Darryl Bryant

The time has come upon us, when we think about books, clothes shopping and the joys that come with the beginning of the school year.

Of course I'm not talking about class, I'm talking about sports.

If there is something college aged kids love, it's sports...and maybe alcohol.

But in an attempt to keep this article "G-rated," I will disregard the latter and discuss my thoughts on this year's Mountaineer basketball team.

Despite losing many of their elder teammates at the conclusion of last season, West Virginia still has a plethora of talent available on their platter.

One would think this is a good thing, until they come to the realization that only four of those players have actually played in a college basketball game, ever.

Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins has a lot of work to do as he guides his team into the regular season.

Luckily, he's got the chance to start early and will do so when his team plays in a scrimmage against Illinois in a game near Venice, Italy.

Not only that, but his team will also take on two professional European teams during their time on the Mediterranean coast—all valuable practice for a group of players with six incoming freshmen.

Senior leadership will be hard to come by, as forward Kevin Jones and guard Darryl "Truck" Bryant are the only two seniors—and starters—returning to the team. Forward Deniz Kilicli played off the bench most of last season and forward Kevin Noreen was redshirted after playing only a few minutes.

The only two other players with any college experience are transfers Juwan Staten from Dayton and Aaric Murray from La Salle; but they both must sit out the season before they are eligible to play.

Bob Huggins is taking it in stride.

"At least they're not throwing it out of bounds," Huggins said during an interview after Friday's afternoon practice.

Huggins' team is starting extra early this year with additional exhibition games in the preseason. Normally, teams would not be permitted to play exhibition games before the start of the season against other American or collegiate teams, but the NCAA made an exception for the scrimmage against the Illini in Italy.

It's likely the Mountaineers will be relying heavily on the leadership of the more experienced players this year as the new freshmen develop and learn the Huggins offense.

With the WVU coach starting so many young players, it's likely he will develop this group to play a much faster style of offense; as Huggins used to run with the Cincinnati Bearcats.

A slow, grind-it-out offense is not what Huggins is accustomed to, despite having relatively good success with it during his last few seasons at West Virginia.

More national media coverage than ever will make things even more interesting.

To see how Coach Huggins rebuilds an entire team throughout the season will be one of the best stories this year in Morgantown.

More West Virginia Football

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More West Virginia Sports

- WVU Basketball: WVU, Illinois Set to Play in Italy for the Troops

- WVU Basketball: Aaric Murray: WVU Center Cut from US Basketball Team

Daniel Kablack is a College Basketball & College Football Writer for BigEastVoice.com

Most new guys spend a few hours a day together when they come to a new university and start summer practices.

The West Virginia men's basketball team will be spending every second together.

They better get used to it.

On Aug. 8, West Virginia will be heading to Italy for a short series of games across the sea. It just so happens that Illinois will be in the same city on the same day the Mountaineers are.

The Mountaineers are scheduled to play the Illinois Men's Basketball team on the 17th at an event to entertain U.S. soldiers stationed in Venice, Italy.

The activities will include a basketball clinic hosted by the West Virginia team for ages 12 and under as well as an opportunity for the U.S. Military athletic teams to take on the Mountaineers during a series of short scrimmages.

There will also be a slam dunk contest hosted by the student athletes, which new arrival Aaric Murray will not be participating in, as NCAA player transfer rules do not allow him to attend the trip to Italy.

The day will finish with WVU taking on Illinois in a scrimmage that will consist of two 10-minute halves.

According to Rusty Bryan of Europe SportsBlog on Stripes.com, the events will take place at Aviano Air Base just outside Venice, Italy. Both teams will play their military counterparts for 10 minutes. The youth camp is free and will be open to children ages 5 to 18 with proper military identification, the scrimmages, will also be free.

The NCAA had granted a waiver to disregard a rule that wouldn't allow two collegiate teams in the United States to play each other before the beginning of the season, but because of the nature of the event, the NCAA decided to allow it.

