Undoubtedly West Virginia men’s basketball is at a crossroads. They have two ways to go — promote someone from within or look outside the program — with the decision having multiple ripple effects later down the line.
With these two options, there seems to be one obvious answer to this whole question. Unless you are making a home run hire in June, promote from within, and see where the assistants can take this team.
While this roster should not be able to handpick the new coach, they should have a say on who they would play for. Being one of the top transfer portal classes in the country, they all could exercise the right to transfer within the new 30-day window if they wanted to or they could stay and try to do something special — which is what they came to WVU for in the first place.
Also, if there is a preference for them to have a coach come from within — say Josh Eilert — and you are able to keep this talented group together, why not see what Eilert can do. Places like Duke, North Carolina, Villanova, all have recently replaced Hall of Fame coaches. They didn’t do it by hiring from a mid-major or by trying to find the best young head coach. They all promoted an assistant from within.
Another reason for hiring from within is due to the fact that it is June and if this roster leaves, West Virginia will be scrambling and it could hurt them in the long run.
Right now, West Virginia is seen as one of the premiere jobs in the Big 12 and nationally. Fantastic facilities, active fanbase, a winning tradition, all set up by Bob Huggins’s success. However, taking a chance on an outside hire and losing the guys you have in place, would probably turn into losing a lot of games. And if potential transfers and recruits see this program to be only as good as Huggins, that could be an issue going forward past 2023-2024.
It is June. We are less than five months out from meaningful basketball games being played. If you hire someone from another program, will they be ready to compete at a Big 12 level in less than five months, or would there be too many moving pieces to get the ship turned in the right direction.
Or you can give the keys to Eilert on a one-year basis. See what he can do with guys he is already familiar with in a place he is familiar with. Trust him to be able to lead West Virginia with the roster in place to try and win big. And if he does, that might be your long-term answer.
The financial support for this team doesn’t seem to necessarily be going away. That’s why you were able to land top transfers such as Jesse Edwards in the first place. Winning is the best medicine and it seems like the best chance West Virginia has to win on the court this season is with the talented group they have in place. And the only way to do that seems to be to promote an assistant.
If you go outside the program and hire an Andy Kennedy or Jerrod Calhoun type guy, that must be the best answer. You can’t rush a hire in June and strikeout, you have to find that guy. That’s why waiting it out with what you have in place, revisit this in March, when times are not as emotionally charged and you probably have more options and more clarity on who is the right fit seems to answer the question of where WVU should look to replace Huggins.
