MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia fans get a chance to see the Mountaineers’ new-look roster at 7 p.m. Friday in a charity exhibition against Bowling Green at the Coliseum.
The contest, which can be seen through Big 12 Now on ESPN+, benefits the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Endowment Fund and marks West Virginia’s only exhibition before the November 7 season opener against Mount St. Mary’s.
It is not the first time the Mountaineers have gone against a different team as they defeated Dayton in a closed scrimmage last Saturday at Bethany College.
“We’re getting better,” head coach Bob Huggins said ahead of his 16th season at West Virginia. “The Dayton scrimmage was good for us. They’re picking things up. You have to throw a lot at them in a short period of time. We have so many guys coming from so many different ways to play the game. There’s so many different sets and whether you press, play man, play zone or whatever. It’s a different culture.”
Nine of West Virginia’s 14 players were not with the Mountaineers last season when they finished 16-17 overall and 4-14 within the Big 12 Conference, leaving them last in the league standings.
Two of those nine won’t be in action Friday as forwards Tre Mitchell and Pat Suemnick are sidelined with preseason injuries.
Mitchell, a Texas transfer, was held out of the annual Gold-Blue Debut Scrimmage on October 14, at which time he had a walking boot on his foot. Huggins confirmed Thursday that Mitchell has yet to practice.
“He’s going to be a little longer, but he gets better daily,” Huggins said of Mitchell.
Suemnick, who previously played at Triton College, was also held out of the scrimmage two weeks ago and recently underwent a knee procedure.
“There’s things that happen that you can’t control,” Huggins said. “It’s the best thing for Pat and in the long run, it’s the best thing for us. He’s going to be a lot better for it and the same thing with Tre.”
Otherwise, seven new additions could see action against the Falcons, including likely starters Erik Stevenson and Emmitt Matthews, who is back at WVU after three seasons with the Mountaineers and most recently one at Washington.
Point guard Joe Toussaint, an Iowa transfer, made a strong impression against the Flyers.
“He was really good the Dayton game,” Huggins said. “Walking out of there, he may have been the guy that we felt like played the best of anybody.”
Toussaint gives the Mountaineers a third healthy Power 5 Conference transfer to go with Matthews and Stevenson, who previously played at Wichita State, Washington and South Carolina. Stevenson among the team’s most experienced players and being counted on to provide perimeter shooting.
“He has days when you say, ‘Wow’, and he makes every shot, and then there’s days you say, ‘Wow, is he going to make one ever again? That happens to everybody,” Huggins said. “A lot of it is just being comfortable. When you miss shots early in the year, you start worrying about what are the coaches thinking or my teammates thinking and you don’t really concentrate the way you should on making shots.”
Post players Mohamed Wague and Jimmy Bell be in action at the Coliseum for the first time against another team after arriving from the junior college ranks. Both factor heavily into the front court rotation.
“I might be a little nervous just being in a new arena,” Bell said. “The Coliseum is a little different, but I’m excited for sure. I got my confidence up to where it needs to be and I’m ready to play.”
Guard Kedrian Johnson is West Virginia’s most productive returner from last season and has a strong understanding of the program.
Each of the other four returnees — guards Kobe Johnson and Seth Wilson and forwards Jamel King and forward James Okonkwo — are entering their second season.
“I have a bigger role and I can do a lot of things for this team,” Kobe Johnson said.
True freshman Josiah Harris and Josiah Davis will debut on their new home court and the duo has made a strong initial impression on Huggins.
“Our freshmen are playing pretty well,” Huggins said. “It’s been competitive, which is good. You can’t go in there and not be really competitive. If you do, you’re going to look bad.”
The Falcons finished 13-18 last season and return eight players, including point guard Kaden Metheny.
Metheny is a Morgantown native who starred at University High and the Hawks to the 2019 Class AAA state championship before garnering the Bill Evans Award as West Virginia’s most outstanding high school basketball player a season later.
He has started 36 games in two seasons at BG, though Metheny was limited to the first 10 games last season before being shutdown due to an ankle injury.
“If I’m looking to see effort, we’re not where I think we are,” Huggins said. “Our effort should be and I would think will be very good. It’s different than what we just experienced with Dayton. Dayton runs a lot of different things. They rely a lot on perimeter shooting as does Bowling Green, but Bowling Green is more penetrate to pitch than flare screens and those kind of things. It’s good for us. Metheny is going to push the ball, so for transition defense, it’s going to be really good for us.”