MORGANTOWN, WV- New interim WVU basketball coach Josh Eilert recently completed his coaching staff for the upcoming 2023-24 season.
And it is safe to say it will be the most inexperienced staff in the country but has the potential to be special if things fall into place.
Eilert brought back three former Mountaineer players in Da’Sean Butler, Alex Ruoff and Jordan McCabe, and retained Dermarr Johnson, who came aboard midseason last year.
Butler is one of the all-time greats at WVU. He is one of just three players to score over 2,000 points in a career as he finished with 2,095. He was also a member of the final four team in 2009 and was an all-american that season. Most recently, Butler was coaching in the G-League, an affiliate league for the NBA, and was an assistant for Wheeling University prior to that.
Ruoff played professionally in different venues overseas for over a dozen years and last season sat at the end of the Mountaineer bench as a graduate assistant under Bob Huggins. At WVU, Ruoff averaged double figures in points in three of his four seasons, and is one of the all-time best 3-point shooters in school history. He helped the Mountaineers a lot last season with their offensive flow and was a big reason Erik Stevenson shined in Morgantown.
McCabe played at WVU from 2018-2021, but his minutes continued to drop each year. He transferred to UNLV and played his final two years, but constantly made his love for West Virginia known even while on the Runnin’ Rebels roster. McCabe’s love for Huggins drew him back to the state. He had posted on his social media that when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Huggins made sure to get her the best cancer doctor in West Virginia. McCabe’s mom has now been cancer free for four years, and he will “always be in Huggs corner.”
Former assistant, and the most veteran of the group, Ron Everhart, has transitioned to the role of Director of Community Relations and Player Outreach. It was important to keep Everhart close to the team as he has years of head coaching experience and has been on Huggins’ staff since the beginning.
