Bob Huggins has a decision to make. Senior Jonathan Holton has been reinstated following a four game, team-issued suspension.

 

Before the suspension, Holton had been playing as well as anyone on the roster. The senior is averaging nearly 10 points and eight rebounds per game.

 

Losing a guy averaging a near double double is not what you want when you are making a run at a league title in the best basketball league in America. However, in Holton's absence, Nathan Adrian stepped up and lived the mantra of every coach in every sport ... "next man up."

 

We hear that all the time, right? Someone goes down with an injury or is suspended and we hear the coach say, "it's simply a matter of next man up." They preach about reserves needing to step in and produce.

 

Adrian has. Adrian is no ordinary backup, I realize. He's a guy who plays significant minutes (17.5 minutes per game) each night and has played in a ton of games for WVU in his career. However, his increase in production since moving into the starting lineup has been impressive. The most noticeable part of the increased production has come on the offensive end. Specifically, his shooting.

 

In the last four games as a starter, Adrian has hit 65 percent of his shots and an astounding 75 percent of his 3-point attempts. His shooting stroke has been smooth with no hesitation. His confidence is clearly high; as it should be with numbers like that.

 

Heck, I would argue, as hot as Adrian has been, it is time to find him more shots. Instead of one or two 3-point shot attempts each game, get the guy four or five. That's a discussion for another day, though.

 

Hot shooting isn't he only thing Adrian has brought to the table with Holton out.

 

How about nearly two steals per game and one total turnover? You read that right. One turnover over the last four games, none in the last three.

 

You've heard Bib Huggins complain all year about his team's inability to hold on to the basketball. In Adrian, you have six-nine guy that can handle the basketball, make the right pass and literally for the past three games, not turn it over. Add in his shooting right now and I see a player that has been as valuable to the team as any other over the past two weeks.

 

When you have a guy doing what Adrian is doing, you don't change a thing do you?

 

The question or dilemma is what do you do with Holton? Do you simply insert him back in the starting lineup and move Adrian back to a reserve? Do you slide Adrian into Esa Ahmad's spot and bring Ahmad off the bench?

 

Huggins is fond of saying, it doesn't matter who starts. It's about who finishes the game and minutes played.

 

In this system, that makes some sense. Jaysean Paige is clearly the best guard on the team this year, yet he doesn't start. Coming off the bench makes him no less valuable and he clearly handles that role well.

Adrian however, may warrant a different approach. Granted, it's a small sample size, but it's impossible to argue that the move to the starting lineup hasn't helped Adrian and therefore the team. He has been lights out as a starter. Do you dare mess with his mojo?

 

Of course, the hard part of the decision is that Huggins can't just think about what's best for Adrian. How will Holton perform after not playing or practicing for two weeks? What would his mindset be coming off the bench?

 

If you swap out Ahmad for Adrian, how would Ahmad react to coming off the bench after starting all year?

 

It's a good problem to have because ultimately you add depth back into the lineup with Holton's return.

 

You get a guy back in Holton that was really playing well before running afoul of team rules. You've theoretically become deeper because Nathan Adrian has found the shooting stroke that made him a coveted, big man that could pull defenders away from the basket, coming out of high school.

 

Bob Huggins is a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer. Surely, he'll make the right decision here. It will just be interesting to see what the right decision will be.

 

Who would you start? Leave a comment below or send me a tweet @BradHowe07 and let me know.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Jonathan Holton in his last game before being suspendeing, while his replacement in the starting lineup - Nathan Adrian - is shown in the second photo. Top reserve Jaysean Paige is shown in the third photo, while the decision on who to start could leave WVU Coach Bob Huggins a tad unhappy, as shown below, if things don't work out.  Photos by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.