Kevin Jones, West Virginia Ready for Climb Back to Top, Despite Rocky Start

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – It's agreed that this will not be the West Virginia team of past years under coach Bob Huggins. The Mountaineers simply don't have the same type of athletes they have featured those past three seasons, punctuated by last year's bunch that made a memorable run to the NCAA Final Four and won its first Big East title.

With that in mind, junior forward Kevin Jones is one player asked to assume a larger role this season. He is the team's top returning scorer, rebounder and 3-point shooter. Quiet by nature, Jones also realizes he needs to be more vocal when needed.

Thursday afternoon was one of those times following West Virginia's 84-70 win over Davidson in the opening game of the eight-team Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament at the Coliseo De Puerto Rico.

"I think sometimes we play too fast, get ahead of ourselves and we didn't share the ball, especially in the second half, like we should," Jones told FanHouse. "We need to take care of that right now because that will be a concern going forward in the season and we play better teams.

"We have to make that an emphasis."

The Mountaineers (2-0) won as expected, and there's really no reason why they shouldn't advance into Sunday's finale against tourney favorite North Carolina. West Virginia built an early advantage over winless Davidson (0-2) and led by as many as 19 points midway into the second half.

Yet, the Mountaineers lacked rhythm on offense as Jones cited, and were, once again, pedestrian on the boards against an overmatched opponent.

Huggins described it doubly as ineptitude and ineptness, but, oh, he was actually referring to West Virginia's 31-of-49 touch from the foul line. The 49 attempts were a tournament record as 67 fouls were whistled in the game.

"That means we suck," Huggins said of his team's free-throw percentage (63.3).

The Mountaineers certainly need to be much better from the foul line, and there's plenty other areas that need to be polished.

It's also not a surprise they are underrated in the preseason polls due to the loss of Da'Sean Butler, Devin Ebanks and Wellington Smith from last year's team

While history has taught us that Huggins postures and prods as well as any coach, there's a sense that West Virginia expected to be sharper, even for November.

The Mountaineers, who will face Vanderbilt in Friday's semifinal, return 10 players, five of whom are seniors. Jones started all 38 games last year and point guard Darryl Bryant, who suffered a broken right foot during the NCAA tourney and missed the Final Four, has started 60 career games.

"We should be a lot better," Huggins said.

"We should be a lot better. ... We're not playing a bunch of freshmen. The 10 guys that we played all were here a year ago and the majority of them played in virtually every game."
-- West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins "We're not playing a bunch of freshmen. The 10 guys that we played all were here a year ago and the majority of them played in virtually every game."

The Mountaineers often appear to be a team with several interchangeable parts under Huggins. However, they may also try to play more with their backs to the basket on offense to take advantage of an improved inside presence.

Yet, that approach also remains a work in progress.

West Virginia has just one more rebound than its first two opponents in Oakland and Davidson, though Thursday's total (40-39) was distorted by the Mountaineers' 18 missed free throws. They are also searching for an identity on offense after feeding off Butler last season.

"It has been a concern since Day 1," Huggins said of his team's rebounding. "Part of it is we don't run offense the way we ran offense before. We don't give ourselves a chance to rebound."

Like Jones, Bryant also cited a lack of continuity on offense, especially in the second half against a Davidson team that fell two points shy (42-41) of outscoring the Mountaineers.

"We just really weren't running the offense as good as we were in the first half," Bryant explained. "In the second half we started jogging through, so everything closed up."

Jones, who has scored just 19 points on 8-of-21 shooting in two games, plans to open up more this season, too.

He attended Kevin Durant's Basketball Camp in Chicago last summer and concentrated on improving his ball handling and shot selection in the offseason. He's not worried the Mountaineers are being overlooked nationally and is determined to flourish when the focus is on him.

The Mountaineers were picked fifth in the Big East, but they also certainly have the talent -- despite a different look -- to challenge for the conference title.

"We would look at it as a surprise but we have enough games on TV where we can showcase our talents and people can see what we can do so we are not really worried about all that," Jones said of the team's lack of preseason hugs.

"Coach (Huggins) challenged me to accept whatever a team throws at me and I am just taking that challenge as well as looking for my teammates. (Thursday) was a back-and-forth game with all the fouls...but we were able to hit some free throws and get some clutch baskets at the end."