virginia needed somebody to step up at the five spot on the roster.
Patrick Suemnick has become that player for the Mountaineers.
Despite being a natural four, Suemnick has taken on the role as the primary five for West Virginia and has played the best basketball of his career in the process.
Suemnick saw his minutes take a jump in the Ohio State game and since that point has been a critical piece to what West Virginia is doing on both ends of the floor. During that span, Suemnick has averaged 11.3 points and 5.5 rebounds while shooting 60 percent from the field.
He has set his West Virginia career high in scoring four different times during that six-game stretch with the latest being a 20-point performance against No. 3 Kansas.
“He's done an absolutely phenomenal job especially here in the last two, three, four games filling that void for us and giving us that presence down low,” head coach Josh Eilert said.
But with Edwards nearing a return, Eilert has something that he didn’t have before: options.
While it remains to be seen how the lineup will look when Edwards does come back into the fold, it’s a guarantee that Suemnick will have a role on this team. In fact, the way he is playing right now is a big reason why the coaches don’t have to force the issue with Edward’s return.
Eilert has made it clear that both Edwards and Suemnick can both play together but the fact that Suemnick also can effectively play the four gives the Mountaineers even more possibilities.
“Early on in the season all I was worried about was Jesse getting in foul trouble and how he navigated that. Now, I feel like we’ve got that sured up to where we can be more aggressive with Jesse and we have Pat to service all those minutes if he does have foul trouble,” Eilert said.
Suemnick has developed into by far the best option at the five behind Edwards and while Eilert will have to maintain a balance in playing time with those two, he also has to keep others such as Akok Akok and Quinn Slazinski in the mix. But it’s a much better problem to have than earlier in the season.
“I feel like I have more flexibility,” he said.
Regardless of how the exact roles will eventually play out, it’s clear that Suemnick is going to play a key role for the Mountaineers in the frontcourt moving forward.
“Having that confidence rolling and he knows deep down the way he can play. It’s going to be in our best interest with that confidence he is rolling with,” he said.
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