It might only be for one night, but on that night, freshman Miles McBride joined some pretty impressive company down the stretch in leading West Virginia to a come from behind win over Northern Iowa.
It wasn’t the final line of 18 points on 6-12 shooting with 5 assists and zero turnovers on the offensive end, or even the lock down defense which included some critical steals and blocks either.
No, it was the fact that McBride took control of a team needing some direction when it needed him the most. No, it wasn’t one of the upperclassmen, or one of the more experienced backcourt options doing the heavy lifting – no it was McBride.
“He’s in the huddle saying at the end when we can get it up the floor and stuff, ‘just give it to me. I’m good, just give it to me’,” head coach Bob Huggins said.
So, the Mountaineers did.
Trailing 46-33 with a little over 8:30 minutes left to the Panthers, McBride went to work scoring 14 of his points in leading the Mountaineers all the way back for the win. During one stretch he scored 9 of the 11 points to give the program a 51-50 lead after trailing by as many as 15. McBride was active on both ends of the floor and didn’t look anything like a player that just arrived in June, instead a seasoned veteran.
In-fact, it was McBride that took the final shot before the tip-in by Emmitt Matthews that would give the Mountaineers the lead for good showing that the moment simply wasn’t too big for him.
“Deuce made some huge shots for us,” Huggins said.
With 14 of his 18 total points in the second frame, McBride wrestled away the minutes at the point guard spot playing all but 1:39 after halftime. If the opener was a peek at what he could bring to the table, this was the full experience.
It’s a reward for the trust that Huggins displayed when initially recruiting McBride after he broke his ankle in his junior season at Archbishop Moeller under Carl Kremer. The high school coach is a respected friend of Huggins so he took his word on his abilities on the floor.
“Carl said I don’t know I can’t tell you about the basketball part of it but I can tell you he’s the second toughest guy I’ve ever coached here at Moeller,” Huggins recalled. “And I said we’ll take him.”
It’s a decision that certainly paid off inside the HRH Riviera Maya in Cancun for one night but is likely going to be happening a lot more moving forward as McBride continues to evolve.
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