Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla greets guard Marcus Stuart. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Joe Mazzulla was a known commodity when playing basketball at West Virginia University.

Known and valued for his knowledge and courage as much as for his on-court skills.

He had come to Morgantown as a recruit of Coach John Beilein. His playing days ended as a cerebral player for Coach Bob Huggins.

As a fifth-year senior he suffered a shoulder injury, but continued to play on through pain that was persistent enough for the right-hander to shoot his free throws left-handed. He left his mark in Morgantown etched in courage.

Mazzulla was from Rhode Island and people thought he was the best soccer player in the state in his senior year of high school.

At 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, he wasn’t pushed around on the court. He did the pushing if any was necessary.

The Mountaineers went 21-12 in his last season of 2011. He started 16 of the team’s 33 games and despite his limited offensive motions still scored 7.7 points a game. He played in 145 games in his career as a Mountaineer contributor both on and off the court.

His coaching career began inauspiciously as an assistant at the collegiate Division II level.

Never a head coach at the collegiate level, Mazzulla was hired by the NBA’s Boston Celtics and team president Brad Stevens.

After three years as a Celtic assistant, Mazzulla suddenly was appointed by Stevens as the interim head coach when the team suspended Ime Udoka for the entire 2022-2023 season.

Then 34 years old, he presided over a regular season where the Celtics went 57-25 but faltered in the playoffs.

Udoka was eventually hired by the Houston Rockets and Mazzulla had a permanent position.

Boston has literally sprinted out to 28-7 record to begin this season.

Mazzulla’s team has racked up points at a rate almost equal to their enormous winning percentage.

Jayson Tatum averages 27.5 points, Jalen Brown 22.7 points, Kristaps Porzingis 19.8 points, Derrick White 16.5 points and veteran Jrue Holiday 12.8 points for the team now known for scoring 130 points per night on a semi-regular basis.

The 47-year-old Stevens had come to Boston after eight seasons at Butler in Indianapolis. His Cinderella-like Bulldogs had played their way to the NCAA finals and Stevens earned a reputation as a master psychologist and x’s and o’s tactician. He came to coach the Celtics after the 2013 college season and had over 300 wins in the NBA in eight Celtic seasons.

Mazzulla and Stevens are any thinking man’s ideal combination.

And now the Celtics are atop their division of the NBA — winning games in a highly entertaining manner and influencing people from Morgantown to Rhode Island and all over New England.