WVU’s 2021-2022 Starting Lineup

Morgantown, West Virginia – Today was West Virginia’s first day of basketball practice and Bob Huggins’ team is once again loaded with talent.  This year, however, the team has fifteen players and many of them are new to the program.

Eight players return from last year’s team that finished ranked #13 in the Associated Press poll, but two of the most talented players on the team – Miles “Deuce” McBride (selected in the 2021 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks) and Derek Culver (who knows where he’s at now?) – have departed.

According to Huggins, Culver will be missed even more than McBride.  “We’ve got guards.  We’re really going to miss Derek.  Derek could get hard rebounds.  Derek was big and strong and people couldn’t move him.  He could move whoever he wanted to move, and he got big rebounds at the end of games.”

West Virginia now lacks a real interior scorer.  Huggins said that while his new bigs – redshirt seniors Dimon Carrigan and Pauly Paulicap, as well as true freshman James Okonkwo – are legitimate rebounders, they are not traditional interior scorers.

Returning big men Gabe Osabuohien and Isaiah Cottrell are talented, but again, neither are considered great inside scoring threats.

“We just don’t have a big, strong guy right now who we can throw the ball to close, but hopefully, we can spend enough time with them to get them to the point where we can score a little bit in there.  They’re going to be iso’d because our opponents are not leaving Taz (Sherman), they’re not leaving Sean (McNeil) and they’re not leaving Jalen (Bridges).  It’s going to be one-on-one down there.”

With that said, the projected starting lineup for the 2021-2022 West Virginia Mountaineers is as follows:

Point guard – Malik Curry (Redshirt senior transfer from Old Dominion) 15.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists – Huggins said the following about Curry and his progress so far since joining the Mountaineers: “Playing at Old Dominion is a whole lot different than the people we line up and play on a daily basis.  He’s got really good footspeed, and he’s shooting it better than he shot it when he first got here.”

Shooting guard – Sean McNeil (Senior) 12.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, 0.8 assists – McNeil shot 39% from three point range and 88% from the foul line last season, and had moments of real brilliance as a junior last year.  McNeil will likely be West Virginia’s top scoring threat this season and should have a major breakout year.

Small forward – Jalen Bridges (Sophomore) 5.9 points, 3.6 rebounds, 0.3 assists – Bridges’ statistics from last season don’t tell the whole story.  Bridges had an outstanding second half of the season when he was forced to step into the starting lineup and shot an impressive 40% from three point range as a freshman.  Bridges is capable of averaging 15 points and 5 rebounds per game this season for the Mountaineers.

Power forward – Gabe Osabuohien (Redshirt senior) 1.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists – Osabuohien will have to share minutes with newcomers Dimon Carrigan and Pauly Paulicap, but he is the team’s glue guy and best defender.  While he is not a talented inside scorer, he’s certainly capable of mixing it up with any big man in the Big 12 Conference.

Center – Isaiah Cottrell (Redshirt freshman) 1.6 points, 1.4 rebounds, 0.4 assists – Huggins said that West Virginia will often play four out with only one player inside the paint.  He also said that Cottrell is the team’s third best shooter behind only Sean McNeil and Taz Sherman.  Cottrell will provide size defensively and will be a threat to step out and hit three pointers and jump shots offensively.

Reserves (in order according to playing time off the bench)

Taz Sherman

Pauly Paulicap

Kedrian Johnson

James Okonkwo

Dimon Carrigan

Kobe Johnson

Seny N’Diaye

Taj Thweatt

Jamel King

Seth Wilson