SHEPHERDSTOWN – Many people have already taken a broom to the 15-21 record the 2018-2019 WVU basketball team showed them. They’ve swept it under the Wunda We’ve carpet, and are trying to dislodge it from their memory altogether.

Coach Bob Huggins dismissed Esa Ahmad and Wes Harris before the bumpy season was even completed. And, since the season ended with a dismal 109-91 loss to Coastal Carolina in the Coliseum, four more players have made their way out of Morgantown via the transfer route. James “Beetle” Bolden (injured for the last month of the season), Andrew Gordon, Lamont West and Trey Doomes are all going elsewhere.

All that movement left Huggins with only eight players from this past season.

High school players Oscar Tshibwe and Miles McBride had signed with the Mountaineers long ago in the elongated recruiting process. Both are projected as probable starters on the 2019-2020 team.

Huggins has told the public he will be bringing back the “Press Virginia” fullcourt defense next season.

One of the recruits for next year was taken because of his defensive prowess. Tajzmel Sherman also scored over 25 points a game at Collins College in McKinney, Texas. Sherman is six-foot-four, 190 pounds. He will have two years of eligibility at WVU.

Sean McNeil, also listed at six-foot-four, 190 pounds, played at Sinclair CC in Dayton, Ohio. He will have three years of eligibility left. McNeil scored over 29 points a game and is reputed to be an able three-point marksman.

West Virginia now has 12 players on its roster, and has other scholarships it can use to further fill its roster.

Sagaba Konate, who did not play at all after December, has not revealed his intentions as to whether he will return to the team. If Konate joins the professional ranks in this country or abroad, it would mean another scholarship is available.