Next up for West Virginia men's basketball is a familiar opponent for interim head coach Josh Eilert, as the Mountaineers take on Massachusetts on Saturday, Dec. 16 in the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass.
This also yields to some much-needed good news for Eilert, as his squad welcomes back its point guard Kerr Kriisa amongst other potential contributors.
Before coming to West Virginia in 2007 to begin his tenured career with the Mountaineers, Eilert spent two seasons at Kansas State as a graduate assistant starting in 2005.
There, he built a relationship with current UMass head coach Frank Martin and his staff who used to lead the Wildcats, making this matchup one he looks forward to. The Minutemen have started the season 5-2 with a notable win over USF and losses to Harvard and Towson, but this team is a group he can look up to.
“[Massachusetts] is a friendly foe, so to speak. Someone I really look up to and someone I worked with in head coach Frank Martin,” Eilert said. “A person I value a lot in his friendship and his loyalty over the years and someone I've learned from as a young [graduate assistant] working at Kansas State with him. Looking forward to that matchup and excited to see him and some friendly faces there.”
Not only is Eilert's relationship with the Massachusetts staff setting the stage for an exciting contest but he’s also excited due to how his rotation will evolve.
After the addition of three new potential contributors that could play, including Arizona transfer point guard Kerr Kriisa, things are excitingly different for the interim head coach.
“From every indication with all of the rest of the guys, they're ultra excited. They know having depth and having our weapons at our disposal is certainly going to help us,” Eilert said. ”I don't see any issue of trying to get everyone on the same page and clicking on all cylinders. Kerr [Kriisa] got a couple chances to play but the others haven't got that game-time experience for some time, so that'd be the only issue I see.”
Of this aforementioned depth set to join the team, Kriisa will make his regular-season debut against Massachusetts, with no strings attached unlike the other two, after serving a nine-game suspension for accepting impermissible benefits at his previous school, Arizona.
However with his return nearby, Eilert can tell by just looking at the senior point guard from Estonia, that he's prepared to get back on the court.
“I think he's turned it up a notch and he understands that it's coming. Not that he didn't compete everyday but you can see it in his eyes that he's able to compete under the lights now,” Eilert said. “He's excited to run the show and it's what we brought him in here to do.”
As a team leader, it's simple to understand that Kriisa has done the extra work to get ready for his return and Eilert has noticed the surplus of work he's done to stay in game-shape.
“I don't know what his game legs are going to be like. Kerr's practiced each and every day but he has missed those game reps,” Eilert said. “He's done all of that extra work, working on his game and it makes up for all of that mileage he misses in the games.”
The other two players that haven't seen in-game experience in quite some time are transfer guards RaeQuan Battle and Noah Farrakhan according to Eilert.
Battle has especially toiled with and fought back against the NCAA transfer eligibility rules and after a positive court hearing on Wednesday, both players were offered a 14-day window to compete until further rulings are made.
Battle transferred into WVU from Montana State and Farrakhan, who's also dealing with NCAA eligibility waiver issues, came from Eastern Michigan and both athletes have an opportunity to see the floor for the first time. However, Eilert doesn't want them to overcompensate but rather allow the transition to be smooth.
“Don't feel that pressure to do anything more than the team needs you to do. It's been a long time since those guys have seen action,” Eilert said. “We'll have those conversations with those guys to tell them to let the game come to them, so hopefully we have a smooth transition.”
The interim head coach does expect that the increased numbers could foster a faster play style for the Mountaineers, a philosophy that they've had to drastically remove with the lack of numbers off the bench.
“It's a lot faster, we can have a lot fresher legs out there. I anticipate playing a lot faster than we have in these first nine games,” Eilert said.
This shift in pace of play is directly matched up against a strong defensive UMass squad in their next game according to Eilert, as the Mountaineers will compete against a defensive scheme that he's extremely familiar with but also prepared for.
“They're really good at offensive rebounding and they're top-10 in second-chance points. We've got to sure up our defensive rebounding. They're also top-10 in the country in points off turnovers so they're going to turn up the heat,” Eilert said. “I understand Frank [Martin] and his approach to a lot of things in terms of the defensive end so they are going to get up into you and try to force the issue and make you uncomfortable and take things away. We're very mindful of all of those things.”
Two star forwards for the Minutemen stick out to Eilert, seniors Matt Cross and Josh Cohen. This pair of big men are the two leading scorers for Martin's team, as Cohen holds the scoring superiority with 18 points and eight rebounds per game while Cross brings in 16.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game on average.
These two are players that West Virginia expects to have an impact on the game as a mismatch on the court.
“Their four and five, they're both veteran guys and two seniors on their roster. The five, Josh Cohen and [Matt] Cross is a matchup issue for us. That four position has been an issue for us trying to figure out the right personnel,” Eilert said.
At the end of the day, Eilert expects a battle to unfold at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and he knows how defense could play a factor in this matchup.
“It should be a battle. Consequently, they turn people over and score off turnovers but they also send people to the line. It's a double-edged sword,” Eilert said.
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