'The Best Team I've Ever Played On': Finley Bizjack Raves About WVU

The Butler transfer believes the Mountaineers can have loads of success next season.

WVU Athletics Communications

For the second straight year, West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge landed a purer score out of the transfer portal, who he will have to spend a bunch of time with defensively. Last season, it was Treysen Eaglestaff, and this year it will be Butler transfer Finley Bizjack.

Bizjack was the third-leading scorer in the Big East Conference this past season, averaging 17.1 points per game on 42.6% shooting, including knocking down 34.9% of his three-point attempts. While he can really shoot it from deep, he is a pure three-level scorer who can create his own shot and also finish at the rim.

He admitted in an interview on MetroNews’ Sportsline that the heightened focus on defense will be new to him and that he has a long way to go to reach his full potential on that end of the floor.

“The defensive transition has definitely been a struggle for me because I’m not typically known as a defensive player. But Coach Hodge’s system has definitely helped me a lot whenever I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s been hard, but definitely good for me because I can feel myself getting better. I wanted to go somewhere where I could grow the most as a player and prove to the world that I could be a winner. And so, Coach Hodge definitely emphasized that whenever he was recruiting me. He led off in all of our recruiting meetings like, ‘Hey, we actually play defense here, and if you can bring the scoring, I can make you a better defender.’ And so, that was beyond important to me.”

Much like Eaglestaff, Bizjack will have to get used to not having to be the guy every trip up the floor, and that adjustment was certainly a challenge for Treysen. He eventually settled in and performed better down the stretch, although he never really reached the level of play everyone expected him to. Bizjack will have more versatile scorers around him, which should allow him to have a much smoother transition. He was extremely complimentary of his new teammates and believes this group can do some big things.

“It’s very different for me because coming from Butler, I was the main scoring option, and we were riding and dying with how I scored the ball. Because I’m surrounded by so many talented guys like Miles (Sadler), Seydou (Traore), Javan (Buchanan), Mo (Sylla), Joson (Sanon), and Martin (Somerville), the entire team is just…it’s the best team I’ve ever played on. I don’t have to do as much offensively, and I think that helps me pour into defense and just kind of playing off the ball more. It’s been a lot easier for sure.

“Seydou and Joson can jump out of the gym. Even Mo. Mo’s, I think one of the best bigs I’ve ever played with in my life. Definitely having those guys around me offensively helps, but even more so defensively because they’re just such good athletes and have such good instincts.”