Why Jalen Bridges Transferring is Best for Him and WVU
Anytime a player enters the transfer portal, the first question people ask is, why?
Could it have to do with playing time? Role? Relationship with the coach? Better opportunity elsewhere? Something off the court? Were they asked to leave? In most instances, we never truly find out what happened behind the scenes that prompted a transfer.
Thanks to the guys at Final Fourcast, they were able to let former West Virginia forward Jalen Bridges tell his story on one of their recent episodes. During the interview, Bridges mentioned a myriad of things including his role in the offense, playing out of position, the negativity that was going on and yes, even called out head coach Bob Huggins for supposedly blowing off a one on one meeting with Bridges multiple times.
If this is true, then that's certainly not a good look. But when you only know one side of the story, it's hard to say that Huggins is in the wrong. As assistant coach Larry Harrison once said, "West Virginia or Bob Huggins is not for everybody and everybody is not for Bob Huggins," meaning that his coaching-style only fits a certain type of player.
For Bridges, it seemed as if Huggins' style didn't fit and that's okay. That doesn't make him "soft" or "lazy", he just doesn't respond to that style of coaching as well as others.
"I'd rather be taught than just yelled at," Bridges said in the interview with the Final Fourcast. "I can take yelling if there's teaching too and not saying there was no teaching, it was just they'd rather yell at you and put on the treadmill rather than show you what to do and how to fix it and not make that same mistake again. It's like a punishment over trying to get better. I feel like I regressed as a player honestly. That was a bad representation of my game and I'm just trying to rebrand myself."
When Bridges pointed out his usage as a major factor in his decision, I could understand where he was coming from. When you look at the "wings" that Huggins has had over the years, there have been some pretty lofty expectations for each of them. Esa Ahmad, Lamont West, Emmitt Matthews Jr., and Jalen Bridges never truly lived up to their full potential while in Morgantown. Going somewhere that can help develop his game and turn him into a legitimate NBA prospect is understandable. Scott Drew has a history of doing that at Baylor, so it makes sense that he landed in Waco.
"When you look at it from a basketball perspective and when you look at what Scott Drew has done with people like me, he's consistently developed them and made them into pros. I feel like I was just mentally drained, I felt like I needed to get out of there. It's a completely different system, a completely different offense. I've never been out of West Virginia in my entire life and I needed a break, I need something a little different. It was really between Alabama and Baylor. I feel like if I would've went to Bama, I would have had too much fun. I want to be somewhere where I can lock in and really just work on my game and try to get better."
As much as Bridges needed a change of scenery, it's probably a good thing for WVU too. Not that they won't miss having Bridges on the roster, but if a player is clearly upset and wants out, it does no good to keep said player around. Huggins wants guys who want to be at WVU. Ironically enough, Bridges' departure opened up the door for Emmitt Matthews to return to the program after spending one season at Washington. Although Matthews didn't post huge numbers in his first stint with the Mountaineers, he was more consistent on both ends of the floor and was certainly more aggressive on the offensive end. With very few returning pieces, having a guy like Matthews around is going to be extremely beneficial for WVU not only on the court, but off of it as well. He brings leadership to the program and that's something that the Mountaineers clearly lacked this past season.
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