The Mountaineers team which consists of many new faces with only Darryl "Truck" Bryant, Kevin Jones and Deniz Kilicli returning to the team from last season. Forward Kevin Noreen is returning but only played a few minutes last season before being redshirted.

Though they have a lot of learning to do to pick up the new style of up-tempo offense WVU head coach Bob Huggins is trying to incorporate this season, the Mountaineers head coach is somewhat encouraged by their recent development.

Despite their lack of experience, this new Mountaineers team is loaded with talent and is pushing hard to get into rhythm and start winning games.

West Virginia is also expected to play against some other athletics teams during their trip to Italy, a full schedule will be released on Aug. 8.

When most college students are at home visiting family and friends or down at the shore enjoying the sand and sun, Aaric Murray was playing basketball.

The transfer from La Salle spent the summer practicing and working on his game as he tried out for the US Basketball team in the World University Games.

Murray had made the first cut when the initial roster of 21 collegiate players from across the country was cut to just 14.

Then on August 3rd, the team was cut to a 12-man roster, of which, Murray was not included.

That roster does include: Scoop Jardine (Syracuse), Draymond Green (Michigan State), Marcus Denmon (Missouri), Ashton Gibbs (Pitt), Tim Abromaitis (Notre Dame), Greg Mangano (Yale), Trevor Mbakwe (Minnesota), Darius Miller (Kentucky), Ray McCallum (Detroit Mercy), Orlando Johnson (UCSB), John Jenkins (Vanderbilt) and JaMychal Green (Alabama).

Murray had transferred from La Salle after deciding it would be a better choice of school for him to get some additional exposure.

Unfortunately, due to NCAA player transfer regulations, he will have to sit on the bench and wait out this season, but he hopes to be on the court next year. He will also not be able to join the rest of his team in August when they travel to Italy for some exhibition games.

In his two years at La Salle, Murray averaged 13 points, seven rebounds and two steals per game. Toward the end of his second season, he began playing much better, almost averaging a double-double for the Explorers.

His 6'10" frame will add much needed height to a Mountaineers squad who could use some taller players to match up with the other star players of the powerhouses in the Big East conference.

Despite having to wait another season, Aaric Murray is showing he could end up being great.

By that time the Mountaineers may be back to running things the way Ole Bob Huggins, likes to run offense, fast.

Although in the past few seasons we've seen a very slow, grind-it-out type of game plan by the Mountaineers, I fully expect the coach to get back to what won him so many games when he coached at Cincinnati.

Murray seems to have come to appreciate the game more after participating in the World University Games tryouts, hopefully this will encourage him to encourage his teammates to come together and accomplish the ultimate goal of bringing home a championship to Morgantown.

In the game of basketball, successful teams shoot the ball well. Notre Dame did just the opposite Saturday afternoon in a 72-58 loss to the Mountaineers of West Virginia. The Irish shot 35 percent from the field (21-of-60) including an abysmal 29 percent from three (8-of-27).

Bob Huggins' West Virginia squad countered by shooting 40 percent from the field (22-of-54). The dagger was their lights out shooting from behind the arc. The Mountaineers made eight-of-20 three-point attempts. They also converted 20-of-27 free throws.

In all five of Notre Dame's losses this season, the Irish have scored between 54 and 58 points—well under their season average of 75.6 points per game.

Despite their shooting struggles, Ben Hansbrough was able to add to his Big East Player of the Year credentials by scoring 19 points to go along with seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.

West Virginia was led by Darryl "Truck" Bryant's 24 points. Joe Mazzulla chipped in 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Saturday also marked West Virginia's third win over the Irish in the teams' last four head-to-head contests.

The game became chippy midway through the second half with both head coaches receiving technical fouls. Bob Huggins became furious when the officials missed a hard foul Carleton Scott put on Joe Mazzulla as he was driving the lane for a layup. WVU assistant coaches literally had to bear hug him to prevent him from running out onto the court.

