December 13, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – That guy you’ve seen jumping up and down, dancing and leading the cheers in the team huddle before West Virginia basketball games is freshman forward John Flowers. It’s rare to see a freshman take that type of responsibility on a basketball team as successful as West Virginia’s.
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| Freshman John Flowers is averaging 6.1 points and 2.8 rebounds in about 10 minutes of action per game. All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo | |
That speaks to the type of personality John Flowers has and more importantly, to the type of personality this basketball team has. There are no egos.
His teammates have taken to calling him “The Preacher.” On road trips on the back of the bus Flowers is usually coaxed into doing his preacher skit, telling his buddies in a ringing voice, “I have seen the light!”
The older guys get a kick out of it and usually egg him on to do more.
“That’s my personality,” said Flowers in almost a whisper. “I’m easy to get along with and I just try to bring energy to the team as much as I can and keep everybody’s spirits up.”
The first two weeks Flowers was here last summer he barely said a word. Being around Joe Mazzulla, Da’Sean Butler, Jonnie West and Wellington Smith changed that.
“After hanging out with all those guys I just opened up,” Flowers said.
It was the personality of the team that attracted Flowers to West Virginia University in the first place. Flowers gave former Coach John Beilein a verbal commitment during the summer of his junior year, turning down offers from Maryland and Texas Tech among many others.
“I just liked West Virginia when I came up on my visit. I liked the team. When I got here everyone was cool. Da’Sean was my host and he was real cool,” Flowers said.
John’s mother Pam took a liking to Beilein. The former Pam Kelly was a three-time All-American player at Louisiana Tech who was a senior on Tech’s national championship team in 1982. When college coaches came around to talk to her son she was the one asking most of the questions.
So when Beilein left West Virginia to take the Michigan job last spring it left the Flowers house unsettled. Even though Flowers had already signed with West Virginia, new Coach Bob Huggins essentially had to re-recruit him.
“She really liked Coach Beilein a lot. She really wanted me to go with him but my dad said, ‘Let’s just listen to what Coach Huggins has to say.’ We sat back and waited until Coach Huggins came and my mom really liked him a lot,” Flowers said.
Once again she did most of the talking.
“She asked him what my role was going to be on the team, how can I help the team, where does he see me playing the next couple of years? It was stuff like that. Had he seen me play before?” Flowers said.
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“I just sat back and let her talk the whole time. She asked the majority of the questions,” Flowers said.
The visit went well. Huggins had addressed all of their concerns.
“My parents liked him a lot. He was a cool guy,” Flowers said. “He told me straight forward how it was going to be.”
Huggins saw a lot of potential in Flowers, a 6-foot-7-inch, 195-pound forward that made the D.C. all-met team after averaging 18 points and 13.2 rebounds per game as a high school senior. His athletic ability fit in well with Huggins’ style of play and the things Flowers’ game needed Huggins could provide.
“I knew I had to change my game a lot from high school to college,” Flowers said. “The speed of the game is a lot different. Some moves I did in high school I can’t do in college. My crossover I got called for a carry in the last game.”
Huggins is pleased with where Flowers is at right now, remarking after last Saturday’s Duquesne game the progress he has made after scoring a season-high 13 points off the bench against the Dukes. Flowers has played in all eight games so far and is averaging 6.1 points and 2.8 rebounds playing about 10 minutes per game.
Flowers is shooting 58.8 percent from the floor and he is third on the team with eight blocked shots.
“I work hard everyday in practice and I’m not surprised with how quickly I have adjusted,” Flowers said. “I always wanted to come in and play at this level but I’m just trying to work to Coach’s expectations and just keep him happy.”
That wasn’t necessarily the case when fall practice began in October. Flowers got an earful from Huggs even before the team took the floor for its first official workout of the fall.
“He heard some things about me in open gym that I wasn’t playing hard or something like that. I hurt my tailbone and I was trying to get better before practice,” Flowers said. “I guess he heard that I was slacking so he chewed me out about that.
“I’m used to it now,” Flowers said.
Huggins’ approach is much different than the fatherly, consoling method Beilein usually employed. Players were rarely chewed out by Beilein and never in public. If Beilein went off on his team he would wait until he cleared the Coliseum of anyone watching.
Huggins figures if you’re man enough to play major college basketball, then you’re man enough to take criticism.
“It’s not personal. It’s on the court. On the court he’s intense but off the court he’s a cool guy. You can talk to him,” Flowers said.
The differences don’t end there.
“Talking to the guys that were here last year, Beilein didn’t really care if guys were dunking on you and stuff like that. He just cares about hitting 3 pointers,” Flowers said.
If Beilein was all about precision then Huggins is more about giving his players freedom to make plays.
“I heard with Coach Beilein he didn’t really give his players a lot of freedom to let his players do what they want to do,” Flowers said. “Some people have the green light. I have the yellow light right now. I think about a lot of shots before I take them.
“(Huggins) let’s us do what we do best and I like that,” Flowers said.
Including letting him be the guy in the middle of the team huddle before games getting everyone jacked up.
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