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On this 21-part collection, I am going to rely down the 100 best Mountaineer males’s basketball gamers of all-time.
Admittedly this listing just isn’t scientific. It’s utterly subjective, and clearly opinions might differ. Please be at liberty to go to us message boards at BlueGoldNews.com to offer your individual ideas on this listing, both professional or con.
Under is one other installment on this prolonged collection with a rely down from No. 50-46.
Earlier Prime Gamers
100-96 95-91 90-86 80-76 75-71 70-66 65-61 60-56 55-51
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46 – Sagaba Konate (2017-19) – Within the fashionable period, no Mountaineer males’s basketball participant has gained extra nationwide consideration than Sagaba Konate, as his seemingly countless loop of shot-blicking movies drew lots of of hundreds of views. The defensive dominance by the 6-foot-8, 250-pound ahead was short-lived, although, as his faculty profession ended simply eight video games into his junior season. A local of Bamako, Mali, in West Africa, Konate got here to the US as a youngster, spending his remaining two highschool years at Kennedy Catholic in Western Pennsylvania. He arrived at WVU in the summertime of 2016 and rapidly made a splash within the faculty ranks. Though he wasn’t a lot of a scorer that first season (4.1 ppg), his shot blocking was already at an elite degree. He turned again 53 photographs that yr, which was essentially the most ever for a Mountaineer freshman. And it was solely a preview of what was to come back. As a sophomore, he improved by way of level manufacturing (10.8 per sport) and rebounding (7.6 per sport), and his shot blocking went to a degree West Virginia had by no means seen. His 116 blocked photographs in 2017-18 have been essentially the most in class historical past and have been the second most within the nation that season. He had 12 video games with 4 or extra blocks as a sophomore, together with a career-high 9 in a win at Baylor, equaling the varsity’s single-game document set by D’or Fischer in 2004. At season’s finish, by which WVU completed 26 -11 and superior to the NCAA’s Candy 16, Konate was voted third-team all-Large 12 and likewise to the league’s all-defensive workforce. Hampered by a knee harm early in his junior yr, Sags performed in eight of West Virginia’s first 9 video games that season. He averaged 13.6 factors per sport and had blocked 22 photographs in that point – giving him a college profession document of 191 – earlier than he shut issues down after an early December win over Pitt. Konate wouldn’t play one other sport for the Mountaineers. He did not go well with up the remainder of 2018-19, as WVU slid to 15-21 with out him, and after the season concluded, he determined to show professional. He was not chosen within the 2019 NBA Draft, though he did signal with the Toronto Raptors and was assigned to the workforce’s G League squad that subsequent season. He spent the previous three years enjoying professionally in Europe for groups in Spain, Greece and Italy. Sagaba averaged 8.7 factors, 5.9 rebounds and 0.9 blocked photographs for Allianz Pallacanestro Trieste in Italy Collection A this previous season.
47 – Taz Sherman (2020-22) – A 6-foot-4 capturing guard from Missouri Metropolis, Texas, Sherman spent two years at Collin Faculty, the place he was fourth within the nationwide junior faculty ranks as a scorer (25.9 ppg) in 2018-19 and earned second-team NJCAA All-American honors. He then enrolled at WVU, and over the following three years (the eligibility-free COVID season in 2020-21 allowed him to return as an excellent senior in 2021-22), Taz developed into the most effective guards within the Large 12. It it took him a yr to regulate to the main faculty degree, and he was largely a job participant in his season yr at West Virginia, averaging 5.3 factors per sport. His numbers shot up significantly in yr two (13.4 ppg, incomes him honorable point out all-Large 12 discover) and have been even higher in yr three (17.7 ppg). Sherman completed second within the Large 12 in scoring in 2021-22 and was named second-team all-league. Though he missed a number of video games due to sickness and harm in his time at WVU, he nonetheless was capable of rating 1,089 factors in his three years as a Mountaineer and made 139 (15thmost in class historical past) of 400 3-point makes an attempt (34.8%, the 11thfinest mark for these with no less than 400 makes an attempt). Sherman’s profession free throw price (83.2% on 218 of 262) is the fifth finest in West Virginia historical past and the very best amongst these with no less than 170 makes an attempt. A member of the Large 12 Commissioner’s honorary position, Sherman used his time at WVU to earn two bachelor’s levels.