This game was reminiscent of Irish squads from years past. The starters played a majority of the game. The bench contributed no points to the effort. Notre Dame needs to have its bench contribute if they hope to achieve their goal of advancing deep in the Big East and NCAA tournaments. 

The Irish are in action next this Wednesday (2/23) at Providence.

With his team preparing to take the court against DePaul on Saturday afternoon, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins was feeling a bit uneasy.

"I was nervous as can be before the game," Huggins said. "This is one we had to have."

Huggins is a man known to prowl the sidelines with a gruff outward demeanor, save of course for an occasional stink-eye pointed toward a referee, so it's unusual to hear him admit any weakness, especially against a Blue Demon team that hasn't won since 2010 and is currently sporting a 0-12 conference record.

Welcome to life in the Big East.

It turns out it wasn't DePaul that made Huggins nervous, rather a remaining schedule that would send any coach with dreams of the Big Dance looking for some Rolaids.

Six games left for West Virginia, five of them against ranked teams. Combine that with their recent losses to No. 4 Pittsburgh and No. 14 Villanova, and the Mountaineers will finish their regular season with seven of nine games against top-20 teams.

In case you are wondering, since the AP poll was first introduced in 1948, West Virginia has never played a stretch this difficult.

Welcome to life in the Big East.

It begins tonight at Syracuse, a team the Mountaineers have beaten just once in their last 12 contests. Things won't get easier after that, with No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 4 Pittsburgh, No. 9 UConn and No. 15 Louisville all looming on the schedule.

Assuming West Virginia doesn't suddenly learn how to shoot better than the 43 percent they are currently firing, they are looking at at least a few losses coming down the stretch. The question then becomes: When will their standing in the field of 64 (sorry, 68) come into question?

If by some miracle the Mountaineers could go 3-3 over their final six games the drama is gone and West Virginia will be in. Anything less than that, Mountaineer Nation will be on pins and needles come Selection Sunday.

Joe Lunardi, the resident "bracketologist" at ESPN, currently has the Mountaineers in the tournament as a No. 6 seed, one of 11 Big East teams slated to make it. If that seems like a big number, it is, considering that no conference has ever sent more than eight teams to the Dance.

With eight teams separated by three games in the standings, the toughest conference in basketball is screaming towards one of the best finishes in league history, and a potentially epic conference tournament.

And if what has transpired thus far this season is any indication, West Virginia will be sweating bullets the whole way through.

Welcome to life in the Big East.

When Darryl "Truck" Bryant came to West Virginia three years ago, he did so as one of the crown jewels of Bob Huggins' first recruiting class for the Mountaineers. An ESPNU Top 100 prospect, graded at 92nd overall, and was expected to man the point for West Virginia's return to national prominence.

In the two-and-a-half seasons since then, Truck has been a solid point guard, averaged 10.4 points for his career, was a starter on the Mountaineers' first Final Four team in half a century and seemed to find his niche as a consistent third option on offense. However, after a very tumultuous week in Morgantown that saw the team lose two players, including leading scorer Casey Mitchell possibly for the year, West Virginia's season could hinge on Bryant's ability to be much more than that.

At 13-5, West Virginia's season has exceeded expectations thanks to their ability to adopt their coach's playing style: doing the little things, playing tough-as-nails defense and thriving on offensive rebounds. As important as those things are to succeed in college basketball, it's hard to compete in March without someone who can take over a game offensively.

That's where Truck comes in.

Of the remaining players on the West Virginia roster, Bryant is the only one with the potential to become a go-to scorer. Kevin Jones has had a very nice year, averaging nearly 14 points per game, but his offense comes from rebounds and broken plays. Deniz Kilicli has some great low-post moves, but is way too raw to depend on consistently. John Flowers and Joe Mazzulla have emerged as great "glue-guys," but neither will ever light up a scoreboard. That leaves Bryant as the Mountaineer with the best chance of tossing up a 25-point night, much like he did earlier this season against Marquette. 

