WVU Has Shooters this Season and Sean McNeil Might be the Best One

West Virginia was the worst shooting team in the Big 12 last season.

Out of 2,181 attempted shots, the 2018-19 Mountaineers only made 901 of them. That 0.413 shooting percentage was dead last in the Big 12 last year and the 37th worst in the country.

To help remedy that head coach Bob Huggins brought in a couple of junior college shooters in junior Taz Sherman and sophomore Sean McNeil.

For the last two years, Sherman attended Collin College in McKinney, Texas. While there he became a second-team All-American, scoring 25.9 points per game last season. He scored in double digits in every game that he played in.

Sherman shot 49% from the floor and 39.9% from beyond the arc. Those numbers would have ranked first on the team last season for any perimeter player.

McNeil attended Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio last year. He averaged 29.7 points per game and shot 49.5% from the field and 43.1% from three. He scored 30 points 15 times and eclipsed 40 points six times.

McNeil said he learned to shoot as a kid from his dad because it was all he could really do.

“I’ve been a shooter since I was a little kid and I say that because I was chubby, I couldn’t do anything else but shoot,” McNeil said. “My dad taught me how to shoot, got me going with the game of basketball. Time after time, I just got better at it.”

In the team’s exhibition against Duquesne Friday night, Sherman scored eight points on 3-of-5 shooting and McNeil finished second on the team with 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting. After the game, Huggins said he knows McNeil will score this season.

“He’s got a great touch and he can get his own shot. He’s going to score points,” Huggins said. “I thought he was way better defensively than he’s been.”

McNeil missed some time this past offseason after getting sick during the team’s trip to Spain, attending his brother’s wedding and hurting his Achilles. Huggins said McNeil just recently fully returned to practice.

“With all the things going on it was really hard for him to get back to 100% health,” Huggins said. “It’s just in the last maybe week and a half he’s been full go. I think he’s got a great future here, like all of them, you’ve got to keep him healthy.”