West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert was relieved after the Mountaineers excaped their regular season opener with a 67-59 over Missouri State on Monday.
Eilert’s team made just four baskets in the first half, ending the final 14:07 of the opening half without making a single shot. Ultimately though, a second half flurry from the Mountaineers combined with a strong defensive effort all night long, West Virginia began the 2023-2024 season victorious.
“I guess that wasn’t easy was it,” Eilert said. “The first thing that comes to mind is tale of two halves. Nothing was easy in that first half and we had guys breaking out of our offense. And I want to use selfish, but I don’t want to use selfish, I think they mean well, but sometimes a little bit of frustration, a little ball pressure, they think they have to put their head down and drive it when in reality a lot of times a pass is the best option.”
Overcoming the Terrible Start
No matter how you slice it up, it can’t get much worse than going 4 for 32 from the field in the first half for WVU. Eilert’s message to his team was to just keep shooting.
4 for 32. I told them there’s no way you can shoot any worse than that. I’ve been in this building and seen a lot of games here and I kept thinking back to that Cincinnati game (in 2008) where we set a field goal percentage low I think with like 20 percent for the game. We were right on track to get there in that first half,” Eilert said.
“I told them you got to step up and shoot the ball with confidence,” Eilert said.
In the second half, Eilert’s message seemed to stick with his team. The Mountaineers shot 58 percent from the field in the second half, and went 6 for 11 from three-point range.
“I can smile a lot better now, I got that sense of relief and got that first one under my belt,” Eilert said. “I wasn’t flying high in the first half by any means. I was sitting there looking up at the ceiling a couple times thinking what did I get myself into. Like I told the guys, we couldn’t have shot it any worse in the first half. The law of averages came into play.”
Defensive Success
West Virginia was supposed to still be figuring things out on the defensive end, not the offensive end according to Eilert in the preseason. His prediction seemed to be the opposite of what held true Monday, with the defense having a strong first half and the offense struggling mightily.
“For the most part good,” Eilert said of the defense. “The biggest problem we had was coming out of timeouts and I told those guys in the locker room afterwards we got to lock in these timeouts. We got to be on the same page. We threw a 2-3 zone out there at one point and there was four guys on the same side, like what are we doing. I think it got lost in translation because we did try to switch the defense several times and keep them off guard.”
Still Figuring Things Out
It was game number one for almost everyone involved in the operation for West Virginia. Eilert as well as assistant coaches included, there was a sense of trying to find your footing if you’re West Virginia.
“We’re learning. I’m learning as a new head coach. My assistants are all fairly new assistant coaches but we’re all on the same page. We just got to make sure we’re communicating very well with these guys,” Eilert said. “They’re building their chemistry; we’re building our chemistry as a staff each and every day. I think everybody has an immense amount of trust and belief in each other, we just got to keep that going and keep that growth mindset.”
