West Virginia had to take a leap of faith when it came to adding Israeli forward Ofri Naveh to the roster.
Naveh, 6-foot-7, spent this past season playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv U18 and moved squarely onto the radar for West Virginia due to the connections that assistant Da’Sean Butler had forged during his playing career in Israel.
Those ties kickstarted the process but unlike some prospects, the Mountaineers had to decide whether to add Naveh to the roster based solely on his film.
“That’s the only way we could evaluate him,” head coach Josh Eilert said.
West Virginia needed to find talented options late in the process given the turnover on the roster and Naveh checked those boxes. So, the Mountaineers landed the Israeli.
The first-year head man admitted that at first, he wasn’t sure that Naveh would be effective at first given his frame, but in practice he demonstrated that he made up for that with how active he is and his IQ.
That was on display in the charity exhibition against George Mason where Naveh turned 27 minutes into a productive stat line for his first taste of college basketball. The true freshman finished with 9 points on 3-6 shooting with 5 rebounds, 3 assists and only a single turnover.
That also included a highlight reel dunk where he flashed his athleticism driving down the lane and finishing with a two-handed dunk over a defender.
“He’s a special kid. Special basketball player. He’s got one of the best basketball IQs that I’ve seen as a freshman and he competes,” Eilert said.
There has been a language barrier for Naveh, but he continues to work on that as well. And even with that, Eilert has been impressed with the questions that he’s asked.
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Forward Quin Slazinski took notice of Naveh after the first day of practice and has only seen him continue to mature and become more comfortable with his role.
One play in particular stood out to Slazinski when he got cut off and quickly delivered a behind the back skip to the other corner. That’s something that typically takes college basketball players a few years to learn after some trial and error, but he’s already skipping some of those steps.
“We knew he was special. That kid comes to practice to get better every single day. He’s coming to get better and that’s special. I was talking to him after the game and said if you keep continuing to get better and keep playing hard your life is going to be very fun,” he said. “He’s a special player and I’m just so happy. He’s capable of doing that on a nightly basis and we’re going to ask him to do that.”
The senior forward admitted that his game is unorthodox coming from overseas which makes him tough to guard. His attitude has been a team-first approach, and the sky is the limit moving forward.
It remains to be seen just how his role will mature, but if his debut is any indication there will be opportunities for him to see the floor and take advantage of it.
“His future is really bright,” senior center Jesse Edwards said.
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