By John Antonik

WVUSports.com

 

To this day, Jay Jacobs maintains if Don Vincent hadn't broken his left leg in the 1958 Southern Conference Tournament semifinals, West Virginia University would have won a national championship.

 

Vincent's left fibula, Major Harris' right shoulder, Pat White's right thumb and Da'Sean Butler's left knee make up the four biggest What Ifs? in Mountaineer sports history.

 

Don VincentTeam chemistry (like fibulas) can be such a fragile thing, and despite having the great Jerry West, the loss of Vincent, the team's most poised and mature player, was too great for the Mountaineers to overcome when they faced underdog Manhattan in the NCAA Tournament East Regional in Madison Square Garden in New York City.

 

Vincent, who passed away earlier this week at age 86, was once described by his coach Fred Schaus as a "ball player's ball player" because he was so unflappable on the court.

 

"He never brought you to your feet with a spectacular play; all he did was make every play on both ends of the floor," WVU teammate and MSN basketball radio analyst Jay Jacobs recalled earlier today. "He was a terrific player."

 

Vincent starred at Shinnston High in the early 1950s during a time when West Virginia high school basketball reigned supreme. WVU benefited greatly from this magnificent run of in-state talent that was a byproduct of thriving mining and chemical industries in the Mountain State following the conclusion of World War II.

 

Schaus could get in his '57 Chevrolet and drive the state shopping for its best basketball players, hitting such out-of-the-way places as Grafton, Fairview, Grant Town, Flemington, Shinnston, Hedgesville, Chattaroy, Gassaway, Mullens, Aurora, Shady Spring, Logan, Pineville, Princeton, and, of course, Cabin Creek.

 

The remoteness of these small towns didn't deter college coaches from trying to steal West Virginia's top talent, either. The state's biggest poacher was Chuck Noe, who had seven West Virginians on his Virginia Tech roster in 1958, including four players from Charleston High just to make sure center Chris Smith felt at home in Blacksburg.

 

In fact, there were so many good players in the state at that time that the spillover helped Marshall with Huntington products Hal Greer and Leo Byrd, and even some of the West Virginia Conference schools that managed to qualify for the NAIA tournament in Kansas City.

 

Charlie Huggins, the late father of West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, once helped Alderson-Broaddus to the NAIA national tournament after he left WVU.

 

The Raleigh County Armory and the original Charleston Civic Center were built in the early 1960s, partly in response to the high school basketball frenzy the state had experienced in the 1950s. Prior to that, there wasn't a gym in Charleston big enough to accommodate all of the people who wanted to see Charleston High play.

 

"We played the Kentucky all-star team and they were supposed to have the best players in America," West once recalled, "and as it turned out, we had the better players. We played them twice and beat them twice. It was a very high caliber group of guys that we had in West Virginia at that time."

 

Rod Thorn, who returned to campus in 2020 to have his West Virginia uniform number 44 retired, agrees with West.

 

"Basketball has been huge in West Virginia for many, many years and certainly led by West, there was some really good players at that time," he said.

 

That was the general state of West Virginia basketball when Vincent broke his leg with less than five minutes remaining and the Mountaineers comfortably ahead of Richmond in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals.

 

The guy responsible for injuring Vincent, forward Carl Slone, happened to be from Williamson … West Virginia! Schaus had sent Pineville's Butch Goode to the scorer's table to replace Vincent when Slone tried to block Vincent's driving layup and sent him crashing to the ground with his left foot twisted underneath him.

 

Earlier that season, the Mountaineers had knocked off fifth-ranked Kentucky and No. 1 North Carolina on consecutive days in the Kentucky Invitational before Christmas and spent the entire month of January and a portion of February at No. 1 in both polls.

 

In a supporting role to West, Vincent tallied 29 points in the victories over Kentucky and North Carolina, and he also played well in a couple of big wins over Pitt and its outstanding duo of Don Hennon and Julius Pegues. Joedy Gardner had trouble containing Hennon, but Vincent stuck to Pegues like glue, holding him to just nine points in a 71-64 triumph at Fitzgerald Field House.

 

In Morgantown, it was Vincent's big three-point play that ended Pitt's late rally and lifted the Mountaineers to a 99-86 win. 

 

"When the going gets tough, it doesn't seem to bother Vince," Schaus once beamed. "It's like he has ice water in his veins. Game in and game out, Vince is there when we need him most. He really holds the ball club together in the backcourt, and that's a crucial point when the other team is giving you trouble."

 

"He just never lost his cool," Jacobs marveled. "His demeanor on the court was terrific. Don Vincent was that player that you could always count on."

 

The only turbulence the team had experienced was a 72-68 setback at Duke two days after routing Furman 109-84 in Greenville, South Carolina. WVU remained No. 1 until being nudged out on Feb. 11 by Kansas State, a two-overtime winner over second-ranked Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.

 

West Virginia returned to the top of the polls two days after holding off William & Mary in the Southern Conference championship game with Ronnie Retton taking Vincent's spot at guard. 

 

That turned out to be the final Associated Press poll of the season.

 

For its East Regional first-round game against Manhattan in the Garden, Schaus opted to move Bobby Joe Smith into the backcourt with Gardner and start Willie Akers in Smith's place at forward. 

 

It was only the second lineup change of the season, the first occurring three days prior in the Southern Conference title game.

 

Gardner, Akers, West and 6-foot-10 center Lloyd Sharrar each fouled out, enabling Manhattan to pull off one of the most stunning upset victories in NCAA Tournament history. It was perhaps a 1-in-10 proposition for the Jaspars beating West Virginia, and it happened that night.

 

Manhattan played a physical, New York style the Mountaineer guards had difficulty handling.

 

"Back then, playing in the Southern Conference, we were fairly soft playing compared to the New York teams the way the games were officiated up there, "Smith, who died last fall, recalled a couple of years ago. "We thought we were fouled bringing the ball up the court and they really roughed us up. It was our fault and we should have found out pretty quickly and played that kind of ball, too."

 

Don VincentJacobs thought the quick turnaround from the Southern Conference Tournament, traveling directly to New York City also played a role in the stunning loss.

 

"The problem was in those days we didn't have any time between the Southern Conference Tournament in Richmond and the NCAA Tournament in New York City," he noted. "We went directly from Richmond to New York City, and we just didn't make the adjustment. That team was No. 1 in the polls going in - a pretty dadgum good team."

 

It was a bitter pill for West Virginia to swallow, particularly a couple of weeks later when they saw in the newspapers that Kentucky had outlasted Seattle to win the national championship.

 

Had Vincent not gotten hurt, the Manhattan loss in Madison Square Garden doesn't happen because he was better equipped to handle the Jaspars' rough-house play, and West Virginia is the team most likely cutting down the nets in Louisville, Kentucky - not the Kentucky Wildcats.

 

"The biggest disappointment of my career was '58 because we were national champions that year, there was no question about it," Smith recalled.

 

If only Don Vincent had not gotten hurt! It's one of West Virginia University's biggest What Ifs?

 

Editor's Note: Photo of Vincent from WVUSports.com. Vincent earned his teachering degree in college and taught for a few years at Bridgeport High School.