After an off-season of uprooting and turmoil, West Virginia is excited for the actual games to begin.
The Mountaineers, who were one of the biggest winners of this off-season in the transfer portal, were tabbed as ninth in the Big 12 by the league’s preseason media poll. At this point it’s hard to determine if those in the program should feel slighted by the distinction with so many questions still remaining.
But there’s no question it can be used as a motivating tool. It’s not quite the dead last slotting that the football team received in July, but it’s in the back half of the 14-team league.
That’s not to say there aren’t questions though. Gone is Hall of Fame head coach Bob Huggins, who resigned his post after a DUI incident in June.
The interim coach is Josh Eilert who has his first opportunity to lead a program with a group of assistants with not a lot of experience under their belts either. His quartet of DerMarr Johnson, Alex Ruoff, Da’Sean Butler and Jordan McCabe have only one year of assistant experience at the college level between them.
That alone is going to bring questions on what the product could look like on the floor and could have impacted where the Mountaineers are slotted by the media.
The roster, while talented, also features a majority of players that have never taken the court together in a game before so that also is a question mark.
West Virginia returns only four players from last season and they combined to average just 9.4 points per game which is only 12-percent of the total production. Those four are Seth Wilson, Kobe Johnson, Josiah Harris and Patrick Suemnick but the roster was helped greatly by the transfer portal.
West Virginia added Syracuse center Jesse Edwards, Arizona point guard Kerr Kriisa, Montana State guard RaeQuan Battle, Georgetown forward Akok Akok, St. John’s forward Quinn Slazinski and several others with a massive haul from the transfer portal to replace that lost production.
However, one major factor that is still in play is the status of Battle as the Mountaineers are still waiting for word on an immediate eligibility waiver that would get him on the court this season.
Battle, a two-time transfer that started his career at Washington and then moved to Montana State, has one season of eligibility remaining. He is coming off a year where he started all 35 games and averaged 17.7 points per game while shooting 46.9 percent and 35.3 percent from three.
Having Battle would completely change the complexion of this team considering the build of the roster as he would provide a natural fit at either the two or the three depending on the way that Eilert configures the starting lineup.
The decision rendered there could ultimately have a major impact on where this team ends up in the standings but it’s clear that at least at this stage that expectations aren’t as high as they are inside the building. And that can end up being a great tool for this group moving ahead.
West Virginia also drew a favorable schedule. There are certainly some challenges such as opening on the road at Houston, but the program won’t have to travel to Kansas or Baylor, while out of the five teams that the Mountaineers play twice were slotted below them in Cincinnati at 11 and UCF at 14.
Even the four away only games are favorable outside that trip to Houston, with Oklahoma (12), Oklahoma State (10), and Iowa State (7) as the other matchups.
This team is going to have to prove it, but there’s potential for a surprise when it comes to the standings.
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