NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of West Virginia of last decade
By Joey Loose
![Mar 18, 2018; San Diego, CA, USA; Marshall Thundering Herd guard Jon Elmore (33) moves the ball against West Virginia Mountaineers guard James Bolden (3) during the first half in the second round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament at Viejas Arena. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports Mar 18, 2018; San Diego, CA, USA; Marshall Thundering Herd guard Jon Elmore (33) moves the ball against West Virginia Mountaineers guard James Bolden (3) during the first half in the second round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament at Viejas Arena. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/1c3855d761a753015c2112e2704221ce5997782ccb188a2f5d02740384f18a2c.jpg)
The NCAA basketball season produces each and every year. Each season has new impact players and inspiring stories while the NCAA Tournament always gives us Cinderella stories, buzzer beaters, and moments to last a lifetime. Each trip through March Madness is different and unique. Each one features different programs, coaches, and players getting their moments to shine until someone cuts down the nets. Even those players who don’t get to cut down the nets or feature in the Big Dance still can make a great impact on the sport.
When you look at the big picture, there are several thousand college basketball athletes in each season and every single one of them has a chance to make that impact. Today, we’re continuing our series that looks at the best college basketball players of the last decade from each individual state. This series is nearly complete and we’ve seen all kinds of players from the last ten seasons. We’ve seen states like New York give us national impact players and we’ve seen smaller states like Alaska and Hawaii contribute hard workers and less known contributors to the game.
Our focus today is on West Virginia, a state that falls somewhere in the middle of those two descriptors. The state hasn’t produced the same level of basketball talent as neighbors like Ohio and Pennsylvania but there’s still plenty to like about today’s list. While our focus is not on the Mountaineers of West Virginia or colleges in the state, there’s a surprising amount of representation for Marshall today. Still, this isn’t a piece about West Virginia colleges.
This is a piece about players whose hometowns are in West Virginia and what they did during their collegiate careers. The rankings aren’t based on recruiting marks from high school or what colleges these players spent their college days. We’ve done our best to identify the ten players who had the best impacts over the last decade and he may have just found a pretty special list of basketball players in the process. Let’s get right into West Virginia’s best.