MORGANTOWN, WV- After a week full of indecisions, zoom calls, interviews and disagreements, the West Virginia Mountaineers finally decided that Josh Eilert would lead their basketball team this upcoming 2023-24 season on an interim basis.
He was chosen over UAB coach, Andy Kennedy, who was favored throughout the process before interference from a prominent figure in the University.
Eilert, a native of Osborne, Kansas, has spent the last 16 years at WVU with Bob Huggins, and had a full list of duties before being promoted to assistant coach last season.
When the players met with athletic director Wren Baker late last week, one of their preferred requests was no matter who the new head coach was, Josh Eilert and director of player personnel, Jay Kuntz, had to stay on the staff or they would transfer.
During the search, the Mountaineers had three players enter the transfer portal. Kerr Kriisa, Joe Toussaint and Tre Mitchell threw their names in the ring, but since Eilert was announced, Kriisa has committed to staying at WVU while the staff works on reeling the other two back in. Mitchell is the biggest concern and may very well be the one that departs as rumors are swirling, he has been offered an insane amount of NIL money from the University of Kentucky. Insane as in around one million dollars.
Getting back to Eilert, most feedback on his hire has been good on social media among Mountaineer fans. He is well liked, personable, laid back and extremely friendly to anyone who encounters him. The pushback with his new job title has been he has never been a head coach, only been an assistant coach for one season in his career and his ability to adapt to the first seat on the bench rather than one of the ones on the end.
It is possible that Eilert may just spend one season as the head man in Morgantown and a new full-time search begins next spring all over again, but if he proves he can be successful and make some big decisions this year, he will be in the running for the removal of the interim tag.
FUN FACT about the search:
WVU was seriously considering hiring John Beilein, who coached at WVU from 2002-2007, but his demands were a little strange. He wanted to coach about three years and make his son, former Mountaineer Patrick Beilein, his lead assistant, and wanted to guarantee Patrick get the head coaching job after those three years. Needless to say, that is when the deal fell through. True story.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.