West Virginia Athletic Director Wren Baker avoids timeframes when it comes to coaching searches.
But he did offer some hints on how the process could possibly play out.
“I think this is a coaching search that we can execute pretty quickly,” he said.
The Mountaineers have one built-in advantage in the fact that the program just went through this process less than a calendar year ago with an interim head coach in place. That allowed Baker and his search committee to fully vet the options that were out there at the time.
And while some of those aren’t available in this carousel, some certainly are.
The biggest hurdle for Baker when it comes to timing is simply time itself. A portion of the candidates are still going to be playing so you’re subject to their schedule when it comes to communication and other things associated with the hiring process as it progresses.
“If I could get them all done in the next two or three days, I could probably have this thing wrapped up in record time. But a lot of those candidates are tied up, at least for the next two or three days. And some of them could go into the next weekend,” Baker said.
That is an important element to Baker, who was previously a basketball coach himself, because he fully understands the amount of time invested in each of the teams and student-athletes for every candidate. Whether that is film sessions, practice, game-planning and everything else.
That makes the process trickier with ongoing games for potential candidates as well as the human element of it all with it being the final time those teams will play together.
“And so, I don't think that you want to cheat those kids and those coaches out of getting the full attention of their coach when they're in March Madness in the post-season. And so, I'm respectful of that. I want to see candidates as quickly as they'll see me,” he said.
But Baker also was quick to point out that he does have a certain amount of respect for those candidates who don’t become a distraction for their team.
“Because these guys deserve to have my full efforts,” he said.
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