MORGANTOWN, W.Va.–West Virginia’s Brandon Knapper scored a career-high 25 points while playing a solid game against Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon.
In the past two weeks, the South Charleston native has shown the promise he was projected to have.
Against Baylor, Knapper chipped in 15 points, dished out two assists and had three steals for the Mountaineers.
“I think we’ve all been waiting on it,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “His problem has been ball security. He’s thrown the ball everywhere. He did a good job today under some tough circumstances. He got double-team like he was supposed to. He played really well.”
Knapper’s journey has been a trying one with the Mountaineers. First, he suffered a torn ACL and redshirted last season. Over the summer, a blood clot in the lung sidelined him for several months.
Now, the 6-foot, 180-pound guard is back on the court but it has been a challenge to find steady success for this WVU team struggling to find its way in a fierce Big 12 conference.
Early on Knapper was plagued by the turnover bug and could never consistently find his groove.
“He doesn’t seem to have a confidence problem shooting the ball,” Huggins said. “I think it’s handling the ball. You throw a guy out there and say, ‘Go run the team.’ That’s a pretty big responsibility.”
Growing pains are a part of the game when you have such an inexperienced backcourt as the Mountaineers do.
“You just have to keep fighting through adversity,” freshman forward Derek Culver said. “If you know what type of person Knapp is, you know he is never the type of person to hang his head if the situation is not going his way. Knapp is always in the gym. When something goes bad, he is going to go back to the drawing board and figure out where he went wrong, his X’s and O’s. He really critiques his game.”
In Saturday’s win over the Sooners, the South Charleston High School graduate looked poised on the court.
From the moment he entered the game, it was his day to shine. Knapper drained his first shot of the game, a 3-pointer that pulled WVU within one, 17-16, of Oklahoma.
“He was confident,” senior forward Eta Ahmad said. “Knapper has been going through some up and downs but I expected that from him redshirting and going right in and playing. He was big down the stretch tonight, had some key free throws and hit a big 3 down the stretch. That was key.”
Knapper’s play was crucial in the final minutes. He made a 3 from the corner with 1:48 remaining. He went 7-of-8 from the charity stripe down the stretch and was concrete on defense.
Confidence is what the point guard attributes his success to.
“Just believing in myself,” he said. “The coaches, they kept telling me what I could do to help the team. Right now, we just need scoring. Beetle (Bolden) is out with the ankle. Right now Esa (Ahmad) is playing good. He’s playing outstanding. Wesley (Harris) is playing outstanding. All we need is one of our guards to pick it up. So that’s what I was doing today.”
Despite being injured, Bolden has been Knapper’s biggest influence.
“I’m not going to lie, Beetle is in my ear more than anybody,” Knapper said. “He knows what type of game I have. Me and him, I don’t want to say we have a similar game but we both are scoring guards that can score. I feel like Beetle helped me a lot, get my confidence up too, even the coaches give thanks to Beetle.”
For Knapper he is learning to let the game come to him instead of forcing things.
“It’s just me watching film and slowing the game down, seeing what they’re doing and take what the defense gives you,” he said. “I let the game come to me.”
Knapper’s new found confidence could be the spark WVU needs to get rolling in the win column.
“I just love the game,” he said. “I compete every day in practice. That’s what we got to start doing. We try to do that every day in practice and make each other better.”
Cover Photo Credit: Kelsie, BGS
