By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD —
Rest assured, that run to the Final Four by the West Virginia men’s basketball team was no fluke.
Erik Martin sees no reason why it can’t happen again, and long before another 51 years goes by.
“We should be in the title hunt every year,” said Martin, an assistant coach under Bob Huggins for the Mountaineers. “If you had asked us last year if we thought we were going to the Final Four, we would have said, ‘yeah’ and most people would have looked at us like we were crazy.”
Think what you want, the Mountaineers expect to be back. Soon.
“Eight of our top 11 are coming back,” said Martin, who was at the Bluefield Elks Club on Wednesday night for the Mountaineer Athletic Club’s Coaches Caravan. “All of those guys got a lot of experience in a deep Final Four run so that can only help you for next year.
“Hopefully if our guys do what they are supposed to do this summer, and work on their games, we should be back at the Final Four next year.”
West Virginia finished with a 31-7 record — the most wins in school history — won the Big East tournament title, and kept on winning, advancing to the Final Four before losing to eventual national champion Duke.
Martin — who played in the Final Four with Huggins and Cincinnati in 1992 — won’t soon forget what this latest experience was like.
“Every time I watch our end of the year video it still gives me chills in my spine and my heart is beating by the time it ends,” said Martin, of West Virginia’s first Final Four run since 1959. “It has sunk in, but I’ll be honest, I am excited about next year with what we have got coming back. It was a great year, but I am ready to move on.”
Huggins made the trip to Mercer County for this annual function last spring, but Martin took his place on Wednesday. It was his first trip to this part of West Virginia.
“I’m looking forward to being here,” Martin said. “I hear there are a lot of good Mountaineer fans down here and anywhere you can go and touch the people that support you helps out your program and the university.
“Any time you can meet fans, it is a good thing. I really didn’t expect as many people as I have seen in there so it’s just a great following down here for the Mountaineers.”
West Virginia will return to the hardwood next season without two key members of that Final Four squad, Da’Sean Butler — who made numerous clutch baskets for the Mountaineers and then suffered a gruesome knee injury in the loss to Duke — and Devin Ebanks, who chose to leave early for the NBA.
“Da’Sean is probably in better spirits than I would be if the situation had happened to me,” Martin said. “That is pretty much Da’Sean’s core, a good-natured guy, he understands this happened for a reason...
“I don’t know what kind of impact, but Devin is definitely an NBA player. He’s got NBA skills, most people I have talked to have him going anywhere from 20th, late first and early second round.”
Butler continues to rehab, leaving his position in the June draft very much in doubt.
“I’ve spoken to NBA teams, some people say late first, some people say second, some people say not at all, most people say next year Da’Sean will be on an NBA roster,” Martin said. “Nothing surprises me about those guys in the NBA, the way they do their homework, it is different from what a college coach would do.
“I think with Da’Sean’s history, being a hard worker, a great guy, why not draft him. You know he’s a hard worker, he’s going to get his rehab done and probably be back to the first round pick he was before he blew out his knee.”
Despite those losses, West Virginia will get back Darryl “Truck” Bryant, who missed most of the NCAA tournament with a broken foot. Add Kevin Jones, John Flowers, Dan Jennings, Deniz Kilicli, Joe Mazzulla and a talented incoming class, including Logan’s Noah Cottrill and 7-foot-1 David Nyarsuk, and Martin is excited about the prospects ahead.
“I’d like to tell you what we will look like next year, but I am not sure,” Martin said. “I feel real good about what we have coming back.
“When you can start with Kevin Jones and Truck Bryant, two guys who have played a lot of minutes, you throw in Joe Mazzulla, who was there for our run, and John Flowers has been there for all that too.
“I think we have got a great team. Who is going to get the last shot and take Da’Sean’s shots, I don’t know, but we are going to look totally different because we will not have an inside presence and be able to throw the ball in the box.”
Martin said that much will depend on offseason workouts, something the players will largely have to do on their own.
“I think you do your most improving in the summer time as a basketball player,” Martin said.
“NCAA rules, we can’t work with our players at all in the summer so it is really a summer about what do you have inside yourself.
“If you need a coach in there cracking the whip and getting you to work, you are probably not going to be a good player. Most of the guys that can get themselves in the gym and get their priorities in order and work on their game, you’ll see a lot of improvement out of them next year.”
One constant at West Virginia is Huggins, who just completed his third season with the Mountaineers. Martin thinks he knows why Huggins has been so successful, winning 670 games in 28 seasons on the sidelines.
“He’s a sincere man. With Hugs, it is kind of what he is is what he is,” Martin said. “Hugs would be the same in West Virginia as he would if he were in California. Kids see that and they know there is no phony him so kids want to run through a wall for him, I know I did.”
While West Virginia fell short of a national title, Butler nearly pulled it off, losing by two points to the Blue Devils. Martin definitely noticed the surprising Bulldogs’ success.
“I was surprised, but it is really about what you do when the tournament comes,” Martin said. “Butler was hot, I knew once they beat Syracuse (in the regional semifinals) that they were going to make a run.
“Did I think they would go to the championship game? I didn’t know, but to beat Syracuse, even without the big fellow (an injured Arinze Onuaku), you’re pretty good.”
So was West Virginia. Getting back to the Final Four and going even further is still the goal for the Mountaineers. Martin is anxious to get started on another run in that direction.
“If those aren’t your goals, what are you really going to do,” Martin said. “Our goal is to win a national championship. We didn’t, but we made it to the Final Four.
“I don’t see why this can’t be an every year thing for us. We’re bringing in good recruits, Hugs is a hall of fame coach, this is a great state, and we get great support.
“This should be the norm, not something that happens every 51 years.”
— Contact Brian Woodson
at bwoodson@bdtonline.com
