West Virginia guard Sherman finding ways to create scoring

Bob Huggins knew that Taz Sherman could score the ball when he recruited him.

That’s because the first time that Huggins watched the senior guard play in-person at Collin College he scored 30 points despite dealing with an ankle injury and the flu. The second team NJCAA all-American finished his sophomore season averaging 25.9 points per game, finishing fourth in the nation in points and his ability to put the ball in the basket drew the veteran coach to him.

“He can score the ball. He’s always been able to score the ball,” Huggins said.

But it was during his second season at Collin where Sherman started to polish his game into what it has become today. That’s because after moving over to point guard, he learned how to utilize the post. Because he was often matched up with smaller guards, Sherman learned to exploit it and that’s now a staple of what he does on the offensive end.

“There is no use to do all of these unnecessary dribbles and just make it easy on yourself,” he said.

Sherman also plays with a physical brand of basketball and initiates contact often on his way to the rim. It’s a way to prevent opponents from being able to block his shot and keep them off balance. That also is his key in the post where he uses his footwork and quickness to accomplish the same end result.

“If you do that you can be successful,” he said.

Sherman is going back to his days at Collin now as teams are making him the focus to try to stop on the defensive end of the floor. The fifth-year senior leads the Mountaineers averaging over 20 points per game and has been the one consistent shot maker on the roster.

That means extra attention.

“You just have to prepare yourself. My sophomore year in junior college teams try to take you away but good players always find a way out of that,” he said.

Sherman has been focused on improving his shot selection at this stage of the season and getting his teammates more involved. While he has made some incredible looks, admits having struggled with some of the open ones and he’s looking to find more consistency.

Part of his routine is to work on a myriad of shots in order to be ready to execute them in games. While it might look a little funky at times, it’s something that Sherman has worked on to perfect.

“Some shots I take might look ridiculous at times but I feel like you’re not a shot maker unless you make ridiculous shots,” he added.

Sherman is going to be a big piece of how this team performs this season and his ability to put the ball in the basket in a variety of ways will be front and center.

----------

• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.

• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @JaredSerre

•Like us on Facebook