Ahmad brings WVU unique skill set

“Esa could play 2, 3 or 4,” said Huggins in his best “basketball speak” using position terms that mean shooting guard, small forward or power forward.

“He was our second-leading rebounder in the Bahamas. He can rebound,” Huggins continued, nothing that at his height in high school he was used to guard bigger players, meaning he can handle the forward part of the game.

“But I think he’s capable of guarding on the perimeter,” Huggins added.

That matchup ability would allow him to take advantage of his shooting and ball-handling skills, which are quite exceptional, which surely is going to draw some comparisons to another fellow from that northeastern area of Cleveland named LeBron James.

Huggins would prefer not to go quite that far as yet, considering he is still a few weeks away from his official collegiate debut. He offers a more realistic comparison.

“I think he’s like Da’ was,” Huggins said, referring to Da’Sean Butler — WVU’s versatile all-American from the Final Four team of 2009-10. “We could play Da’ at 4. We played Da’ at 1 (point guard) for a while when Joe Mazzulla was hurt and Truck Bryant was struggling.”

In an effort to explain just how unique Ahmad’s skills are, Huggins thought back to a practice session when he did something “I’d never seen from anybody ever.”

Practice was coming to a conclusion and the players, as they are supposed to do on a daily basis, were at the free throw lines in the practice facility making 100 free throws. Huggins watched from the baseline with his assistant, Billy Hahn, who had in his grasp an oversized basketball that is used to try and improve dribbling and shooting skills.

“Esa’s done and he’s walking toward where Billy and I are sitting, and Billy throws the ball out there,” Huggins said. “Esa catches it off the bounce in one hand and keeps walking over to us.”

Think of it for a moment. Here’s this oversized basketball and it comes unexpected to him and he catches it in one hand the way a first baseman catches a routine throw from shortstop.

They weren’t sure what they had seen.

“Hold on,” Huggins said. “Can you do that again?”

“Do what?” Ahmad said.

Huggins instructed him to bounce ball and catch it with his right hand again.

No sweat.

Hahn told him to do it with his left hand.

Did it as easy as if it were a softball.

“Couldn’t believe it but look at his hands,” Huggins instructed.

They are the size of a baseball glove.

This is a talented kid, but like all kids he’s schooled only in the offensive end of the game. That’s the fun part of it. It’s the part that makes you noticed, the aspect that gets you scholarships.

Put it this way, he averaged 26.5 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game as a junior and 23.3 with 10.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists as a senior.

No one quantifies defensive play.

But to play for Huggins you have to defend and make no doubt Huggins will get that out of him.

“I try to explain that to guys when I recruit them,” Huggins said. “They say to me, ‘What position am I?’ I tell them, ‘I don’t care. It’s who you can guard at the other end. That’s who you are.’”

Huggins went back to Butler to explain.

“What was Da’? Was he a 2, a 3, a 4? He guarded all those guys and he could play all those positions and started at point guard for two or three games,” he said. “I think that’s Esa, although Esa is not as far ahead.

“I played Da’Sean at power forward the first year I had him. He transitioned his body and his skills to where I could play him at the point. I can play Esa on the perimeter now offensively, but he has a lot of work to do before I could play him there defensively.”

Huggins believes in Ahmad’s ability to accomplish this because he isn’t one of those kids just out for himself.

“He is a mature freshman … kind of quiet, but he’s funny,” Daxter Miles Jr., one of last year’s group of freshmen, said. “He’s big, but can stretch the floor out. He handles the ball well. He’s a matchup nightmare and if he keeps working, the sky’s the limit.”

“As he continues to play here and be around us and this atmosphere, he will get better and grow,” added junior center and team leader Devin Williams. “I can see him on the face of a poster, as long as he continues to work.

“He does a lot. He surprises you with things every day. You can tell he’s getting more comfortable and he loves the game.”

Admission to the 30-minute officiated game is free and fans attending will receive a 2015-16 basketball poster. In addition, the team and coaches will be introduced, the 2015 NCAA Sweet 16 banner will be raised, a speech from Huggins and an autograph session with the players on the Coliseum floor will follow.