WVU's versatile bigs giving team some power in the paint

Nov. 13—MORGANTOWN — It was a collection of the unknowns and maybe the rarely seen.

Just two games into this season, though, WVU's bigs are becoming, well, a big story.

Take Friday's 81-56 victory against rival Pitt inside the Petersen Events Center, for example.

The Mountaineers (2-0) outscored the Panthers 36-22 in the paint through a variety of dunks, drives to the basket and simply throwing the ball inside.

A year ago against Pitt, the paint points were tied at 34.

"We spend time on it and we work on it with the bigs, " WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. "We work on rebounding and we've got athletic guards that can make plays around the rim."

This is not a bunch built on pedigree and recruiting rankings, rather they are a rag-tag bunch of sorts that came together from all parts of the world and with different backgrounds to form the most-improved area of the Mountaineers.

James Okonkwo began his athletic career as a tennis player growing up in England, and then enrolled at WVU last season when he technically still had two years of high school remaining.

Jimmy Bell Jr. was once a 260-pound offensive lineman at his Saginaw, Mich. high school, before he decided to focus on basketball and transferred to a Arizona prep school.

Mohamed Wague bounced around between high schools in New York and Pennsylvania, and didn't begin to make a name for himself until his one season in junior college.

Then there is Tre Mitchell, a Pittsburgh native whose journey through the transfer portal took him from UMass to Texas to West Virginia.

Their skills are as different as their paths to Morgantown.

At 6-foot-10 and 285 pounds, Bell gives WVU size and strength down low the Mountaineers haven't seen since the days of Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe.

Okonkwo is developing an impressive shot blocking game the Mountaineers once enjoyed with Sagaba Konate. He had another two-handed block in the second half against Pitt, giving him three on the season.

Mitchell is still playing himself into shape after a preseason foot injury, but his game, while standing 6-8, is more like a guard with an outside shooting touch and the ability to pass the ball.

"Mitchell may be their most talented player, " is the way Pitt coach Jeff Capel saw it.

And then there is Wague, a tall, lean and athletic forward who has maybe made the biggest impact of all. Through two games, he's shooting 90 % from the field (9 of 10), while also leading WVU in rebounds.

"We liked him the first time we saw him, " Huggins said. "He's so agile. He's getting better and better."

It's through their versatility that Huggins now has options he didn't have last season, and options that maybe weren't available even when Culver and Tshiebwe were playing next to each other.

Those two big guys rarely left the paint offensively and couldn't drag defenders away from the rim.

So far, Mitchell is WVU's top 3-point shooter, which drags bigger defenders away from the paint to open up driving lanes or create space for Wague or Bell down low.

"This year, we've got a bunch of new guys coming in, so I don't want to play the comparing game, " WVU forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. said. "I think with our bigs this year, it's only a matter of time before they all get comfortable. I'm not worried about the bigs. Once it all clicks, it's going to be scary."

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