The 2022-2023 season is almost underway for the West Virginia men’s basketball team, and this year’s team is much different than a year ago.
Historically, Bob Huggins teams are generally known for two things: defense and rebounding.
Last season, the Mountaineers had a strong start to the season, starting 11-1 in nonconference play, but the defense and rebounding both got exposed once Big 12 Conference play rolled around.
West Virginia finished 4-14 in Big 12 play, and a lot of that was in part to ineffective and inconsistent play around the basket.
Huggins took to the transfer portal again, bringing in Tre Mitchell from Texas, and finding Jimmy Bell Jr., Mohamed Wague, and Patrick Suemnick from the JUCO level.
Mitchell was the highlight of the offseason for the Mountaineers, as the 6-foot-9 forward brings a successful scoring resume with him across three seasons at UMASS and Texas.
Mitchell averaged 17.7 points and 7.2 rebounds in his freshman season for UMASS and complemented that with 18.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game in his sophomore season for the Minutemen.
Mitchell came into Texas and played a season for Chris Beard’s Longhorns before hitting the portal again. For the Longhorns, Mitchell averaged 8.7 and four rebounds per game, while getting a season’s worth of experience in the Big 12 under his belt.
Mitchell is not a traditional “big man,” but rather a modern day forward that is long, athletic, and can shoot the ball. Across his three years in college, Mitchell has shot 33.8% from three-point range, and that is not a small sample size, as the Pittsburgh native has attempted nearly 200 shots from beyond the arc.
Jimmy Bell Jr. comes to West Virginia as a 6-foot-10, 285-pound senior presence in the paint.
Bell started his career for the Saint Louis Billikens and saw the court a lot from 2019-2021. In the 2020-2021 season, Bell saw action in 19 games and shot 53.8% from the field.
After Saint Louis, Bell played for Mobely Area Community College in Michigan for the 2021-2022 season. Bell averaged 9.3 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game last season before committing to WVU.
Bell came into West Virginia weighing 355 pounds but took off 70 pounds in the offseason to prepare for the speed of Big 12 competition. Expect Bell to add height and mass to the rebounding department off the bench for the Mountaineers.
Mohamed Wague comes to West Virginia as the nation’s leading rebounder at the JUCO level. Wague led the country in total rebounds with 417 and offensive rebounds with 170 at Harcum College in Pennsylvania.
The 6-foot-10 sophomore proved he can complement scoring to his rebounding game, as Wague averaged 14.8 points per game to go along with the nearly 12 rebounds per game.
Wague may need some development, as he is still only a sophomore, but he has the length and talent to play above the rim for the Mountaineers when called upon.
Pat Suemnick comes in as a 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward from Triton College in Illinois. Suemnick started his college career at Robert Morris but flourished at Triton where he averaged 12 points and six rebounds per game.
Rounding out the big men for the 2022-2023 Mountaineers, are the two returners from the 2021-2022 WVU roster, James Okonkwo and Jamel King.
Okonkwo and King did not see much playing time last season, but with a year of the Huggins system under their belt, they will have a good chance to earn minutes.
Okonkwo is a 6-foot-8, 240-pound sophomore that missed the first seven games of 2021 due to a foot injury. In his first game against Radford, Okonkwo recorded a rebound and scored his first career points on a slam dunk.
King is a 6-foot-7, 215-pound sophomore from Uniontown, Alabama. King saw action in multiple Big 12 games last season and recorded his first collegiate points on a three-pointer at TCU.
This group of forwards will be a vital part of future success at WVU, as the system Bob Huggins is so accustomed to demands hard-nosed defense, and elite rebounding on both ends of the floor.
Photo from WVU Basketball Twitter
