When West Virginia’s season came to an end following a loss to Coastal Carolina in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), then-freshman Jordan McCabe had at least three things on his offseason to-do list.
READ: With freshman season complete, McCabe sets offseason agenda
The first was undergoing minor knee surgery in April to repair a torn meniscus, an injury which he played through last season.
His decision to play through the injury stemmed from advice he received from his father growing up. To put it simply, at the end of the day, no one will feel sorry for you.
“My father told me something when I was real young coming up when I’d get sick or get banged up or whatever, if I’d go out there and I didn’t play great, he looked at me halftime and be like, ‘Hey, nobody really cares,’” McCabe said. “So I told myself, if I’m going to play, I’m going to play and he held me through with a lot of that stuff, even last year.”
“When it all boils down, nobody really cares if you’re hurt or not, go out and play as hard as you can. So when the adrenaline kicks in, it’s not a problem at all, it won’t be a problem this year,” he added.
McCabe had mostly been full-go throughout the course of the 10 practices leading up to the team’s trip to Spain but has been limited at times according to head coach Bob Huggins.
“We held him out of a little bit of stuff,” Huggins said in July. “But who knows, he may have been out here four hours at midnight who knows. He’s in here a lot.”
The rising sophomore has indeed earned the reputation for being a workhouse and has been seen numerous times getting shots up after games and being one of the first players on the court in both pregame warmups and practices.
Though there’s still some swelling, McCabe is confident that he’ll eventually be back to his true form.
“To be honest, I think the strength is there,” McCabe said regarding his knee. “I think I have the same amount of strength as I did. Once that swelling gets out, I’ll be a little bit more comfortable doing some of the different moves that I’ve been doing comfortably last year and years before that.”
WATCH: McCabe addressed the media on July 29
The second thing McCabe wanted to work on during the off-season was his defense.
McCabe and West Virginia struggled on the defensive end of the floor during last year’s 15-21 season which saw the Mountaineers finished tied for 174th in the country in steals per game (6.2).
Last season was obviously a step down for a program that has prided itself with defense and the ability to disrupt opposing offenses, but McCabe is determined to not let last season’s defensive mishaps repeat and it starts mentally.
McCabe recently read something on former Oklahoma basketball star and current Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young regarding his approach to improving his defense and found it very relevant to his situation.
“He’ll go and train with different guys around the country and they’re going to work on their ball screens,” McCabe said. “They’re going to work on all this offensive stuff, but he does say he wants to get better defensively. You’re not going to do a whole lot of drill work, one-on-one with a trainer to defensively make strides, it’s a mindset. He’s got a mindset on offense, Trae, where he could pretty much score at any level.
“Now if he locks in the same way on the defensive end, what can you do? That’s what I think you’re going to see different for his game this season and then that’s something that I kind of connected with. It is a mindset, you gotta wanna do it. (Former West Virginia point guard Jevon Carter) wanted to do it 24/7.”
A huge step for McCabe in developing a better mindset for his defensive game lies within his recovery from knee surgery which he sees improving each day.
“A big part of it is being healthy,” McCabe said. “I gotta be able to move laterally as confident as I want to and I’m getting there every day and it is getting better the knee and everything like that so just working on that mindset using these 10 practices because that’s the only way it’s going to work is if you start utilizing them during practice then trying to put myself in different situations.”
The final and arguably the most important item on the to-do list was to assure that the team is on the same page.
Team chemistry and camaraderie was a major weakness for West Virginia most of last season, but McCabe and fellow sophomore Emmitt Matthews have taken over the reigns in terms of leadership.
“We’re in a place right now where we feel like guys are competing, guys are trying to get each other better,” McCabe said. “We’re mentally in a ten-times better state than we were at any point in the last season and towards the end, we were in a pretty good spot. We’re excited to kind of go grow together over in Spain here in the next 10 days and then just have that jumpstart us into the season.”
According to McCabe, he and his teammates all have similar goals and as you’d expect, most players are working towards their goal of one day playing in the NBA.
But to help achieve those goals, the team has to win and have success to stand out even more against other prominent college basketball programs such as Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State and North Carolina, according to McCabe.
“We all wanna be successful and you know college basketball is a unique dynamic. A lot of these guys are trying to find a way to the next level,” McCabe said.
“Well (if) we wanna consider ourselves a blue blood school, then we gotta start acting like it. We didn’t come off a great season, obviously, but there’s a lot of guys in here that can play at the next level and we’re all on the same page with if we wanna play at the next level, we have to win, otherwise, nobody’s going to watch and nobody really cares.”
West Virginia had the opportunity to enhance their team chemistry and game further in Spain and before you know it, the carpet will be rolled out for these eager Mountaineers inside the Coliseum in Morgantown who’ll be ready to redeem the program after last season’s misfortunes.
“We like being around each other,” McCabe said. “It’s a lot of fun. We’ve enjoyed this kind of off-season and summer. We’re ready for the real thing.”
WATCH: Musings from the Mountains - Episode 25
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