Like every Division II team in the country, the West Virginia State men's basketball team is officially on break - getting a week off at the end of the semester to return home for a few days, celebrate the holidays with family and unwind a bit.
Through the first 10 games of the season, things have been a bit up and down for the Yellow Jackets as they currently sit at 5-5 following Monday afternoon's victory over Washington Adventist University in their final non-conference game of the season. When they get back, however, is when the real fun starts and coach Bryan Poore's team will get a good look at what his young team can really do as the Mountain East Conference slate begins to pick up.
It wastes no time ramping up, either. Not long after the players make their return to school, West Virginia State faces home games against two of the MEC's elite programs with matchups against West Liberty and Wheeling Jesuit.
"We'll have those two right away and then also Fairmont State not too long after that, so we won't have too much time to snap back into it if we fall behind," Poore said. "The first day of practice when they get back might be a little ugly, but teams all over the country will be seeing that. We'll work some fundamentals to get them back in the flow of things and you can do that for a couple days, but you've got to start game planning and getting ready.
"We're looking at it like a new season starting Jan. 3, and it's going to be here fast."
The week-long break for the holiday began after Monday's game and the players will return to campus to continue practice on Dec. 27. Since the players only get a week off, that played a big part in West Virginia State scheduling the WAU game at noon so it could give the team most of the day Monday to get back home.
Poore likes what he's seen from his team for the most part in this early portion of the season. Now comes the big test, where the Yellow Jackets will find out if they're ready to take that next step and win some conference games.
That means the coaching staff has asked the players to spend their time away from campus wisely - taking time to celebrate and spend time with family, while also making sure to put in some extra work.
"What we've asked of them is just to take three days or so in the gym and just do some running," Poore said. "I'm not necessarily worried about them shooting and stuff like that, I'd rather them work on some more conditioning to keep that up while they're away. Once we're back, it's on and there are going to be a lot of track meets against teams in this league, so we'll need to be in shape."
The Yellow Jackets have split their first four MEC games and have looked at times like they can score with anyone - especially with freshman Ernest Jenkins scoring like he has. Jenkins is currently seventh in the MEC averaging at 19.2 points per game, while both Brent Bauer and Jayson Hankins are averaging more than 14 points per game.
West Virginia State hasn't graded out quite as well defensively, according to its veteran coach. Despite averaging nearly 80 points, WVSU is giving up more than 87 points per game and allows opponents to shoot 43.7 percent from the field. As they return and move forward into conference play, that's going to be a crucial improvement they'll need to make.
"We have to be better defensively. In this league, you need to defend and rebound better than we've been doing it," Poore said. "Our offense will be fine because we've shown that we have guys who can make plays and put the ball in the hole.
"We've been drilling defense really hard recently in practice because we know we need to harp on that before the MEC season really gets rolling."