If Bryant is able to improve on his current 12.1 PPG average while still running the offense it will allow the rest of the team to do what they do best. Flowers can focus on crashing the boards with fellow banger Cam Thoroughman, and Mazzulla can use his speed to get to the basket. Most importantly, Jones can stay in the paint, where he is one of the best scorers in the Big East.

Thus far in his career Bryant has yet to consistently put up numbers, but that doesn't mean he can't. With De'Sean Butler and Devan Ebanks on the roster the past two seasons Bryant was a third-option at best, and has been sharing the backcourt with the shot-happy Mitchell most of this season. Now, with Mitchell gone for at least a few games, it's time to see what Truck can do.

Coming out of high school, ESPN called Bryant "a combo guard with the ability to light it up offensively." With the teeth of the Big East schedule ahead of them, West Virginia needs that Truck Bryant to emerge. Their Big Dance chances might just depend on it.

On Wednesday night, West Virginia lost 81-71 to St. John’s.

It was the first time they lost to the Red Storm since all the way back in 2002, Gale Catlett’s last season in Morgantown. All game long, the Mountaineers were flat out beat by a St. John’s team who, despite being much improved from last season, shouldn’t have beaten West Virginia at the Coliseum.

But this isn’t your normal West Virginia basketball team. This group just doesn’t have it like it did last season.

The first thing that the Mountaineers are missing, and it was very evident on Wednesday, is a legitimate go-to scorer that the team can look to to make a big shot with the game on the line. Of course last year, Da’Sean Butler filled this role, making game-winner after game-winner to lead WVU to a Big East Tournament Championship and its first Final Four appearance since the Jerry West era.

And when Butler graduated, that role was left empty and nobody has yet to step in to fill it for this team.

Against the Red Storm, when the Mountaineers cut the lead to three points, who took the shot to try to tie the game up?

Dalton Pepper.

Not who you want taking a big shot.

Through the first few games of the season, it looked like Casey Mitchell was going to be the guy to step into the role that Butler filled last season after his performance in the first seven games of the year. Mitchell was averaging 21.7 points per game, including a four-game stretch where he scored at least 25 points.

But since then, the senior has cooled off remarkably and, quite frankly, is just too streaky to be considered as a go-to guy on any team in the Big East.

Another guy that a lot of people have thought of as a possibility to be the main guy with the game on the line is junior point guard Truck Bryant. Armed with a similar playing style as Connecticut point guard Kemba Walker, unfortunately Truck can be thrown in the same boat as Mitchell as somebody who just hasn’t been consistent enough to be considered a top-level scorer like Walker has emerged as in the early part of the season for the Huskies.

And then there’s Kevin Jones. At the beginning of the season, he was the obvious pick to be the main scorer and, by far, one of the top players in the Big East. In fact, he was even picked as the Big East Player of the Year by a few college basketball writers — including this one.

Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, Jones just hasn’t adapted to the role of being the team’s main attraction as well as some had hoped. In fact, it looks like he’s much more comfortable as a secondary player, much like he was when Butler and Devin Ebanks were at WVU a year ago.

The second major problem that this West Virginia team is going to have as they get into Big East play is the lack of a post presence that it has.

In the Big East, you need to have a big, physical team in order to have success. This WVU team just doesn’t have it.

When you look at Deniz Kilicli and Danny Jennings, you see two big bodies you have the ability to be something special. They both have had little bursts early in the season that could make you believe that, given time, they could be very productive players in Bob Huggins’ system and the Big East. But they just don’t look like they’re getting it at this point in the season and that’s going to be very detrimental in the amount of success that this team is going to be able to have against some of the top teams in the conference.

Kilicli is a very gifted player on the offensive end of the floor, but still hasn’t improved as much on the defensive end and rebounding as much as he was expected to over the offseason. And Jennings is about the polar opposite of Kilicli. A much better defensive player, Jennings provides West Virginia with a reliable rebounder and a major threat to block shots. But if you want to see the true definition of being lost on the offensive end, look no further than the 6-foot-8 sophomore.

