Josh Eilert and his coaching staff were tasked with a difficult assignment this summer.
Not only hold the West Virginia roster together the best they could in wake of the resignation of legendary head coach Bob Huggins but then fill out the remainder of the team with as many talented pieces as possible.
Once the 30-day transfer portal window opened with the departure of Huggins, the Mountaineers lost players such as forward Tre Mitchell, guard Joe Toussaint, forward Mohamed Wague and forward James Okonkwo to other high-major programs after entering their names into the database.
Two other players in Arizona point guard transfer Kerr Kriisa and Manhattan guard transfer Jose Perez both opted to enter into the portal as well, but Eilert was able to win them back although Perez would later be dismissed.
That is on top of being able to retain the services of high-major transfers such as Syracuse center Jesse Edwards and Montana State guard RaeQuan Battle.
“It was a very delicate situation. First and foremost, I wanted to figure out who was all in and wanted to back them and let them know they’re part of the foundation moving forward,” he said.
Edwards and Kriisa were the two prized pulls from the transfer portal under the former coaching staff and with no depth behind Edwards as well as not many options at point guard for Kriisa it made them priorities in order to keep the roster together and build things moving forward.
“Anytime you look at championship teams they have a really good point guard and a really good big. And then a lot of good pieces around them. That was my main concern, keeping Jesse and keeping Kerr and having those guys to build around,” Eilert said.
When it came to the situation with Kriisa, the Mountaineers didn’t hold up the process of entering his names into the portal, but Eilert went back to them along with his staff and sold him on the vision he had for the program and the foundation that they were building.
The pitch worked.
“We’re going to do things the right way and have a special year,” he said.
But even with those players in the fold, the Mountaineers still had plenty of needs to fill on the roster and the timing as well as the availability of options was limited.
It also was a balancing act as Eilert, and his staff didn’t want to bring anybody into the fold that was going to rock the boat further for those already in the program. That meant finding the right fits.
Over the course of the off-season the Mountaineers were able to add key pieces such as Georgetown forward Akok Akok, St. John’s forward Quinn Slazinski, Florida State point guard Jeremiah Bembry, Eastern Michigan guard Noah Farrakhan and international forward Ofri Naveh.
That’s a lot of names in a short period of time and a testament to the work done by the coaches.
“We were back against the wall and had to get creative with which direction we went recruiting wise to figure out how we could best piece this roster together and put a competitive product out there so we could compete in the Big 12,” he said.
That adding continued well into the fall as Akok committed in August and was a late surprise to go along with Farrakhan who while won’t be eligible this season could play a critical role in the future. But because the roster wasn’t filled out until later, West Virginia practiced five-on-five as soon as they could.
“A lot of teams pre-season will do a lot of individual work and focus on that with their coaching staff, but I said let’s go team from the jump. We started official practice yesterday, but it felt like we just turned it up a notch,” Eilert said.
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