While NBA teams have no idea when — or if — their season will resume, there has been talk of postponing the draft from June 25 until sometime in August.

It is a situation watched closely by West Virginia coach Bob Huggins and Mountaineers freshman Oscar Tshiebwe, who has filed paperwork to be evaluated by the NBA.

But it will be difficult to grade players without a combine, especially with teams not permitted to visit with players face-to-face.

“This draft you have less an idea of where you’re going to be drafted than any draft we’ve had in a long time,” Huggins said. “They’re not going to have a combine. They’re not going to be bringing people in, which was the two major things that the NBA wanted to do in the past … see guys in real time, see how they move, see how they can move their feet, see how tall they actually are, how fast they actually run.

“Everything is going to be left to film, and I don’t think there are many of them who want to make a multi-million dollar, multi-year deal off of watching film.”

Meanwhile, Huggins said he and his staff will offer guidance to the 6-foot-9, 258-pound Tshiebwe, who averaged 11.2 points and 9.3 rebounds in his first collegiate season after graduating from Kennedy Catholic.

“My focus is to make sure our guy makes the right decision,” Huggins said. “Quite frankly, we’ve had guys that got the wrong people in their ears, and they made terrible decisions that have cost them very lucrative careers because they listened to somebody who cared more about what they were going to get out of it than what the player was going to get out of it.

“We want him to make the best and most informed decision he can possibly make. Oscar’s going to listen to us. Oscar trusts us. We’re not going to lead him down the wrong path.”

Without a combine — where teams can point out flaws in a player’s game — there will be lots of unanswered questions, Huggins said.

“There will be a pool group of general managers, and they will come up with a hypothetical of where, possibly, if they remain in the draft, they will be drafted.

“They are going to say, hypothetically, you might be the 18th pick in the draft. What they don’t say, there may be seven Europeans that nobody knows about that are going to drop you down seven more spots or 10 more spots.”

Huggins said he doesn’t expect the situation to become a problem, especially with two forwards already signed in West Virginia’s 2020 class: 6-9 four-star prospect Isaiah Cottrell of Huntington, W.Va., and 6-7 Taj Thweatt of Wildwood, N.J.

“We’re going to have guys. I’m not worried about that,” he said.

Good idea, but …

During a recent interview on 93.7 FM, Huggins suggested playing this year’s canceled NCAA Tournament before the start of the 2020-21 season.

He said Monday his idea is generating “a lot of feedback” from coaches and the media who believe it’s a good idea.

“Not that it makes any difference, but a lot of feedback,” he said. “I haven’t heard from the NCAA yet.”

Passing the time

While quarantined at home, Huggins said he has become a fan of the Discovery Channel series “Naked and Afraid,” in which two strangers try to survive in the wilderness without many resources.

“It’s pretty amazing to go out there in the jungle and live for, whatever it is, 21 days, 14 days, don’t eat, make your own habitat,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to do it. Kind of fun to watch.”

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