The two guys who are supposed to be major threats in the low post, just aren’t quite good enough just yet, to help the Mountaineers make a run in the Big East this season. And it’s not that they don’t have the talent to do it, it just doesn’t look like they have improved enough from where they were last season to make a large impact.

Look at all the Big East champions from the past five years, every one of them have had both a big-time, impact scorer and a reliable post presence down low.

West Virginia doesn’t have either right now and until that changes, expect a lot of troubles for the Mountaineers in Big East play.

Michael Carvelli covers West Virginia University men's and women's basketball for The Daily Athenaeum and you can follow him on Twitter, www.twitter.com/Carvelli3.

Ryan Boatright didn’t exactly start his Mountaineer career off with a bang, as one of the top high school recruits in the country invoked a little Lebron Jamesism by announcing, “I look forward to taking my talent elsewhere to the University of West Virginia.”  Once he straps on the blue and gold, Boatright will notice that it’s actually WVU-West Virginia University, but nonetheless, it is likely Bobby Huggins and the Mountaineer faithful will overlook the misstep and be happy to see this dynamic guard running the point in the very near future.  

Boatright is widely considered a top 50 high school recruit for the class of 2011, and during his announcement cited Bob Huggins record of success with smaller guards, specifically Nick Van Exel, when Huggins was at Cincinnati.  While his initial playing time will be largely determined by the success of current junior Mountaineer point guard Darryl “Truck” Bryant, and incoming freshman Noah Cottrill, there is little doubt that Huggins sees Boatright as a tremendous talent.  Widely considered the best scoring guard in the country, Boatright will immediately upgrade the firepower in the Mountaineer backcourt.

What remains to be seen is how Boatright’s decision will impact another top potential Mountaineer recruit, Jabarie Hinds.  Hinds is from Mount Vernon, New York, and knows fellow former Mount Vernon prep standout and current Mountaineer star Kevin Jones quite well.  Many thought that might give West Virginia an inside track in recruiting the star point guard.  But with Boatright’s commitment and the freshman Cottrill already in Morgantown, it’s going to take one heck of a sales job by Huggins, if he still intends to pursue Hinds.    

What really makes the Boatright decision great for Mountaineer fans is that all great players love to play with a top notch point guard, and what Boatright brings is immediate credibility to the Mountaineer’s 2011 recruiting class.  With Huggins and the program in hot pursuit of two more top 100 recruits in center Michael Chandler and power forward Mike Shaw, it will be an enormous advantage for the coaches to extol the virtues of having top flight point guard Boatright delivering the ball to both big men in the post.

Signing day is Nov. 10, but it is being widely reported that verbal commitments are likely from both Shaw and Chandler within the next week.  West Virginia will keep its collective fingers crossed that either one or both young men choose to join the talented Boatright in Morgantown.

SYRACUSE, N.Y.—It was a bit startling to see how cheery the West Virginia players acted Wednesday during the pre-Sweet 16 media sessions after learning Darryl "Truck" Bryant would miss the rest of the season with a fractured foot.

Although this team is seemingly always in good spirits, it should come as a surprise that there was not the slightest moment the Mountaineers appeared worried over the loss of their point guard.

"I know [Bryant] has faith in us that we can win the game," senior forward Da'Sean Butler said. "I don't see where the whole panic about everything will be."

Whether they want to admit it or not, there should be a little panic in Morgantown. Coach Bob Huggins realizes he's left with just one reliable guard—Joe Mazzulla—on his roster.

"I don't know if [Mazzulla] can go 40 minutes, but I think he can go 35," Huggins said. "We're still trying to figure out which is the best direction to go."

If Mazzulla doesn't go the full 40, then that means Huggins will be forced to use reserve guard Casey Mitchell or go with a five-forward lineup. Mitchell is more of a chucker than any kind of point guard.

Yes, a five-forward lineup failed miserably against Purdue. With Washington's strong transition attack that Huggins called the best in the country, West Virginia could be burned on the fast break.

That's a mismatch Huggins will have to deal with, but, at the same time, West Virginia's four- or five-forward lineups should also give Washington coach Lorenzo Romar headaches.

