West Virginia led by as many as 16, but technical fouls and poor three-point defense seemed to tell the story in their 90-85 loss to Cincinnati in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday, ending WVU’s season.
For interim head coach Josh Eilert, Tuesday likely marked the end to him being at the helm for WVU men’s basketball. Eilert reflected on the 2023-2024 season as well as what he thinks his impact was on this group following their loss to the Bearcats.
“As I look at the box score, I told those guys, we certainly had to change game plan from Saturday’s performance. We certainly did that and figured out how we sured up that paint,” Eilert said about the on-the-court play of the Mountaineers. “At the end of the day, credit to them stepping up and making shot after shot. Couldn’t figure out a way to get a hand up and got a lot of dare you shots out there, which credit to them they made.”
Eilert was quick to point to discipline as one of the triggers for Cincinnati’s comeback, as WVU being whistled for three technical fouls within roughly a four-minute span didn’t do any favors to Eilert’s group.
“At the end of the day, it came down to discipline,” Eilert said. “The parade to the free throw line, things that we can control. Discipline in terms of not those technical fouls, six points at the line in critical moments where we had some momentum and it just kills that momentum.”
Eilert then started to be reflective of the year as a whole. He said he recently spoke with former Mountaineer and current Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla about the challenges WVU has faced this season. He said that made him think about the journey this team has faced and the challenges and adversity that came along with it since last June.
“It’s been a challenging year. I got a quote a couple days ago from Joe Mazzullaa we’ve been close since he was our point guard here at West Virginia, and he sent me a page out of a book he’s reading and I thought it hit home with me.
“It said, make friends with the problems in your life. This certainly, this whole entire year from the moment I got the job, it’s been filled with challenges and problems to solve and issues to deal with and it’s just been nonstop, whether it be internal issues or external issues. It’s just been quite the rollercoaster, mine field to navigate.
“What you do is you wake up every day and you try to figure out how you try to attack those issues and figure out solutions. We got to the finish line, it’s certainly not where we want to be from a record standpoint. But, I think everybody learned and grew as humans, as individuals. But at the end of the day, you talk about this game, it just came down to discipline and playing the game the right way.”
Eilert was handed the position of interim head coach and took it late in the summer. This meant it was hard to keep the roster together as well as build continuity for the upcoming season. Add in injuries, legal battles, and suspensions, and it all summed up WVU’s season.
“At the end of the day with this group, I continue to tell them we fight until the bitter end. A couple games that got away from us over the course of the season that don’t represent who these guys are or how much tenacity they have when they play and play together,” Eilert said.
