MORGANTOWN –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 today 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.
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.
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.