West Virginia freshmen put trust in Huggins plan in return

West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins was in the mist of a disappointing season when he gathered his true freshman class together. The message was a simple one.

While there was going to be plenty of change on the roster with a number of seniors and others planning to exit through the transfer portal it was critical to make sure the core of the perceived future of the roster would remain in-tact.

So, Huggins spoke with the group about how they would be counted on to play larger roles next season and needed to be the base.

The results? All four of the group remained in Morgantown for this season as guard Kobe Johnson, guard Seth Wilson, forward James Okonkwo and forward Jamel King became the only returning players from last year outside of senior point guard Kedrian Johnson.

And for the quartet there was never any doubt.

“We all four saw the vision,” guard Kobe Johnson said.

It didn’t hurt matters that the group was very close off the court as they spent most of their time together when they weren’t in practice. The four played video games together, talked and believed that they could play a major role in turning things around after a struggling 16-17 freshman campaign.

That chemistry was significant in the mutual decision.

“We were all going to stay ten toes down and stay together. We knew we had to come back and get ready for our sophomore year,” guard Seth Wilson said.

As part of that the group declared to hold one another accountable in every aspect and turn up their appearances in the gym. If things were going to change it wasn’t going to happen without work.

The news didn’t surprise Huggins.

“Not if you’re a competitor. If you’re a competitor you’re going to go that direction of let’s fix this. Let’s don’t do what happened before and let’s make something special and I think they’ve done that,” Huggins said. “If you watch practice those guys are guys that are always in the front of the line and they are always guys that stand out with their competitiveness.”

The head coach doesn’t consider any of those players young anymore as each are going to be counted on to try to increase their roles from a season ago.

Huggins doesn’t want to feel the way he did at the end of last season and his freshman class could end up playing a major role in making sure that doesn’t occur.

“You just have such a bad taste in your mouth and I understand more than the majority of people do,” Huggins said. “With how important it is that we’re successful and what it means to the fans.”

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