West Virginia State men's basketball coach Bryan Poore literally didn't know what he had with Cody Morris on campus ... because he didn't know Morris was even on the WVSU campus.
He knew about Morris at Herbert Hoover High School, but he also knew Morris had gone to Virginia for college. He wasn't aware, though, that the former Husky had returned home.
Now Morris is a sophomore on the Yellow Jackets roster, and a young player who has gotten plenty of opportunities to take the floor this year for State. Those opportunities have allowed his game to grow quickly, which should continue with State's next game, a 4 p.m. Saturday contest versus Glenville State at the Walker Convocation Center.
"He's going to be a big, big player for us," Poore said, "for the rest of this season and the next two."
After finishing his Hoover career as a Class AA all-state honorable mention in 2013, Morris headed to Division III Randolph College in Lynchburg to continue his basketball career. His tenure ended essentially before it started. He injured his meniscus and had a loose body in his kneecap during his first open gym at the college, and was on the shelf for six months after surgery.
The 6-foot-7 Morris came home and enrolled at West Virginia State, where he caught the eye of former WVSU player Dimitrios Jelen-Joy, who promptly went to Poore with the news.
"And Meech comes over and says, 'Hey, you know this guy Cody Morris?' I said, 'Yeah, I saw him play a couple of times, but he went to [Randolph].' 'No, he's here. He's in one of my classes.'"
Jelen-Joy brought Morris to Poore, Poore watched Morris shoot, and Morris became a Yellow Jacket. Morris was impressed with the new basketball facilities he saw grow up around the campus, but wasn't ready initially to approach Poore about a roster spot.
"I was focusing on my rehab and getting that over with and then seeing what my options were," he said.
When he joined the Yellow Jackets, the focus became the step up in competition. Morris quickly learned that the Mountain East Conference was wholly different than his tenure in the Cardinal Conference with the Huskies. Things he could do on the court in high school became much tougher in a Division II setting.
"At Hoover, I was dribbling the ball up the court and shooting and everyone else was 6-3, 6-4," he said. "Last year ... I wasn't comfortable. I wasn't looking to shoot. I was more or less a body out there."
The Clendenin native played sparingly as a redshirt freshman, averaging 8 minutes a game and attempting just 39 shots in 29 games. This season, though, he's playing more out of necessity. Three Yellow Jackets - Robert Fomby, Ron Whaley and Keith Harris - have been suspended since the Dec. 13 game against Bowie State for team rule violations. Freshman guard Brent Bauer missed Tuesday's game against Fairmont State with strep throat. That shallow bench has pushed Morris higher into the rotation.
He has started six of the team's last seven games and averages 18.6 minutes a contest. Against Shepherd on Jan. 10, he played 37 minutes and scored 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Poore wants to see more of that, because he feels Morris can be a strong contributor to State's offense.
"I am a firm believer that if a shooter is thinking whether he should shoot it or not, he's not going to be a consistent shooter," he said. "Shooters have to have that mentality of 'let it go.' That's what we're trying to get him to get do, because he can shoot it."
That's taking some time to adjust to, Morris said. But his confidence grows the deeper into the season he goes, and games like Shepherd only boost his self-assurance.
"It's just a learning process," he said, "but after I see one go in, I feel a lot better."
Morris' mission this year, in his eyes, is to help wherever he's needed. While he's not scoring in bunches, averaging 3.5 points, he's also pulling down 4.7 rebounds per game and blocking an average of 1.5 shots, with a four-block game coming against Fairmont State. What has Poore excited is that, rather than any statistic, he's seeing Morris operate with the confidence and aggressiveness needed to compete in the MEC.
"He's getting used to playing against this," Poore said, "and he's matching it."