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A season full ups and downs came to an end for West Virginia on March 25.
It what will go down as one of the worst seasons the program has had in its 110-year history with the team suffering a school-record 21 losses, some positives arose such as the young, talented core of underclassmen and newcomers that led the team to a couple of late season upset wins and Big 12 Tournament semifinals appearance.
One of those key newcomers was true freshman point guard Jordan McCabe, who developed and improved his game over the course of the season with the help of his strong work ethic.
McCabe, who finished the season averaging 5.8 points per game, will no longer bare the identity of a newcomer heading into next season. Now, he will be looking to take on a bigger leadership role on a team that he believes can achieve a milestone that they haven’t since 2010.
“People are going to shake their head and laugh or scoff or do whatever else they do when I say that I think this is a team that don’t be surprised if we are in the Final Four next year,” McCabe said.
“As crazy as that sounds coming off a (College Basketball Invitational) loss right now, this is going to be a very, very good team due to the fact that we’re going to be the most motivated team in the country and if people aren’t motivated, we’re going to get them there,” he added.
One of the first things that was on McCabe’s to-do list for this offseason was receive minor knee surgery which sidelined him for about four weeks.
After fully recovering from the surgery, the Wisconsin native will aim to elevate his game on the defensive end of the floor, an area he struggled in during this past season as did the rest of the West Virginia team.
The Mountaineers ranked just 176th in the country in steals per game with 6.2, a significant step down for a program that has prided itself with its ability to disrupt and pressure any type of offensive attack on the floor.
“Personally, I want to be as good of a defender as I possibly can. It’s the reason I chose West Virginia,” McCabe said.
“People would call it a weakness of mine, so that’s why I came here--was to try to prove everybody wrong and that’s going to be a constant highlight in everything that I do in terms of working out and doing stuff individually and then after that, it’s just continue to be the best point guard I can be.”
Part of improving his game offensively for McCabe will be limiting turnovers, another category both he and the rest of the Mountaineer squad were deficient in this past season. McCabe turned the ball over 50 times during the season and West Virginia as a team committed 15.6 turnovers per game which ranked 326th in the country.
But perhaps the biggest thing McCabe is looking to work on this offseason is helping everyone on the team get better each day and be on the same page.
Over the years, McCabe’s offseason routine has focused more on improving his overall game and rising to a new level personally, but after a disappointing season for the Mountaineers, the now rising sophomore will make a change.
“I have a consistent thing that I’ve been doing since I was like six years old and got me to the point that I’m at,” McCabe said. “This offseason, it’s going to be who can I bring with me, who can I get in the gym, who can I bring along that kind of path to getting better every single day and if I can do that, we’re going to be very good. If I can’t do that, we’re going to be in another position where we don’t want to be in.”
What will be key in achieving this?
According to McCabe, it will involve annoying his teammates to get in the gym, train, workout, etc. The goal in all of this is to not only get his teammates on the same page but for the team to push each other and create constant competition.
These are the things that West Virginia lacked during most of this past season. For the Mountaineers to shake off one of their worst seasons in program history, it’s going to take returning players like McCabe to step up, take on a leadership role and build team comradery or else history will repeat itself.
“We all gotta be on the same page. We weren’t on the same page coming into this year and that is the job of the returning players. At this level, it’s not high school. Your seniors and juniors don’t have to be your leaders if that’s not their traits and stuff like that,” McCabe said.
“With the amount of guys that we’re going to have coming back and experience this type of year, it’s going to be a, I’m not going to say easy, it shouldn’t be too hard to find the motivation to get everybody on the same page with what we want to do and get done.”
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