WELP, my site is down again so it looks like I’ll be watching this game after the fact as well. Shoutout to WVURxMan. I’m a little bummed only because I now have to avoid any spoilers and hide my notifications on my phone because I want my reactions to be authentic. I’m really excited for this one though because we’ll have a chance to start the year 5–0 which would be our best start since the 2022–2023 season.
Before the game even starts I HAVE to tell you about this new recruit we signed and Coach Hodge got him a good one. Miles Sadler, a kid from Canada is a 5-star prospect and he had offers from Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Arizona State and he chose us. Can you believe it? Now, he’s a little small; he’s 5’10 (some sites say 6′ but I don’t know) but the kid can HOOP. He said that he chose WVU because he likes the system that Coach Hodge runs, and that is music to my ears. I think that (as long as he stays) a backcourt of Amir Jenkins and Miles Sadler could be dangerous, but unfortunately we’ll have to wait. Also, as it stands right now, WVU has the 16th highest rated recruiting class. I could get used to that, and we still have A LOT of recruiting left to do.
The second half of the game was really a great example of how different a Ross Hodge squad is vs. a Bob Huggins squad. The defense is still there, obviously. At the time of writing, WVU has the 3rd fewest points against in the entire country and we’re nationally known as a top-15ish defense in the country. The main difference is that we’ve FINALLY have some offensive firepower to pair with it. Honor Huff came out of the gate and hit two heat check three’s, and after scoring 15 in the first half, this was just his night.
It’s not just him either. There are 4–5 guys who could go off on any given night for this team and I think that will come in handy come March. What I thought was special about this game is that everyone knew that Honor was on a heater and let him cook. There were times where you could see the guys give up a shot that maybe they’d usually take to get Honor Huff going. Now, he’s still streaky as all hell but when he’s on, he is ON.
The other story of this game was the breakout performance of true freshman DJ Thomas. I know that I’ve talked about him a couple times through these first five games but he really came alive tonight. Some one had to play the Robin role in this game to help Honor Huff out, and DJ stepped up. He just looked so comfortable out there tonight. Finished with 25/3/1 and shot 11/17 from the field. Again I will say, if we can keep DJ in Morgantown I think he’ll end up being a huge problem for every other team in the nation.
The only thing that could have made this game better is if Amir Jenkins had a breakout game too. He did well, don’t get me wrong (finished with 9/3/5/1 steal), but with Honor playing the way he did we just had to ride the hot hand. Sooner or later this season we’ll have a game where these two Freshman carry us to a victory and hopefully that reaction to them balling out will be enough to convince them to stay in Morgantown. You never know how things will go now with the transfer portal (I know how much you hated it) so I’m skeptical, but I’ll be singing their praises until they aren’t wearing that Old Gold and Blue anymore.
The last 12 minutes or so of the game were essentially a formality. Lafayette never got super close, WVU looked dominant, and at about the 4 minute mark Coach Hodge pulled off the dogs. Honor Huff got pulled for the night around that mark, and that’s a shame because I wanted him to go for the school 3 point record, but he still had one hell of a game. He finished the game with 24 points, 1 steal, and hit 8 3’s.
Toward the end of the game, with about 2 and a half minutes left, I saw something I really liked. Lafayette hit a shot to cut the lead to 12 and Coach Hodge called a timeout. He wasn’t angry, he wasn’t belligerent, he was just calm. It seems like he has a clear line of communication with his guys and he doesn’t have to yell and scream to get his point across. He got his guys collected and the message was clear: stop playing with your food and finish the job. The boys did just that and won the game by 22.
With the win we are now 5–0, and we’ve looked as good and any team that we’ve ever had. Obviously it is very early in the season but I mean, we play tune up games every year, and I can’t remember the last time we looked this good five games in. I said after the last game that I think we have a chance to go undefeated before conference play, and this game gives me even more confidence.
The site I use started working at half time, so I was able to watch half of this game. I was going to wait on the upload to YouTube to watch the first half but it’s 11 pm now and it’s still not live. I’m not as young as I once was so I’m going to have to call it a night. Maybe I come back tomorrow and edit this post to include my thoughts from the first half but for now, I’m going to head to bed.
I love you, Pops. I’ll talk to you Friday when we play Clemson. I miss you.
Round The Game 
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