West Virginia navigating depth, concerns
Josh Eilert had a message for his team prior to playing Bellarmine.
Given the constraints of the current roster construction, West Virginia was going to be in for a long night if they weren’t able to finish possessions on both ends of the floor.
Turns out that was prophetic as his team allowed 12 offensive rebounds and 14 more shot attempts as Bellarmine took advantage of where some of the Mountaineers' weaknesses were by pushing the pace and making them guard for the duration of possessions.
After playing an up-and-down deep SMU team and the tough brand of halfcourt basketball that Virginia throws at you in the Fort Myers Tip-Off, Bellarmine gave West Virginia all they could handle.
The offense didn’t have a spark due to that effort being expended on the defensive end and while the Mountaineers won the game 62-58, it’s a learning lesson for this team on what could come.
“I told those guys and had a heart-to-heart we have to have a consistent approach to practice and preparation so we can be more consistent. I really did feel the fatigue setting in there in that game and I felt it even in shootarounds,” Eilert said.
He wasn’t wrong.
“Whenever guys play a bunch of minutes every game it’s tough because the teams run a lot and it fatigues you. They really make sure we do our treatment,” center Jesse Edwards said.
The head coach admitted that he has to be more mindful of who’s out there playing and how to be more efficient but with a rotation of eight players the options are limited. Point guard Kerr Kriisa isn’t going to return for three more games, which means navigating that as best as possible in the meantime.
Related: West Virginia men's hoops escapes Bellarmine, 62-58
On offense, West Virginia has to take better, more efficient shots within the system to help them control the pace, because too often shots were taken outside the framework. Out of 30 misses, the Mountaineers were only able to corral 7 offensive rebounds.
“That has a lot to do with our shot selection,” Eilert said.
While the rotation stretches to eight, it has mainly been six players although the head coach wants to find a way to get big Patrick Suemnick and guard Jeremiah Bembry more involved. Both have been getting reps in practice and while Bembry had been injured during the tournament in Florida he saw time against Bellarmine. Suemnick on the other hand needs to step up and find a way to contribute.
That will continue to be the challenge moving forward and it will remain that way at least for the next three games unless something happens with transfer guard RaeQuan Battle and his fight to become immediately eligible after having both his waiver and appeal denied.
But for now, both Battle and Kriisa have been primarily working with the scout team, although both have a high understanding of what the Mountaineers are doing and are staying engaged so it wouldn’t be difficult to transition them into the lineup if and when that occurs.
“For now, we have to have a narrow focus on making this team gel with the guys we have on the floor,” Eilert said.
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