Fan support a draw for West Virginia basketball opening
One thing that West Virginia has to offer with its head coach opening is the arena of fan support.
It sounds easy enough, but it’s definitely an area that is intriguing to potential candidates who are interested in taking over the post.
“The passion of our fans comes up all the time,” Athletic Director Wren Baker said.
That was evident this past season when the Mountaineers had an average home attendance of 10,546 across the 18 home games despite the fact that the program struggled on the court finishing 9-23.
Baker points specifically to the Baylor game on Feb. 24 where the weather was less than ideal and West Virginia at 8-16 still drew almost 13,000 fans in the stands.
“There are not that many programs that late in the year sitting at 7 or 8 wins at the time that can draw that. You turn the TV on you see them empty every night,” he said. “This is a great job.”
And it’s a home crowd that has certainly made a difference on the floor in terms of level of play over the years as Baker points to analytics to prove it.
That’s because West Virginia finished No. 2 nationally in home-court advantage both this year and last. How is that measured? KenPom measures possession efficiency, which can be boiled down to the Mountaineers’ possessions versus their opponents and their opponents' possessions versus them and everybody else on their schedule.
“How they measure that is how we play at home every possession, how we play on the road every possession and how our opponents play in the Coliseum every possession and how they play at home every possession and it’s all factored into the system,” Baker said.
This season alone, West Virginia won all nine of their games at home including upending a pair of ranked teams in No. 25 Texas and No. 3 Kansas but didn’t win a single game away from Morgantown.
“The Coliseum is an awesome venue,” Baker said.
The Athletic Director believes that overall, the Mountaineers have had a tremendous tradition over the years with multiple coaches atop the program along with being equipped with great facilities. Among those facilities is a practice facility that is likely perched within the top 10 in the country.
And along those lines, Baker believes that when compared to the rest of their competition in the Big 12 the program will sit in line with what they will pay the head coach, the staff and their travel budget.
“I feel really good about where we will be in the conference,” he said.
And the passion of the fan base is just another cherry on top.
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