West Virginia had an immediate need on the roster, so the program looked overseas to fill it.
That’s where Ofri Naveh, a native of Israel, came into play.
Naveh, 6-foot-7, spent this past season playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv U18. He is a versatile option that can both score and rebound the basketball given his frame.
In his most recent contest in the U-18 European Championships, Naveh averaged 10.8 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assists over five games. He also shot 55-percent from two, 46.2-percent from three and 73-percent from the line.
Naveh moved squarely onto the radar for West Virginia given the connections that assistant Da’Sean Butler had forged in Israel during the time he played professionally there. That started the process and after looking over his film and hosting a zoom call things only picked up further.
“He was very intriguing,” head coach Josh Eilert said.
Naveh is going to need to continue to add to his frame and Eilert even jokes that he wishes he had around 30-pounds of mass attached when he showed up on campus. But he will get there over time and the coaches are excited to have him on the roster.
In fact, the coaching staff prioritized diet, nutrition and the weight room with him as soon as he arrived on campus and that has been an ongoing process.
While there is a language barrier of sorts to overcome, Naveh is equipped with great instincts and each day in practice he has continued to improve while not forcing anything in the process.
Eilert wasn’t sure at first if he was going to need to be developed over time, but Naveh has started to show that he could play a significant role given the construction of this roster. Some of that will depend on how he continues to develop physically, but so far so good for the freshman.
“Once he gets that strength, he’s going to be a force,” Eilert said. “He’s got great instinct, great basketball instinct. It doesn’t matter what language you’re speaking that helps.”
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