The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Lorain’s Wilson commits to WVU
Seth Wilson has been a sought after recruit since bursting onto the Ohio basketball scene as a freshman two years ago. He has fielded nine Division I offers heading into the 2019-20 season, and has made a decision as to where he’ll continue his academic and athletic career after high school.
The 6-foot-3 guard confirmed his commitment to West Virginia to The Morning Journal on Aug. 31 after an unofficial visit to Morgantown with his family over Labor Day weekend.
In an exclusive interview with The Morning Journal prior to officially making the announcement, Wilson and his mother both cited the family atmosphere of the basketball program and of the entire campus as the deciding factor over many other quality programs, which included Bradley, UC Davis, Valparaiso, Penn State, Youngstown State, Ohio, Akron and Kent State.
“When I went down there for my unofficial (visit) the first time, everybody knew me by name — fans, kids — and that kind of just stuck with me that they knew who I was and I had no idea I’d be committing there,” Wilson said.
The chance to play for legendary
coach Bob Huggins was something he simply couldn’t turn down either.
Add in that Wilson expects to compete for a starting spot when he gets to West Virginia in two years and the decision was all but made.
“I talked to a lot of the guys like (Miles) Deuce McBride who played for Cincinnati Moeller, he said when you’re done with (Huggins) you’re gonna love him,”
Wilson said. “When you’re there you’re gonna hate him because he yells at you but when you get done you’re gonna love him, and that’s the type of coach I want to play for.
“I actually told my dad that the first time (Huggins) yells at me I might smile because I’m just gonna be happy to be there and finally be at my dream school. He’s a legendary coach, in my eyes the greatest
of all time, and to play for him is just an honor.”
With the stress of recruiting out of the way, Wilson is prepared to focus all his energy on bringing a state championship to Lorain, where he will play this season after spending his first two years at St. Vincent-St. Mary.
He averaged 13.5 points and 5.0 assists last season for the Irish and scored a game-high 19 points in a
state championship loss to Cincinnati Moeller, and won a Division II state championship with St. Vincent-St. Mary in 2018.
“My main goal is to win a championship for the city of Lorain and now that I have college out the way and I know where I’m going, it’s definitely gonna make it a lot easier because I can just focus on that and getting good grades in school,” Wilson said.
“It was exciting and stressful because at times I wanted to pull my hair out because I didn’t want to let any of the coaches down, but at the same time it was exciting because all my life I’ve been working for this moment exactly since I was two, three years old when I started playing basketball on my mini hoop I thought about this, playing college ball, playing D-I, so to see it come true it’s amazing.”