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Former Standout Nichols Coaching Radford Vs. WVU

West Virginia's Darris Nichols, right, shoots over Pittsburgh's DeJuan Blair, left, and Keith Benjamin (1) during the second half of a college basketball game Monday, March 3, 2008 in Morgantown, W.Va. West Virginia won 76-62. (AP Photo/Dave Miller)

Long before the days of Malik Curry, Deuce McBride and Jevon Carter, a 6-foot-2 Virginian named Darris Nichols ran point for the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Soon after exhausting his eligibility in 2008, he traded shorts for slacks and began coaching. After working his way up the ladder, Nichols accepted the job of head coach at his hometown’s Radford University this offseason, and Saturday marks his first return to the WVU Coliseum (4 p.m., ESPN+) at the helm of a program.

Bob Huggins, who coached Nichols for one season after being hired at WVU, told reporters Tuesday that Nichols “was great to coach.” There’s no question that Nichols, in his first season at Radford, is hoping to develop the same sentiment of some of his own.

This season, Nichols and the Highlanders (4-4) rank toward the bottom of the Big South Conference in offense, averaging only 63.3 points per game, while placing fifth among 12 teams in total defense.

Coming off three straight wins, Radford catches the Mountaineers (6-1) amid a period of growth. The team showed undeniable struggles through the first few weeks of the season, which is commonplace in college basketball, but appears to be trending upward with each passing day.

Against Bellarmine on Tuesday, the Mountaineers posted their best rebounding performance of the season, besting the Knights by 10 rebounds — a tremendous improvement for WVU after being outrebounded in the season’s first two games by a combined 31.

Starting forward Isaiah Cottrell has stumbled this season, ranking sixth on the team in rebounds. DePaul transfer Pauly Paulicap and FIU transfer Dimon Carrigan have mostly picked up the slack for the 6-foot-10 Cottrell on that front, each averaging roughly three rebounds per game while receiving reserve minutes.

Despite his sophomore struggles, Cottrell has still proven to be an asset offensively due to his ability to score from anywhere on the court.

“I think one of them is physical enough, and the other is long enough to be able to change shots and block shots,” Huggins said. “And then, Isaiah is a guy who can come in and make shots. He didn’t today, but he is a very capable shotmaker. We’ve got kind of the three-headed monster that all of them can do something very productive, and I think they can do that in the Big 12, absolutely.”

In the team’s backcourt, the Mountaineers are still working on finding a more complete identity on offense. It starts at the point guard position according to Huggins, who has managed the workload at the position by utilizing the strengths of senior Kedrian Johnson and Old Dominion transfer Malik Curry.

Johnson has started in West Virginia’s seven games, while Curry averages equal time (18.4 minutes) per game off of the bench. Much like the team’s big men, both guards succeed in different areas, but Huggins says developing a more potent attack through the team’s top scorers needs to be a focus.

“With Taz (Sherman) and Sean (McNeil), we’ve gotta probably get them open more, do a better job of getting them open,” Huggins said. “But we’ve got to deliver the ball better. We’ve got to deliver the ball more timely than what we’ve been doing, and that’s those two guys’ [Curry and Johnson] jobs.”

Saturday’s game is the Mountaineers’ third of their current five game homestand, with seven total games remaining before the beginning of conference play on Jan. 1.

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