West Virginia must get creative with season approaching
West Virginia is going to have to get creative to open the season.
That’s because the program will be without point guard Kerr Kriisa for nine games after he was deemed ineligible for that period after admitting to accepting impermissible benefits during his time at Arizona.
One of the most highly sought-after transfer options on the market Kriisa is coming off a season where he averaged 9.9 points and 5.3 assists, the latter leading the Pac-12 Conference.
The Mountaineers expected to place a lot of responsibility into the hands of Kriisa as a leader on this team as he was tasked with running the offense and serving as the distributor.
Head Coach Josh Eilert also was challenging the junior to even be more aggressive with his scoring and putting aside his pass-first ways in order to create more offense given the other challenges on the roster.
But now that is going to be even more difficult to navigate as Kriisa will be out for non-conference matchups with Missouri State, Monmouth, Jacksonville State, SMU, Virginia or Wisconsin, Bellarmine, St. John’s, Pittsburgh and Drexel. On the plus side, all of those games will be at home outside of the contests against SMU and either Virginia or Wisconsin which are part of the Fort Myers Tip-Off.
Losing Kriisa was going to be a massive blow for any stretch of time, but that is compiled with the other issues with the roster that is now down to just eight scholarship players to start the season.
The Mountaineers are already without transfer guard RaeQuan Battle as the appeal process plays out in regard to his immediate eligibility waiver. That has been submitted but a decision could take several weeks. Adding Battle to the roster after he averaged 17.7 points per game at Montana State would be a massive addition, but for now he will remain on the bench until that appeal is decided.
West Virginia also is without another transfer guard in Noah Farrakhan as he is ineligible this season as a two-time transfer, while another player in forward Akok Akok’s status is unclear. The former experienced a medical emergency in the charity exhibition game against George Mason and while he has since been released from the hospital after a series of tests, it’s unclear when he will return to the floor.
Related: West Virginia guard Kriisa to miss nine games
The Mountaineers starting lineup for at least the first nine games of the season or until Battle’s waiver is approved likely consists of Kobe Johnson at point guard, Seth Wilson at two, Josiah Harris at three, Quinn Slazinski at the four and Jesse Edwards at the five. That is a far cry from what many expected the starters to be at various points this off-season, but that is where this team finds itself.
West Virginia is going to need both Wilson and Johnson to make massive leaps not only in their production, but ability to remain on the floor.
Because the situation behind them in the current landscape quite literally boils down to Florida State transfer Jeremiah Bembry who has yet to play a single minute at the college level after sitting out last season due to injury. The Mountaineers now are going to need Bembry to come along at an accelerated pace especially if there is no reinforcements on the way in terms of Battle.
The front court isn’t as dire but depending on what happens with Akok, but Edwards is going to shoulder a lot of responsibility and must remain on the floor. The Syracuse transfer was expected to play a massive role and now he isn’t going to have any choice but to do that.
Much like at guard, Slazinski and Harris will need to be key pieces while the depth will be rounded out by Ofri Naveh, Patrick Suemnick and walk-on Ali Ragab.
It’s going to be interesting to see what unfolds with so many question marks surrounding the roster and the season rapidly approaching for this Mountaineers basketball team.
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