The search is on for a new head basketball coach after Wren Baker announced this morning that West Virginia will be trending in a different direction after having Josh Eilert on as the interim head coach for 2023-24.
It was quite the adverse situation for Josh Eilert and Baker thanked him for the way he helped the team through a turbulent season, while wishing him the best of luck in whatever is next for him.
As for the next head basketball coach, Baker said that it will be important for whoever is hired to be able to understand West Virginia and its residents as well as their values and determination, grit, and resilience that makes the university and the state Mountaineers.
Baker also said that they want someone who is committed to building both a championship program and leaders off the court. They want someone who can navigate the complexity of the collegiate athletic environment with recruiting, retention, the transfer portal, and NIL.
“I always encourage coaches to build the program and not a team,” Baker said. “When you are onboarding a new coach, I think it’s important that they get the culture right, they get their staff right and their systems right. You must have patience to allow them to grow into it.”
Wren Baker said that he noticed at West Virginia’s game against Baylor in mid-February that these Mountaineer fans are passionate about the program. It was snowing that day and West Virginia was in the midst of a down season, yet there was an official number of 12,558 that were in attendance that night.
“According to KenPom, we are No. 2 in the country in home-court advantage,” Baker said. “How they measure that is how we play at home each possession, how we play on the road each possession and how our opponents play in the Coliseum each possession and how they play at home each possession. And fan passion feeds into that.”
West Virginia plays in arguably the best basketball conference in the country. The AP Poll has had as many as eight Big 12 teams represented in it this season, and it currently features a Big 12 team in Houston at number one. Wren Baker said that defense will be key to being successful in this conference.
“You have to be great defensively,” Baker said. “Over the last five years, every team that’s finished in the top half is generally top 50 in the country defensively. Most generally, people who are that good defensively really value possessions and so they tend to play a little bit slower, and they tend to value offensive possessions – not a lot of turnovers and high offensive efficiency.”
Baker also said that the program hopes to find a new head coach by the time the Final Four wraps up.
“I hope we could get a search completed by the Final Four or if not really close to there. I would hope we could get it done sooner, but usually, you want to have something done by the Final Four.”
