West Virginia lands major piece with return of Perez, what's next?
West Virginia has gone through a number of changes this off-season but the latest domino to topple over was a significant one with the news that Jose Perez would return for this season.
Perez initially entered the transfer portal July 5 in order to explore his options – and he certainly had them. Michigan, Gonzaga, Oregon and a long list of others jumped into the mix for the talented guard.
The Perez story is an interesting one considering he transferred to West Virginia late last year and his waiver and subsequent appeal was denied to play mid-season. That forced him to sit out the entire year and for a time it seemed as if he would never see the court for the Mountaineers.
That all changed this week as momentum built towards a possible return built leading up to his announcement late Friday night that he was indeed staying in Morgantown.
It’s a major addition in the sense that this late in the calendar it’s hard to replace players of any caliber, but especially those with the experience and credentials of Perez. While he didn’t suit up last year, Perez was named the MAAC Pre-Season Player of the Year prior to the 2022 season before he transferred.
And his last year on the court Perez put together a robust stat line by averaging 18.9 points, 4.5 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game for the Jaspers.
Perez is now the 11th scholarship player for West Virginia next season and should immediately slot in as major piece to the build as a starter at the three spot. It goes without saying that retaining Perez is very significant for the overall construction of the roster not only because of his talent level but the fact that trying to replace him at this stage would prove to be very difficult.
There’s a reason why so many schools got involved with each of the players once the portal window opened with head coach Bob Huggins resignation and some of those were lured away in the process.
While the Mountaineers already had some major announcements go in their favor with players electing to return such as Jesse Edwards, RaeQuan Battle and Kerr Kriisa, Perez essentially stops the bleeding out from the roster by exiting the portal and returning to Morgantown.
The program was dinged some by the portal this off-season with the losses of forward Tre Mitchell (Kentucky), point guard Joe Toussaint (Texas Tech), forward Mohamed Wague (Alabama) and forward James Okonkwo (North Carolina), this addition along with the others made so far helps to give the Mountaineers a real chance at being just as good if not better than they were before on paper.
On top of retaining Perez, West Virginia also was able to add transfer additions in Florida State point guard Jeremiah Bembry and St. John’s forward Quinn Slazinski.
Both are versatile options with size with Bembry being a 6-foot-6 guard that can provide minutes behind Kriisa at the point and Slazinski is a 6-foot-9 stretch four that can space the floor and is a solid replacement for Mitchell.
The work isn’t quite done however, as West Virginia has two open scholarships and still needs another post presence to help fill the void vacated with the losses of Wague and Okonkwo. Expect a wide net to be cast in the coming days and weeks prior to the start of the school year in order to find the best fit.
The last spot likely goes to a wing to add to what the Mountaineers already have on the roster and round out what the build looks like. If those two spots hit this roster goes from a massive concern when players were entering the transfer portal a month ago to a real strength.
That’s a testament to the job done by Josh Eilert, Jay Kuntz and the rest of the coaching staff and adding Perez back into the fold is just another major building block to the puzzle that is the final roster.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan
•Like us on Facebook
