Nov 20, 2004 3 min read

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Depth seems to be an issue every season for West Virginia’s basketball team. Maybe this time, that trend has stopped.

Defections and dismissals have plagued the Mountaineers the past three years. Tyler Relph and Jerrah Young left the program after the end of last season, and leading scorer Drew Schifino was kicked off the team last January for an unspecified violation of team rules.

West Virginia lost four of its five final regular-season games and lost in the first round of the Big East tournament. But beating 20-win teams Kent State and Rhode Island in the NIT made the Mountaineers forget all that.

Now West Virginia hopes to continue that momentum.

West Virginia returns nine players, including five starters, from last year’s 17-14 team. The Mountaineers open the regular season at home Saturday against St. Peter’s.

“We have the potential to be a very good team. I don’t want to single this group out as the best I’ve ever coached and set them up for failure,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “This is more of a team. Any guy on our roster could carry us. However, we don’t have a player that we can turn to and say, ‘take over the game.”‘

J.D. Collins, freshman Darris Nichols and former walk-on Nick Patella will handle the ball at point guard. The versatile Joe Herber, a junior who has started every game of his career, and Patrick Beilein will take turns at shooting guard.

St. Bonaventure transfer Mike Gansey led the team in scoring with a 15.6 point average during the team’s summer tour of Europe. He also had a game-high 22 points in an exhibition win over Pan American-Mexico.

“Our offense is complicated, and it’s expected that our offense will cause some guys to struggle,” Beilein said. “As (Gansey) continues to slowly nurture that understanding, he can help us an awful lot.

“He gives us a passion to win and a great attitude. He seems to be in the right spot an awful lot. He has a great nose for the ball.”

Gansey can play at shooting guard or forward spot, and Herber could see time at small forward. The team is deep at power forward with Kevin Pittsnogle, Tyrone Sally, redshirt freshman Brad Byerson and Frank Young.

Center D’or Fischer averaged 10.8 points and 6.2 rebounds per game last season. His 124 blocked shots shattered Marcus Goree’s school single-season record of 70.

Pittsnogle and 7-foot freshman Luke Bonner also may see time at center.

“Everybody is going to be more involved this year,” Pittsnogle said. “I think the scoring will be very spread out. We have a lot of people that can score and are looking to score.”

West Virginia also has home nonconference games against Radford, Coppin State, James Madison, New Hampshire and George Washington. It goes on the road to play Duquesne, LSU, and North Carolina State, and has games in Charleston against St. Bonaventure and Marshall.

Beilein hopes the nonconference schedule puts the Mountaineers in position for a postseason bid.

“We thought that this was a year that we needed to attack a tough out-of-conference schedule,” the coach said. “We don’t want to be sitting there on bubble night saying, ‘I wish we would have played a tougher schedule.’ By playing this tougher schedule, we might not get to the bubble. But we won’t know unless we try.”