The early signing period for college basketball runs from Nov. 13-20 and West Virginia is expected to sign at least a trio of prospects in the 2025 recruiting class.
Each of the three commitments in Santa Clarita (Ca.) Southern California Academy 2025 guard Kelvin Odih, Huntington Prep (W.Va.) wing Braydon Hawthorne and SoCal Academy 2025 forward Trent MacLean are expected to ink with the Mountaineers during this period. But it remains to be seen if that will be it.
“Might have a surprise, might not have a surprise,” head coach Darian DeVries said.
With those three in the fold, the program will have four open scholarships to fill barring any additional attrition and it remains to be seen how the coaching staff will go about filling those spots. And so far there has been good reception from prospects.
"Even the interest level across the country has been really good and certainly excited about what that looks like as we continue to move forward and into the future," he said.
And there is an idea of how the coaches will look at potential options from the head man himself moving forward.
“The reality is we’re just always recruiting. We’ll have recruits on campus, coming to games, official visits and that will continue throughout the year,” DeVries said. “You always just wait for the ones that want to be here and be a part of it and when they’re ready, we’re ready. That’s the way we’ll approach it.”
True to form, West Virginia has continued to welcome official visitors to campus including most recently Boston (Ma.) Cats Academy 2025 center Fridrik Leo Curtis. The 7-foot-0, 220-pounder, is a skilled big that can stretch the floor and also has taken an official visit to Arizona State. Curtis, a native of Iceland, also holds offers from Alabama, Xavier, Indiana, UCF and Stanford along with interest from many others.
There is no set amount of players from each pocket that the Mountaineers will take in terms of high school prospects or transfers, but in a perfect world DeVries would admittedly like to have a mix.
The transfer portal won’t open until the spring which leaves quite a bit of time to sort through those options but in the meantime a perfect world would be a nice mix of all types of additions.
“You get some returners then you have some freshmen coming in and fill some needs in the portal in the spring. That way you have something you can sustain for a long period, you got some continuity,” DeVries said.
But in no way is that set in stone either as DeVries recognizes that things can change quickly in recruiting.
“If you lose some guys in the portal you have to make sure you’ve got yourself covered to be able to fill those holes and those needs,” he said.
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