Javon Small simply wanted to find a fit when it came to selecting a school.
And with that came simply a place where he could excel on the basketball floor and West Virginia proved to be exactly that type of place to address those needs.
And head coach Darian DeVries had the type of style that Small felt he could make an immediate impact after entering the portal.
“I believe I can adjust to any coach's system so I feel like his system is perfectly fine for me,” he said.
Small is coming off an impressive lone season with Oklahoma State where he averaged 15.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists while shooting 44-percent from the field and 37-percent from three-point range. He scored in double figures 24 times over the course of the year.
Those types of efforts earned him honorable mention accolades in the league and made him an in-demand piece in the transfer portal for many major programs across the college basketball landscape. But Small felt that combining with Tucker DeVries and playing under his father in the Big 12 would provide exactly the opportunity to further blossom in his final season.
“I saw another big piece coming in with Tuck. The coaching staff with Coach DeVries, I’ve known coach Chester Frazier. The system and players they’ve got and everybody else coming in they just want to win,” Small said.
That fact is driven home even more by how Small simply places his focus on the game of basketball and playing video games in his spare time. And while he didn’t have the privilege of playing in Morgantown during his lone season with the Cowboys he has quickly adapted.
Now, in his fourth season at the college level, Small considers himself a leader on the team and is embracing a role where he can teach those around him. And after playing a season in the Big 12, his message to others about finding success in the league isn’t complicated.
“Can’t play scared. Simple as that,” he said.
Small has the ability to play on or off the ball and likes the fact that DeVries places an emphasis on multiple ball handlers in order to get him involved in a number of different ways.
From what Small has seen so far, what this team lacks in size they make up for in their basketball intelligence as well as their athleticism and ability to space the floor by shooting the ball.
“I know we aren’t the biggest but we can shoot the ball very well,” he said.
Small said that he made a lot of moves in his career to prove himself and he is hoping that his last at the college level ends up being his best.
“I want to have a good individual year but at the same time a good team year is more important to me,” Small said.
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