MORGANTOWN, W.Va.--Over the summer, West Virginia University's Brandon Watkins was forced with a difficult decision. He had to decide to pursue a basketball career with the Mountaineers or walk away. "He had a little vacation this summer," WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. "It was one of those, you need to decide if this is what you really want to do. It's an amazing thing. Guys think they're tired of it until they don't have it and then all of a sudden they don't have it. You start to appreciate what you had a lot more. It's not basketball, it is basketball but it's the commodity. It's the friendships that you develop. "I told him the other day, I told the seniors the other day, I remember like it was yesterday when my career ended and we had …show more content…
In fact Huggins believed it was always deep inside of him. "I think we've always thought that Brandon had ability," he said. "The Marshall game his freshman year, he's player of the game. The K-State game, we wouldn't have won without him. He was so active rebounding and blocking shots. I think we all saw glimpses but it seemed like every time Brandon was ready to break out, he had something happen to him." As a sophomore, Watkins had his best game of his career against Kansas State but that night he also tore his ACL in his left knee. After a long recovery, he was ready to play last season but fell victim to Mono, which sidelined the junior for the first six games. Watkins was never able to find his way last season. He scored 14 points and grabbed 24 boards in 26 games. After several weeks of soul searching the Decatur, Georgia. native found his love for the game again. "This is my last go around and I want to leave out on a good note," he said. "I haven't really been playing as much so I want to leave out with everybody saying he did contribute some stuff even though he went through a lot. That’s my motivation." Watkins got back with the team and got back in the gym to work on improving his