The day Corey Acord has been waiting for is nearly here.
Acord will begin his WVU Tech men’s basketball head coaching career on Saturday when the Golden Bears host Bluefield (Va.) University at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m., after the women open their season against Ohio Christian at 4 p.m.
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Acord, the Woodrow Wilson graduate who played high school basketball in the building where he will start his coaching career, has enjoyed getting ready for the big day and beyond.
“A lot of excitement, just seeing this team come together and understanding that it is a process, and it’s going to take some time, but they play extremely hard,” Acord said. “They’ve bought into what we’re wanting to do.”
The Golden Bears have a new coach and, essentially, a new team. Only five players return from the team that went 16-11 a season ago (7-9 in the River States Conference).
Leading the way will be junior point guard Cole Chapman. The Shady Spring graduate will find himself in a new situation, playing without twin brother Braden Chapman for the first time ever. The two were multiple time all-staters at Shady and played together for two seasons at Tech before Braden transferred to the University of Charleston.
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Cole averaged 4.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists last season.
“Cole’s been great,” Acord said. “He’s a special person on and off the basketball court, just the prototypical pulling guard and just a leader on and off the court. I’m thankful that, as for my first year as a head coach, he’s the captain. He’s who I’m riding with, because he’s been great. So we’re getting him to be more comfortable talking and also leading and more aggressive on the court. But I can’t ask for a better person than Cole Chapman to lead our program.”
Also back for the Golden Bears are guards Liam Craven, Christian Goebel and Richard Fu and forward/center Matthew Linville.
The preseason has centered on getting the holdovers to mesh with several newcomers. Many are transfers, including guard Brandon Moore, guard/forward Ian Goings, forward Jackson Tackett (a Logan High School alumnus who transferred from Alice Lloyd) and center Max Morgan.
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“We’ve had to teach a lot more just because of how many new guys we have, but we’ve had some guys step up,” Acord said. “We’re still trying to fine tune that rotation, but practice has been very competitive, and now we’re starting to kind of get our rotation down for the upcoming year.”
The Golden Bears will again play a strong schedule, with preseason No. 12 Pikeville visiting on Tuesday. They will also travel to No. 20 Cumberlands for the Cumberlands Classic on Thursday.
Then there’s a visit to Marshall on Dec. 23. There will be an Oak Hill family flavor to that matchup with Marshall head coach Corny Jackson and Tech assistant Benitez Jackson.
There are also two games scheduled to be played at Van Meter Gymnasium rather than at The Armory — Dec. 6 against Appalachian Bible College and Dec. 13 against Virginia University of Lynchburg.
