As he entered this season, West Virginia State men's basketball coach Bryan Poore knew that there would be a bit of a learning curve.
With a roster full of freshmen and transfers that hadn't gotten to play together much, the veteran coach was aware there would be a stretch where the Yellow Jackets would be working out some early kinks as they started to get comfortable with one another.
Yet even through some of those growing pains WVSU is going through in the first few weeks of the season, Poore is seeing some positives from his group.
"We're still a work in progress because we've got about four guys in that locker room right now that played here last year," Poore said. "These guys just met each other a few months ago. We can't expect to be out there fully flowing yet, but we can scratch and claw to gain some confidence early so we can see how good we really are at the end of the year."
West Virginia State currently sits at 3-3 on the season. It has, however, started to see things begin to fall into place as it starts to form an idea of what the team will become as it gains more experience. It's seeing the way Brent Bauer is becoming the team's go-to option at point guard - averaging 15.7 points and more than six assists per game after having to go back to the drawing board late in the offseason when Frank Webb left the program.
The Yellow Jackets are seeing a couple of freshmen emerge as major impact players. Ernest Jenkins and Jayson Hankins have turned in several solid performances to open the season. Jenkins is fresh off one of the top shooting performances in school history, making 10 3-pointers en route to a 33-point outburst in a victory over Urbana, and leads the team while ranking sixth in the Mountain East Conference at 18.7 points per game.
Hankins, meanwhile, is averaging 14.3 points and a team-best 7.2 rebounds per contest. He registered a double-double in a tough loss to Notre Dame College last week when he scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
"It's a tribute to their high school programs because they came in prepared to step in and do what we've asked them to do," Poore said. "They know how to play, they have good instincts and do some things that you just can't really coach. Those two freshmen, to be playing the minutes they're playing right now in this league and to play as well as they are, it bodes well for our future."
The thing Poore has liked about his team up to this point is the way it has responded to adversity after tough games like the Notre Dame loss, where the contest was decided by a layup in the closing seconds. So far, when they've been hit with tough losses, the Yellow Jackets have kept pushing forward - something Poore believes is going to be a vital attribute for the team to have if it is going to survive the ups and downs of playing in the Mountain East on a nightly basis.
"The thing I am pleased with is the attitude and demeanor when they come in for practice," Poore said. "After a tough loss like the Notre Dame game, I told them that we can't let that bleed over into future performances. It's got to sting tonight but we have to come back the next day with some bounce to us, and that's how they looked the next day in practice.
"We have to keep moving forward and that's the attitude this group has taken. That's the part of this team I really like."