48 – Pete White (1952-55) – Enjoying alongside All-People Mark Workman after which Sizzling Rod Hundley, the 6-foot-5 White was a wonderful complement to every. The Clendenin, West Virginia, native wasn’t an enormous issue on the courtroom his first two seasons, averaging simply 2.7 factors per sport in that stint, however he turned an increasing number of of a drive as a junior (10.4 ppg) and senior ( 15.8 ppg). The wiry White was an excellent leaper, which helped him on the glass. He averaged 12.0 rebounds per sport in his senior season and eight.0 for his profession. His single-season and profession rebounding averages are every among the many high 20 in class historical past even right this moment. He had a career-high 27 rebounds in a win over Pitt in 1955. Solely three different Mountaineers (Jerry West with 31, Mack Isner with 31 and Mark Workman with 30) have ever bettered that mark. With Hundley within the backcourt and Fred Schaus in his first season as head coach, White helped WVU to a 19-11 document and its first-ever Southern Convention Event title as a senior in 1954-55. That introduced the Mountaineers their first-ever NCAA Tourney berth. After a stint within the US Air Power, White returned to Charleston and labored within the finance and insurance coverage trade. His daughter, Anne White, was a profitable skilled tennis participant. Pete was inducted into the WVU Sports activities Corridor of Fame in 2019.
49 – Joe Stydahar (1933-36) – «Jumbo Joe’s» soccer status is known, however he was additionally one of many Mountaineers’ best basketball gamers in this system’s first 35 years of existence. Born in Kaylor, Pennsylvania, and raised in Shinnston, West Virginia, the 6-foot-4, 233-pound Stydahar was a dominating two-way lineman on the gridiron who was athletic sufficient to dam a still-standing school-record seven punts. in a single season (1934). His soccer capability attracted the eye of the Chicago Bears, who made him the sixth choose of the primary spherical in 1936. He was a four-time first-team All-Professional with the Bears and adopted that by teaching the Los Angeles Rams to the NFL title in 1951. He was inducted within the Faculty Soccer Corridor in 1956 and the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame in 1967. Sam Huff is the one different Mountaineer participant in each. Stydahar was wonderful on the basketball courtroom as effectively. He led the workforce in scoring in each 1932-33 (12.5 ppg) and 1933-34 (10.5 ppg). He adopted that by averaging 7.7 factors per sport in 1934-35. Rebounds weren’t a stat stored by faculty basketball groups again then, however since Joe was larger, stronger and extra athletic than most anybody else on the courtroom, we will solely think about what that quantity would have been. With professional soccer calling, he performed solely a handful of basketball video games his senior season earlier than heading off to the NFL. He had already confirmed his value on the courtroom, although, as his 24-point efficiency in opposition to West Virginia Wesleyan in 1933 was WVU’s single-game basketball scoring document till the Nineteen Forties. Stydahar continued to teach within the NFL till 1965. A member of the inaugural WVU Sports activities Corridor of Fame class in 1991, Stydahar handed away in 1976.
50 – Darris Nichols (2005-08) – A 6-foot-2 level guard from Radford, Virginia, Nichols mixed wonderful athletic expertise with a excessive degree of intelligence and excellent management. He was the last word coach on the ground, which now is sensible as he is grow to be a coach off the ground. Nichols served as an assistant coach within the faculty ranks for over a decade, together with six seasons (2015-21) on the College of Florida earlier than turning into the pinnacle coach at Radford previous to the 2021-22 marketing campaign. Earlier than he was a coach, Nichols was the consummate flooring normal for WVU coaches John Beilein after which Bob Huggins. Darris was a heavily-used backup at level guard behind JD Collins as a freshman (averaging 3.0 factors and 1.8 assists per sport) and sophomore (3.1 factors and 1.6 assists per sport), because the Mountaineers went to the NCAA’s Elite Eight and Candy 16. in these seasons. Nichols took over as the place to begin guard in 2006-07 and began each one of many 73 video games in his remaining two seasons. He averaged 10.9 factors and 4.6 assists per sport as a junior, main WVU (27-9) to the NIT championship. His 3-pointer proper earlier than the buzzer lifted the Mountaineers to a 63-62 win over Mississippi State within the NIT semifinals. Huggins took over as West Virginia’s coach the next season, and he inherited his good level guard in Nichols. The quiet murderer helped information WVU to a 26-11 document and the Candy 16 spherical of the NCAA Event by averaging 10.7 factors and three.2 assists per sport. For his faculty profession, Nichols scored 993 factors and handed out 399 assists in comparison with simply 135 turnovers. He’s eighth in Mountaineer historical past in whole assists and No. 1 in assist-to-turnover ratio – 2.96:1.