Bob Huggins hopped on a plane to California Sunday night to take in a double-header as a part of the Double Pump West Coast All-Star Camp. His sights were set on a special talent his assistants had alerted him to, a 6-foot-6 guard-forward named George Matthews.

A few months ago, Matthews had not even registered on the WVU staff’s radar. He had just finished his senior season at St. Mary’s (Ariz.) High and was faced with a list of interested schools that was highlighted by Miami, Oklahoma and Utah. Rather than commit to any of these, however, he decided to extend his prep career and leave the door open to additional offers by spending a year at Westwind Prep in Phoenix.

“He looked at the college freshman class of 2010 and he started realizing that a lot of kids were not playing, they were twiddling their thumbs,” says Marcus Matthews, George’s uncle and AAU coach for the Arizona Magic. “The maturity level, the transition was just too much for him, so he was like, ‘You know what, I don’t want to be them. I want to prepare myself another year and go to a school where I can come to play.’”

Then West Virginia’s Eric Martin found out about Matthews and invited him to attend the Elite Camp in Morgantown on the first weekend in June. In two short days, Matthews had gotten not only Coach Martin’s attention, but that of assistants Larry Harrison and Billy Hahn as well.

“George had an extremely great showing and the interested generated there,” says Marcus. “The coaching staff loved him, wanted to see more of him and basically said he’d be great for their system and they’d like him for 2010.”

But Matthews had already decided he would go to prep school, and told the Mountaineers that if they liked him so much now, they’d love him after one more season of preparation.

“That was one of the hardest decisions that I’ve had to make yet,” says George. “I feel like I could come in and contribute right now, but I do know that I’ve still got to mature and I do need time to grow.”

Suddenly, as if WVU had opened some sort of floodgates, other big programs began showing interest in Matthews. He welcomed the increased attention, but was careful not to get too caught up in his own hype.

“It’s crazy that just because West Virginia wants me now all of a sudden other schools want me and it’s like, ‘Where were you at a long time ago? Now you want to jump on the bandwagon?’” he says.

While other schools were trying to make an impression on Matthews, West Virginia already had. He came away from his visit not only excited about the coaching staff

and the team, but about Morgantown in general.

“I thought it was great,” he says. “I like how everything is about the college basically. In West Virginia, the basketball players are kind of like their pro team. Everybody loves the basketball players and you really get treated like a star.”

On Sunday, Huggins finally got his chance to take a look at Matthews, who was playing back-to-back games in Carson, Calif. He knows how important a strong showing is to solidify West Virginia’s interest in him, and he hopes he showed Huggins enough to ensure an official scholarship offer is on its way.

“This puts a lot of pressure on me and I feel kind of nervous, but once I get in the game, I’m just playing,” Matthews said between games, admitting that the idea of playing for a coach like Huggins is something he has thought for years.

“That would mean a whole lot. It’s something that as a kid you grow up dreaming about. You want to go to a big university and play for a hall of fame coach. It’s the ultimate dream.”

Now that he has shown Huggins what he can offer the Mountaineers, Matthews must take a wait-and-see approach. If the WVU staff extends a scholarship offer for the 2011 season, he is quite certain of how he will respond.

“Yes, most definitely,” he says. “I’m probably going to commit right when all these camps and tournaments are over. This is where I want to go, it’s everything I’m looking for.”