Morgantown, West Virginia – For the past several weeks, as the West Virginia Mountaineers have failed to win a single game, Bob Huggins has threatened to make changes. He’s said he was going to bench players, kick players off the team and do whatever it takes to win basketball games.
And every game, Huggins rolls out the exact same lineup and players.
At this point in the season, continuing to do this is not only ridiculous, it’s detrimental to the future of the program.
While Taz Sherman, Pauly Paulicap, Dimon Carrigan, Malik Curry and Gabe Osabuohien have all played hard and given their best efforts during their time in Morgantown, they are not the future of West Virginia basketball.
And Bob Huggins can’t wait any longer to look to the future of the team. It’s way past time for Huggins to empty his bench and get quality minutes for his young players.
Kobe Johnson, James Okonkwo, Jamel King, Seth Wilson, and hopefully Isaiah Cottrell and Jalen Bridges are the future of West Virginia basketball.
The starting lineup should look something like this for the final regular season game of the year and the Big 12 Conference Championship, as well as during any postseason invite the Mountaineers receive:
Point guard Kobe Johnson
Shooting guard Seth Wilson
Small forward Jalen Bridges/Jamel King
Power forward James Okonkwo
Center Isaiah Cottrell
Bob Huggins doesn’t owe his seniors anything, but he does owe something to his freshman who have sat patiently waiting their turn to show what they can do. In addition, Huggins owes it to the people of the state of West Virginia to prove that he cares about the future of the team far more than he cares about the upperclassman getting meaningless playing time at the end of the season.
Huggins has said that he wants credibility to build his team next season, and emptying his bench and giving his young players immediate minutes would give him precisely that.
