West Virginia will not have Jose Perez on the active roster this season.
After initially being denied a waiver to play this season by the NCAA, that decision has been upheld on appeal making Perez ineligible for the Mountaineers this season. Sources confirmed the news to WVSports.com.
The waiver was initially denied, despite the fact that Perez’s head coach Steve Masiello was fired just 10-days before the start of the regular season.
It was surprising at the time given the nature of waivers being granted in college basketball. That decision was immediately appealed by the Mountaineers and the fact that decision was upheld was equally as surprising.
"Extremely unfortunate. I don’t know, the whys and the wherefores, I know this you’re talking about a kid who was a very good student in high school who gave nobody problems or issues," head coach Bob Huggins said.
"I'll probably get in trouble for saying it but they don’t know what the hell they’re doing," the head coach added.
Perez, 6-foot-5, 220-pounds, started 29 of 30 games played last season for Manhattan, where he averaged 18.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists and he earned First Team All-MAAC honors in the process. That led to him being tabbed as the league’s pre-season player of the year this season.
The Bronx, New York native became one of the most highly recruited players after entering the transfer portal once his head coach was fired. The Mountaineers beat out a long list of schools for his services with Huggins playing a critical role in that decision.
The experienced guard was initially unable to practice with the team until his waiver was denied Dec. 16. He was eligible to begin practicing the next day and with this decision Perez can continue practicing with the team but will not be able to appear in games due to this decision.
Perez has effectively served as the scout team option in practice to give the Mountaineers opposing looks on the offensive side of the ball. He will have one season left next season after the NCAA granted a full-year in response to the denial.
“That’s not his fault either because they give him the ball and he always emulates the other team’s best player,” Huggins said.
But in that role he was able to showcase how effective he can be on the offensive end.
“He scores the ball against us but then again everybody else does, too,” Huggins said.
Perez would have been an immediate boost and would have brought experience in the back court to a team that needs a jump at this time after struggling to open Big 12 Conference play. But it wasn’t meant to be and now Perez must sit out the remainder of the year and is eligible to suit up next season for the Mountaineers.
That isn't a foregone conclusion that he returns, but Huggins does believe it will be in his best interest.
"I don’t know. I know he knows that the people at this university have done everything humanly possible to help him. And he knows that and he has great appreciation for that. Now where you go from there, hell I don’t know," Huggins said. "Put yourself in those shoes? Would you be upset? Of course. When you totally take away the game that you love on top of that, I don’t know man."
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