West Virginia basketball moves on from Tshiebwe departure
Bob Huggins ended any speculation that sophomore forward Oscar Tshiebwe could return to the West Virginia team at any point this season.
“No, absolutely not. No return,” the veteran head coach said.
Tshiebwe left the program after an up and down campaign where he finished averaging 8.5 points and 7.8 rebounds through 10 games before stepping away for what are deemed as “personal reasons.”
The decision to leave the team didn’t catch Huggins by surprise although he wouldn’t elaborate further on why that was the case.
“In all due respect, I don’t really want to talk about Oscar. I want to talk about our team. I want to talk about the guys that are here and have worked their tails off all summer long. Continued to work when they didn’t know whether we were going to play or not. Those guys deserve all the credit in the world and I’m sure they’re chomping at the bit to show what they can do,” Huggins said.
But even with the departure of the second McDonald’s All-American in school history, Huggins was optimistic moving forward about his club.
“What are we going to do moving forward? We’re going to win more games. I think this gives us an opportunity to be able to spread the floor a little bit more and guys like Jalen Bridges will be able to spread the floor and make shots,” Huggins said. “Gives Derek (Culver) a lot more room to work.”
Anytime that somebody is out of the picture it opens up opportunities for others, but this news is compounded by the fact that the Mountaineers also lost freshman big man Isaiah Cottrell for the season due to an Achilles injury. That could open up more minutes for Bridges at the four, who redshirted a year ago but closed last season as one of the top three or four players on the team in practice.
“He’s struggled a little bit to make shots to this point but obviously I feel 100-percent confident that he’s a guy that’s going to step out and make shots,” Huggins said. “Spread the floor and give Derek so much more room to operate. Let’s tell the truth he’s the best big in the league.”
The Mountaineers also have options such as Gabe Osabuohien and Emmitt Matthews that could play the four, although Huggins doesn’t want to tinker too much with what they’ve done. That’s especially true with Matthews because he has played some of his best basketball of late.
Huggins does not anticipate using more three guard lineups for now but could be forced into it depending on the development of the bigs on the roster.
Whether or not players rise up to the challenge will be on them. Huggins pointed to the strong makeup of the team and how even Cottrell who is dealing with a season ending injury was at practice.
“He came into practice yesterday with his scooter and stayed the whole practice. Stayed the whole practice because he didn’t want to miss out on anything. That’s the kind of guys we’re fortunate enough to have in this program,” he said.
It’s a challenge that West Virginia will have to overcome losing a player that was picked on the pre-season all-Conference team but one that the Mountaineers will be forced to adjust to.
“They were all there yesterday, so they know what the game plan is. They know what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it. I’m fine."
"I’m more excited to go play a couple games this weekend now than I have been from the beginning because of their attitudes, their willingness to work, their willingness to learn and how much they sincerely do care about this basketball program, this university and certainly this state,” Huggins said.
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