On Saturday, Josh Eilert announced the WVU Men’s basketball team had parted ways with guard Jose Perez.
Today WVU Interim head coach Josh Eilert spoke about the announcement for the first time since Saturday.
“The student privacy laws, I can’t get into all that,” said Eilert. “I’m proud of Jose for coming in here and finishing his degree. He got his undergraduate degree here at West Virginia and certainly that’s priority for student athletes to get that degree, so I’m really proud of him for the fact that he got that, but I can’t go any further than that. I’m in charge of this basketball program and leading this basketball program. Like I told all of our guys I’m gonna do what’s in the best interest for everyone in the program. Whether that be myself, the assistant coaches, all those players that are looking at me for leadership, I’m gonna make the right decisions that are in the best interest of everybody. That’s the way I look at it.”
As for how this would impact the team, Eilert believes that it is going to “empower a lot of guys.”
“I think it’s gonna empower a lot of guys. There’s a lot of guys on the roster that probably felt like they were in the background so to speak. Now they see that they have a really good opportunity. Those guys have done everything the right way, so I think it’s going to empower them, give them the confidence to move forward and really help this program. Jose was here 10 months, he never played. We’re acting like we’re filling a void that we had. Sure he was on the roster, we had every intention of him playing and being a part of this program, but everybody else was in the same boat. There was a lot of talk of him being a starter and this that and the other, there was nothing to this point that I said or anybody said that promised he would be to that level.”
Jose Perez released his own statement on Saturday evening, with him referring to the issue being the attendance of study hall. When asked, Josh Eilert said this today.
“I talked about the non-negotiables in the first team meeting, and there’s a lot of non-negotiables. I wasn’t gonna compromise the integrity of the program and the culture of the program, so that’s where I’m going to leave it. We’re moving forward and we got a great group of guys really doing everything else the right way and we’re going to reward those guys and we’re going to move forward.”
