Routt Fills His Shoes
Put yourself in Logan Routt's shoes.
(OK, they're size 15, but hang
with me on this ...)
A senior and the oldest player on the
14th-ranked West Virginia University basketball team, Routt figures his
quotient of playing time is based upon the misery of his teammates. No,
seriously.
The 6-11, 250-pound banger from
Cameron surmises that any extended playing time this year is tethered to the
foul troubles or physical ailments of stars Derek Culver, Oscar Tshiebwe and
Gabe Osabuohien.
Fallback guy? Plan B? Considering
where he's come from and what he's accomplished, let's call Logan Routt the
rebound guy.
"Usually when I'm not getting a
lot of minutes it means my teammates are playing really well, so I can't really
get frustrated with that," Routt said. "I never really get down on myself.
I would say it kinda motivates me to work even harder in practice, and outside
of practice."
So, Routt, to his eternal credit, is
OK with this. The Mountaineers are 15-3 after blitzing Texas 97-59 in
Morgantown on Monday, and the big guy from the little town is making his own
stamp on this dangerous team with spurts of contributions at opportune times.
In the Texas game, for instance,
Routt played 14 minutes as Coach Bob Huggins was able to substitute freely for
his big men, keeping everybody fresh as the defense went wild on the lethargic
Longhorns. Routt finished with nine points and five rebounds, including four on
the offensive boards. He subbed out one time at 10:32 in the second half to a
rousing, warm reception from the appreciative crowd.
WVU fans know a floorburn-loving
hardass when they see one.
"When I'm in, I want to be the
hardest player out there, be the most physical player out there,'' he said.
"And rebound every single ball that comes my way."
Yep, he's the rebound guy.
Routt gets playing time when some of this teammates are experiencing tough evenings, but that's when he gives it all he has to help his team to victory. (Photo by WV Illustrate)
And so it goes. Funny thing, the
tallest guy on the 14th-ranked team in the nation didn't even think of himself
as a basketball player until moving from Panama City, Fla. to Cameron, W.Va.
midway through his eighth-grade year. That's right. Routt was a beach-boy,
baseball bum year-round and didn't want to mess up his mojo with other sports
until moving to the colder climes, when the weather and the neighbors dictated
other options.
As a hard-throwing pitcher -- he was
schooled by his father/coach Lance Routt and figures he was throwing close to
90 mph as a junior -- he was a natural to try out at quarterback. And he
started at QB for three years at Cameron, even after his body grew to
6-foot-11. The biggest QB in the land – on any level -- got an infamous blurb
in USA Today.
"When I first got here (at WVU)
and was a freshman on campus more people knew me from 'the tall quarterback
from Cameron' than they did the new basketball player on the team," he
remembered with a chuckle.
It was kinda the same thing back in
high school. Basketball was his third choice, and he was pushed there by his
newest best friends, twins Cole and Ryan Clutter, who were, coincidentally, the
sons of head basketball coach Chad Clutter. "I was a 6-4 eighth-grader and
they were like, 'You should come to practice today and see what's going on.'
That's pretty much how that started."
The rest, as they say, is history. He
was first-team all-state as a senior, and, truth be told, he's become the most
accomplished big man from the Ohio Valley in the last 25 years, and probably
the most accomplished athlete from Cameron -- high school and college careers
considered -- in the last 50. Not bad work from the rebound guy.
The second chapter of this comes
courtesy of Bob Huggins, who took in this walk-on from the cow-patty town with
no stop lights and molded him into a viable big man in the Big 12.
"It took a couple of months of
practice to realize what he expects out of his players and what type of energy
you have to bring every day to satisfy him and get playing time," Routt
said. "He gets the most out of me. He gets the most out of everyone. There's
no way I'd be the player I am today without him."
Huggs owes him one, too. Routt was a walk-on out of high school, red-shirted his first year, and played 11 games his second year. He earned a scholarship and played 31 games as a soph. His career was progressing nicely.
He was a baseball player when he moved to Cameron as a child, and his friends got him involved with football and basketball before he was graduated.
The next year WVU needed an extra
scholarship -- there is a finite number available for schools this side of
Kansas -- and the coach went to Routt for a huge favor.
"I still had in-state financial
aid, so I could basically go for free" without the scholarship, Routt
said. "He asked me (to give it up) so that he could recruit another
player, which ended up being, I think, Emmitt (Matthews) or Jermaine (Haley).
One of the two. So, it would really help the team. I was a little down because
I wanted to stay on scholarship, obviously."
But, as always, he took one for the
team. Full disclosure: Routt did briefly consider a transfer elsewhere. But,
hey, he holds a Bob Huggins IOU and things could be worse. He's the rebound guy
on a nationally-renown team that could go deep into the post-season, and, after
wrapping up his MBA in Morgantown, he's seriously considering a pro basketball
career overseas.
Those shoes fit pretty well on Logan
Routt right now.
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