"I do know that between [Devin] Ebanks, [Da'Sean] Butler, and [Kevin] Jones, they're pretty good," Romar said. "And those guys are still playing, and they're going to be pretty effective."

Romar is right. They should be effective—extremely effective, to be precise.

Washington likely will have a sub-six-foot guard on the floor at all times and could have two on if Isaiah Thomas and Venoy Overton enter the game at the same time. That means one of them will be forced to guard someone a good seven or eight inches taller than he is.

With the way West Virginia's array of wing players can score and offensively rebound in the post, a disaster could be brewing.

"We're going to have to adjust to whatever they're doing just like they're probably going to adjust to whatever we're doing," guard Isaiah Thomas said.

West Virginia's adjusting will be most noticeable in terms of the scoring the school will get out of its point guard.

Thomas described Bryant's game well, but he's more than what the Washington guard gave him credit for: "His name explains it. 'Truck.' He was just a strong guard from New York City who handled the ball, and he played hard."

Bryant has developed into the team's fourth leading scorer and second-best threat from deep. His replacement, junior Joe Mazzulla, isn't much of a scorer at all, as he's played through a bum shoulder that slowly improves as the season progresses.

"My role doesn't really change," Mazzulla said. "Obviously I have to play a little bit smarter to try to stay out of foul trouble. I just try and contribute to the team and what Huggs asks."

Mazzulla shouldn't try to score more. He's not on the floor with Truck often, so when on the floor as the only guard he should continue to let the game come to him as normal and let the other four weapons on the floor score as they always do.

For more info, updates, and stories on college basketball (or even links to videos of West Virginia players dancing around like idiots in their hotels), follow @JamesonFleming on Twitter. He'll be covering the East Regionals in Syracuse and the Final Four in Indianapolis for Bleacher Report.

WVU starting point guard Darryl "Truck" Bryant suffered a broken bone in his right foot during Tuesday's practice and will miss the remainder of the NCAA tournament.

The biggest thing WVU will lose is his offense. Bryant, a sophomore, was averaging 9.3 points per game—although he had been struggling lately. He had not scored in double digits since the regular-season finale victory over Villanova. He was averaging just 2.3 points per game during his last six games.

For the Mountaineers, this means redshirt junior Joe Mazzulla will take over the starting role. Mazzulla had been the Mountaineers' starting point guard his sophomore year and led WVU to the Sweet 16. He was the starter last year before a shoulder injury caused him to redshirt.

Mazzulla has been getting the majority of playing time since the Big East tournament. In the last five games, he has averaged 22 minutes, 4.4 points, three assists, and one turnover per game.

He is also a better defender than Bryant—and he played over Bryant when WVU went to its 1-3-1 defense. Mazzulla is not the shooting threat Bryant is, but he plays better defense and is less careless with the ball.

The person this move will affect the most is forward Da'Sean Butler. Butler played the point for the Mountaineers earlier in the year, when Mazzulla was getting healthy. This will cause him to have to lead the offense and not be the first option—as he normally is. The Mountaineers have no other point guards on their roster.

Butler will likely see five to 10 minutes at the point. Sophomore Devin Ebanks played a little at the point in the beginning of the year, and he could fill in for a couple of minutes to give Butler and Mazzulla a rest.

When Mazzulla is resting and Butler is playing the point, junior guard Casey Mitchell will likely come in and play at the shooting guard position. Mitchell is a junior college transfer, and he was named the Junior College Player of the Year in 2009.

While Mitchell has not played a lot—mainly because he hasn't played well on defense—he is the most likely candidate to fill in when Butler is at the point. The other candidate is freshman Dalton Pepper, who has not played in five of the last eight games.

If Mitchell continues to play well on the defensive end, he will likely see about 10 minutes a game—giving Mazzulla a break and keeping him out of foul trouble.

WVU can still go far in the NCAA tournament—but Mazzulla and Mitchell will have to step up in a big way.