The little one is in the pace for the historical season for Wvu – The Daily Times

Western Virginia guard Javon Small (7) was protected by Houston J’Wan Roberts (13) in the second half of the NCAA College basketball match, Wednesday, January 29, 2025, in Morgantown, W.VA. (AP Photo/ Kathleen Batten)

Morgantown – As a result of Western Virginia’s victory on Sunday afternoon on the road in Cincinnati, the thought began to rotate inside that empty cage, over which I put my hat with a ball when I dared from the doors.

Javon Small had scored 19 points in the game and dumped 9 assists, which is a very good day in the office.

However, this is not “stop things” and that made me think.

How good is this first – and only – a basketball season for the little ones in West Virginia?

The more I thought about it, the more it grew in height. No, he didn’t score like Jerry West, but he’s an average of 19 points a game. Only 16 players from all over WVU history were on average more in the season, led by – no, not Jerry West – and Ron Fritz Williams, which averaged 29.42 points per game in 1972.

Only three players during this century were on average more than the little ones should be so far, and it will be Kevin Pitargly, Kevin Jones and Drew Schiffino, the only up to an average of 20 points per game.

But small, as is visible on Sunday, it’s not just a goal scorer. He dumped his career from 9 assists in this game in Cincinnati and leads the team on average 5.1 assists per match.

Oh, you can throw the fact that he is second in the team in a recovery with 4.7 per game.

Moreover, he shoots free throws at 88.1%, which ranks second in a season in WVU history to 88.9%made by Sean McNeil four years ago.

But McNeil, throughout his season, has taken less than half of the free throws, as small as small, and there is still a big short of this season, and the little one can just be able to catch Mcneil.

So he notes, he makes a game, he recovers, shoots free throws.

He collects classic numbers, but still does it in a team that doesn’t score many points.

Consider this, WVU ranks 15th out of 16 teams in the big 12 points with 69.7 points per game. The climbers ranked 13th in a percentage of field goals and 12th in a 3-point shooting.

And to add misery to their firing with 3 points, although they are not very good at this, the mountaineers continue to shoot from 3, ranked second in the conference on the number of attempts. They missed 374 attempts with 3 points.

All this exaggerates the Small value for the team. Moreover, the second most offensive player was Tucker Devris, who played the first seven games and has been out with a shoulder problem since then, and until no one really says that, he probably won’t come back this season.

What makes Small’s achievements so special is that he doesn’t try to set records, usually just says “I do what I can to help the team win games.”

It really is not closed to individual numbers.

How good is it small?

Well, he leads the big 12 in scoring, is fourth in assists and is in ninth place in theft, bound by his teammate Cecir Harris. This percentage of shooting with free throws is fourth in the conference.

Moreover, he leads the conference in minutes, a tireless work horse that plays both ends of the floor and all phases of the game.

So, should he have to finish this season, since he has come so far, where will he qualify among WVU players?

He is not in the West, but who is he?

But you can put it there with the modern Guards, with Givon Carter, Miles McBride and Juvan Staton.

Compare him with Carter, McBride and Staton and his senior season and they look like this:

Recruitment FG% 3p% FT% Asst to Sheats

Small 19.0 42.5% 35.9% 88.1% 5.1 2.8 1.8

Carter 17.3 42.2% 39.3% 85.8% 6.7 2.7 3.2

Mcbride 15.9 43.1% 41.4% 81.3% 4.8 1.8 3.1

Staten 18.1 48.6% 40.0% 71.9 6.2 2.2 1.3

It is certainly safe to say that the little one has one of the best seasons of the multifaceted WVU guardian in the modern era, and if he presses a triple-pair there, it would be out of the question.

There are only four triple pairs in WVU history: Rod Thorn vs. St. Bonaventure in 1962 (28 points, 11 assists, 13 rebounds); Levi Phillips Against Virginia Tech, in 1974 (21-13-10), Jim Scotill against New York in 1952 (19-10-10) and Jerome Anders against Boston W. in 1975 (18-10- 10).

The deal is that all the players other than the small ones, among the best than those who played in WVU, probably had at least another player of “Go” while the little one was more in itself.

The situation led to a search in the season (since Tucker Devis was injured) looking for another consistent scorer to take some of the heat from the small.

He did without complaint and with a selfless approach to the game, which prevented him from compilating the eye number, because their insult to gather what figures are a winning season that takes them to the NCAA tournament.