WVU's men's basketball team will undoubtedly employ its "Press Virginia" style of defense this coming season.
"We've sold too many T-shirts not to," deadpanned coach Bob Huggins recently.
The team's guards will be the strength. Juniors Jevon Carter and Dax Miles as well as senior Tarik Phillip return.
Yet go back to West Virginia's stunning NCAA loss to Stephen F. Austin. Check out the box score. What you'll see is the Mountaineers were beaten at their own game. WVU committed 22 turnovers, which turned into 29 Lumberjacks points. Of those 22 turnovers, 13 came off the hands of guards. Phillip had six and Carter four.
So how does Huggins handle the problem? By finding a player with a serious handle.
As you might know, the Mountaineer coach has commitments for the 2017 class from former South Charleston standout Brandon Knapper (now at Hargrave Military Institute) and 6-foot-10, four-star forward Derek Culver. Then, on Tuesday, Jordan McCabe, who attends high school in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, gave his word for the 2018 class.
McCabe has been rated as a 3-star player by most recruiting services except ESPN, which rates him a four-star player. But the high school junior is unquestionably more than a 3-star kid. Just Google the name. Watch the mixtapes. Judge for yourself.
Voila. The handle, the passing Huggins has been seeking.
"I started playing basketball when I was 5 years old," McCabe told the Gazette-Mail. "When I was born, I had a basketball in my crib. There are pictures of it. I grew up around basketball. It was just in my blood."
Yes, the point guard is slight at 5-11, 175 pounds. ("If you put 6-foot I won't be mad," he joked.) Remember, though, he has two years before hitting Morgantown, so he'll get even stronger. And, honestly, I don't know how a kid can work harder.
"I put countless hours into the game," he said. "As an example, during the offseason, which is only really a couple months, I follow a regimen Kobe Bryant had that went from 4-10 a.m. At 4 a.m., he was up. I do a variation of it. I get an extra two hours of sleep - and I don't know if that's going to bite me in the butt - but I get up at 6. From 6 to 8, I do conditioning, whether it's biking, running or swimming. Then, from 8 to 10, I'm in the gym developing my game. After that, from 10 to noon, I'm in the weight room working on athleticism and physicality. By that time, I'm ready for a nap."
That's how you get attention and offers from schools like Missouri, Minnesota, DePaul - and, yes, WVU.
"The relationship with West Virginia developed over time," McCabe said. "Once I stepped foot in Morgantown I loved it, the feeling of it, the atmosphere. More than that, though, was a Hall of Fame coach like Coach Huggins putting so much trust and loyalty in me. That played a huge role in my decision.
"I always say, 'Loyalty over everything' and I really try to stand by and live by those words. And for him to show that, to have so much loyalty and trust in me, just some kid from a small town in Wisconsin, says a lot. When he made the scholarship offer, I knew there was something special there, right from the beginning. Then it grew from there."
In case you're wondering, Kaukauna is a town of 15,799 in northeast Wisconsin, about 20 minutes south of Green Bay.
"I knew how serious Coach Huggins was when he flew to my hometown," McCabe said. "I'll tell you right now, it's a big deal. It's a big deal when anyone important comes in. To have a guy like Coach Huggins in, it was really special. A lot of people expressed to me how excited they were to have him come in.
"He just came in for my workouts, but it played a big role in how I felt about the school and him as a coach. It grew from there. I really knew."
Huggins and assistant Erik Martin were primarily on the job of recruiting McCabe. Oddly perhaps, Wisconsin, led by head coach Greg Gard, did not put an offer on the table. The rumor was that McCabe was tired of waiting for one from the Badgers.
"Wisconsin recruited me," McCabe countered. "We developed a relationship the last couple years here but, like I said, with Coach Huggins putting so much trust and loyalty into me, it was a no-brainer. It came to a point, like, why wait? There was no reason to wait when I had such a good situation waiting for me there in West Virginia. It was a no-brainer for me."
Word from Morgantown is Huggins will now try to sell Chase Johnson, a 2017 class power forward formerly of Ripley headed to Huntington Prep, on the idea of pairing with McCabe. Alley-oops from the guard. Dunks in transition by the forward.
But whether that happens or not, McCabe is excited. Ditto, apparently, Huggins. He might have a smaller version of Hot Rod Hundley. He might have a smaller version of Jason Williams.
Just don't call McCabe "White Chocolate," a la Williams, the Belle native.
"I get that quite a bit," McCabe said. "That's kind of a stigma, I'd say. It's not that Jason Williams isn't one of the best players to ever play his respective position. I'm happy to be compared in the same breath. At the same time, I'm looking to make my own name."
The Whiskey Kid? Irish Whiskey? ("One hundred percent Irish!" he said.)
We'll see. But with McCabe, Culver, Esa Ahmad, Sagaba Konate, Lamont West, Beetle Bolden, Maciej Bender and Chase Harler slated to be on board in 2018, the future of WVU is beginning to look potent indeed.
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.