Head Coach Ross Hodge and his Mountaineers are off to a 5-0 start this season. The Mountaineers have had a different leading scorer in each game, and Ross Hodge does not believe that West Virginia’s various players taking on a scoring role from game to game is an accident.
“We’ve got an unselfish group that likes to share the ball, and they should be commended for that. The bottom line is the goal is to win," Hodge said after the team's win against Lafayette on Monday.
The leading scorer against Lafayette was the impressive true freshman DJ Thomas, who scored 25 points on an efficient 11-of-17 shooting from the field in 28 minutes played. While this was certainly Thomas’s best game of the young season, the best part is that he has been a huge asset through five games.
Sure, it’s difficult to predict how well a true freshman will play in the early part of their initial season, but it’s unlikely that anyone predicted this kind of performance from DJ Thomas in just his fifth collegiate game, or the performance he's turned in consistently all season for that matter. Before the 6-foot-9 forward's incredible effort against the Leopards, he scored ten points in the first half of the Backyard Brawl against Pitt, knocking down two three-pointers.
It is a cliché statement to make, but one that is very true of Thomas; he’s not playing like a true freshman in November.
The early play of Thomas is leading us to think toward the remainder of the season as we inch closer toward conference play. When West Virginia plays Clemson in Charleston on Friday night, they will have transfer guard Chance Moore available for the first time this season. Additionally, Troy transfer Jackson Fields is nearing a return to the WVU lineup. These two are players that you would foresee Hodge plugging into the rotation immediately once they are available.
The “problem” now is that DJ Thomas is playing so well that he has earned the right to be part of the team’s regular rotation moving forward. How will Ross Hodge handle this? We’ll just have to wait and see, but it is an encouraging testament to the depth that this team possesses, with Thomas having a surprisingly successful start to the season.
Keep an eye on who plays and how many minutes they get once both Moore and Fields are active and part of the rotation. The struggling Treysen Eaglestaff will likely see his minutes cut by Chance Moore. Again, with the success of DJ Thomas, there’s no way (at this moment) that he will be the “odd man out” for this West Virginia team. He has been playing too well to be kept on the bench.