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The Highlanders are coached by WVU alum Darris Nichols, who has them off to a 4-4 record in his first season as a college coach. Nichols' ascension of the coaching ladder since leaving West Virginia in 2008 is remarkable.
After briefly playing overseas, Nichols got into the coaching ranks at West Virginia as Bob Huggins' graduate assistant coach. That led to an assistant coaching job at Northern Kentucky, then Wofford, then Louisiana Tech before his six-year stint on Mike White's staff at Florida.
Nichols becomes just the second known former WVU player to coach a game against the Mountaineers at the Coliseum. Fred Schaus was the other when his Purdue team defeated West Virginia 90-79 on Dec. 6, 1975.
Huggins played in that game for the Mountaineers.
"I just remember we got drilled," he said, although he doesn't recall much about the buildup before the game. "I only read the DA (The Daily Athenaeum, WVU's student newspaper) back then. I couldn't afford to buy the paper."
Huggins said he's pleased to watch what Nichols has managed to accomplish so far during his young coaching career.
"It's a great opportunity for him, particularly to be able to do it in his hometown," Huggins said. "We all start somewhere and hopefully have success and those successes lead you to other places."
Huggins said he took a different path than Nichols did to get to the Division I head coaching ranks. He decided to leave Ohio State to become Walsh College's 27-year-old head coach.
"Everybody thought I was crazy leaving Ohio State to go to Walsh and people asked why I did it and I said, 'Because I believe in myself. I'm betting on me.' And that's what Darris has done," Huggins said. "You've got to have a strong belief in yourself and belief in what you do, or else how are you going to get those guys who play for you to believe in what you do? I think Darris possesses those qualities."
After a slow start that saw the Highlanders win just once in its first five games, they have consecutive victories over William & Mary, Eastern Kentucky and Kentucky Christian. Huggins said the Radford team he's watching now is much different than the one that lost by 26 to Virginia Tech and by 17 to Furman and scored just 33 points in a 14-point loss to Navy.
"Whether it's a subtle change or a drastic change, you have to fix it, and I think Darris has done that," Huggins explained. "Look what he's done. They went from struggling to winning three in a row and playing really well. If you watched those three games, they're playing really well.
"They've got great spacing. They take good shots and they're defending," Huggins said.
Radford doesn't have a player averaging double figures but does have eight players averaging between five and eight points per game. Six-foot-7 junior forward Rashun Williams leads Radford with 8.8 points per game, while 6-foot-7 forward Shaquan Jules is shooting a team-best 67.6% from the floor.
Six-foot-5 senior forward Chyree Walker is grabbing a team-best 6.3 rebounds per game while 6-foot-2 sophomore guard Tai'Reon Joseph has been the Highlanders' most consistent 3-point shooter, connecting on 40% of his attempts so far this year.
Ten different players are averaging at least 12 minutes per game.
"You've got to guard everybody," Huggins said. "Everything is personnel related. You try to put your personnel in the position where they can help the team the most, and he's done that. If you watch them from the beginning to where they are now they've made unbelievable progress."
West Virginia (6-1) is making progress too since its 82-71 loss to Marquette in the semifinals of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Mountaineers used a strong second half to knock off Clemson in the third-place game the next night and have added consecutive wins over Eastern Kentucky and Bellarmine.
"I think our bigs are getting a little better," Huggins said. "I think their progress is what stands out the most."
Senior guard Taz Sherman continues to lead the Mountaineers in scoring with an average of 20.1 points per game. Senior guard Sean McNeil is the only other WVU player in double figures at 12 points per contest.
Huggins said Radford runs a lot of motion sets on offense and is primarily a man-to-man team defensively.
"I'm sure they've incorporated some of John's (Beilein) things because he ran really good stuff. The crux of what they switched to is five-man motion. "(Defensively) they haven't played zone that I've seen yet."
Saturday's game will tip off at 4 p.m. and will be televised on Big Now on ESPN+ (Dan Zangrilli, Warren Baker and Amanda Mazey).
The Mountaineer Sports Network's radio coverage with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday begins at 3 p.m.
Satellite radio users can access the broadcast on XM 381 or on the Sirius/XM app.
Coca-Cola Family Day tickets are still available and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com. Included in this $65 package are four tickets and a $25 concession voucher.
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WVU Resumes Five-Game Homestand Versus Radford on Saturday - West Virginia University Athletics - WVU Athletics
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